International Trade is Growing at Fast Pace IELTS Reading Questions Answers

The IELTS Reading Section is crucial to cracking the IELTS exam. Candidates preparing for the test must ace this section to secure their scores. These "International trade is growing at a startling pace" answers are provided to help applicants fortify their preparation.

The Vast Expansion In International Trade Owes Much To A Revolution In The Business Of Moving Freight

A

International trade is growing at a startling pace. While the global economy has been expanding at a bit over 3% a year, the volume of trade has been rising at a compound annual rate of about twice that. Foreign products, from meat to machinery, play a more important role in almost every economy in the world, and foreign markets now tempt businesses that never much worried about sales beyond their nation's borders.

B

What lies behind this explosion in international commerce? The general worldwide decline in trade barriers, such as customs duties and import quotas, is surely one explanation. The economic opening of countries that have traditionally been minor players is another. But one force behind the import-export boom has passed all but unnoticed: the rapidly falling cost of getting goods to market. Theoretically, in the world of trade, shipping costs do not matter. Goods, once they have been made, are assumed to move instantly and at no cost from place to place. The real world, however, is full of frictions. Cheap labour may make Chinese clothing competitive in America, but if delays in shipment lie up working capital and cause winter coats to arrive in spring, trade may lose its advantages.

C

At the turn of the 20th century, agriculture and manufacturing were the two most important sectors almost everywhere, accounting for about 70% of total output in Germany, Italy and France, and 40-50% in America, Britain and Japan. International commerce was therefore dominated by raw materials, such as wheat, wood and iron ore, or processed commodities, such as meat and steel. But these sorts of products are heavy and bulky and the cost of transporting them relatively high.

D

Countries still trade disproportionately with their geographic neighbours. Over time, however, world output has shitted into goods whose worth is unrelated to their size and weight. Today, it is finished manufactured products that dominate the flow of trade, and, thanks to technological advances such as lightweight components, manufactured goods themselves have tended to become lighter and less bulky. As a result, less transportation is required for every dollar's worth of imports or exports.

E

To see how this influences trade, consider the business of making disk drives for computers. Most of the world's disk-drive manufacturing is concentrated in South-east Asia. This is possible only because disk drives, while valuable, are small and light and so cost little to ship.  Computer manufacturers in Japan or Texas will not face hugely bigger freight bills if they import drives from Singapore rather than purchasing them on the domestic market. Distance therefore poses no obstacle to the globalisation of the disk-drive industry.

F

This is even more true of the fast-growing information industries. Films and compact discs cost little to transport, even by aeroplane. Computer software can be 'exported' without ever loading it onto a ship, simply by transmitting it over telephone lines from one country to another, so freight rates and cargo-handling schedules become insignificant factors in deciding where to make the product. Businesses can locate based on other considerations, such as the availability of labour, while worrying less about the cost of delivering their output.

G

In many countries deregulation has helped to drive the process along. But, behind the scenes, a series of technological innovations known broadly as containerisation and intermodal transportation has led to swift productivity improvements in cargo-handling. Forty years ago, the process of exporting or importing involved a great many stages of handling, which risked portions of the shipment being damaged or stolen along the way. The invention of the container crane made it possible to load and unload containers without capsizing the ship and the adoption of standard container sizes allowed almost any box to be transported on any ship. By 1967, dual-purpose ships, carrying loose cargo in the hold* and containers on the deck, were giving way to all-container vessels that moved thousands of boxes at a time.

H

The shipping container transformed ocean shipping into a highly efficient, intensely competitive business. But getting the cargo to and from the dock was a different story. National governments, by and large, kept a much firmer hand on truck and railroad tariffs than on charges for ocean freight. This started changing, however, in the mid-1970s, when America began to deregulate its transportation industry. First airlines, then road hauliers and railways, were freed from restrictions on what they could carry, where they could haul it and what price they could charge. Big productivity gains resulted. Between 1985 and 1996, for example, America's freight railways dramatically reduced their employment, trackage, and their fleets of locomotives - while increasing the amount of cargo they hauled. Europe's railways have also shown marked, albeit smaller, productivity improvements.

I

In America the period of huge productivity gains in transportation may be almost over, but in most countries the process still has far to go. State ownership of railways and airlines, regulation of freight rates and toleration of anti-competitive practices, such as cargo-handling monopolies, all keep the cost of shipping unnecessarily high and deter international trade. Bringing these barriers down would help the world’s economies grow even closer.

Questions 1-4

Reading Passage has Nine Paragraphs, A-I.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

Guidelines/ Tip to Answer these kinds of questions: 

These types of questions require the candidate to select the appropriate answer from the respective drop-down boxes beside them. Candidates need to skim the passage in order to find the associated keywords within the paragraph. Only then can they find the correct answer by scanning the exact words. 

A suggestion for improving trade in the future.
Answer: I   

Explanation: 

The answer to the above question can be found in paragraph I, in the 3rd and 4th lines. The previous lines (1-3) explain the various challenges in modern-day international trading. However, the suggestion for improvement is mentioned in the last line, stating that barriers need to be brought down to help economies across the world to grow closer.

The effects of the introduction of electronic delivery
Answer: F   

Explanation:

Paragraph F explains the impact of electronic delivery elaborately. International trade is growing at a startling pace because of the advent of various computer software and electronic transactions. This, in turn, has made logistic problems, like freight rates and cargo handling, meaningless. This is evident in the 2nd and 3rd lines of paragraph F, in the line that mentions that a computer's software can be exported even if it’s not loaded onto a ship. This is done by transmitting it using telephone lines.

 The similar cost involved in transporting a product from abroad or a local supplier
Answer: E    

Explanation:

Paragraph E mentions the substantial transportation costs that can hinder progress when International trade is growing at a startling pace. The issue is clearly stated in lines 3-5, which talk about the freight bills compared to buying them domestically.

The weakening relationship between the value of goods and the cost of their delivery
Answer: D    

Explanation:

We find the mention of the disproportion that can affect International trade growing at a startling pace in paragraph D. However, it is in the last line of the passage that the slowly diminishing connection between the value of goods and cost of delivery is mentioned. 

Questions 5-9

Do the following statements agree with the information given in passage?

In boxes 5-9 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE    if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE    if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

Guidelines/ Tip to Answer these kinds of questions: 

To answer questions 5-9, candidates need to find the coherence between the concept of the passage and the statement is given. Depending on the connection between the two, the answers can be TRUE or FALSE. However, in case of no correlation, the NOT-GIVEN option must be selected. 

5   International trade is increasing at a greater rate than the world economy.
Answer: TRUE 

Explanation:

The above statement stands true simply because it is mentioned in the first line of paragraph A, “International trade is growing at a startling pace.” This statement explains the increased impact of international trade on the global economy. 

6.  Cheap labour guarantees effective trade conditions.
Answer: FALSE  

Explanation:

We find the mention of “cheap labor” in China in the 7th line of paragraph B. Lines 7-9 explain how, despite cheaper labor, trading conditions may not always be favorable due to the wrong timing of the shipment arrival. Therefore, the above statement does not agree with what the author has said in the passage. 

7.  Japan imports more meat and steel than France.
Answer: NOT GIVEN

Explanation:

Although the phrase “meat and steel” is mentioned in the fourth line of paragraph C, the importer is not mentioned. Therefore, the “NOT GIVEN” option needs to be selected for this question. 

8. Most countries continue to prefer to trade with nearby nations.
Answer: TRUE 

Explanation:

Paragraph D talks about trade disproportionately between countries when it comes to making International trade grow at a startling pace. The first line implies that most nations prefer doing business with their nearby nations, and thus the above statement holds truth. 

9. Small computer components are manufactured in Germany.
Answer: NOT GIVEN

Explanation:

Although paragraph D mentions the "lightweight components," it says nothing about Germany's involvement. So, there is insufficient information to conclude the statement's validity in the question above.

Read more about: Tips For Reading in IELTS Exam | IELTS Academic Reading | IELTS Reading Tips And Tricks | IELTS Reading Band Score | IELTS General Reading Test | IELTS Reading Section |

Questions 10-13

Complete the summary using the list of words, A-K, below.

Write the correct letter, A-K, in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.

Guidelines/ Tip to Answer these kinds of questions: 

These sections require candidates to locate the entire passage and find the correct word to complete the sentences. The answer is a single word, and candidates must choose the right one to make the statement whole. 

THE TRANSPORT REVOLUTION

Modern cargo-handling methods have had a significant effect on 10  
Answer: Trade   Locate as the business of moving freight around the world becomes increasingly streamlined.

Explanation:

The answer can be found in paragraph G, which says how deregulation and modern cargo handling have benefitted “the process.” Here, the process refers to International trade growing at a startling pace. So, the correct answer would be “trade,” as the paragraph explains the impact on the trades done globally. 

Manufacturers of computers, for instance, are able to import 11
Answer: Components  Locate  from overseas, rather than having to rely on a local supplier.

Explanation:

We find the mention of “hugely bigger freight bills” and how computer manufacturers can avoid them. This is mentioned in lines 3-5, where the author says importing components from overseas costs less than getting from local suppliers.

The introduction of 12 Answer: Container ships Locate has meant that bulk cargo can be safely and efficiently moved over long distances.

Explanation:

We find the mention of “shipping containers” and how they have transformed ocean shipping in the 1st line of paragraph H. This confirms that the introduction of container ships is the reason behind International trade growing at a startling pace safely. 

While international shipping is now efficient, there is still a need for governments to reduce 13 Answer: tariffs to free up the domestic cargo sector. 

Explanation:

We can find the word “tariffs” mentioned in paragraph G, line 3, as the reason behind increased shipping costs. However, in paragraph I, line 4, the challenge of shipping costs being “unnecessarily high” is mentioned. Now, the above statement talks about increasing efficiency to ensure that International trade is growing at a startling pace. So, the obvious answer would be reducing the tariffs here.