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Reading

R E A D I N GP A S S A G E1
You should spend about 20 minuteson Questions 1-13, whichare basedon Reading
Passage 1 below.

William Henry Perkin

The man who inuented synthetic dyes
William Henry Perkin was born on At the time, quinine was the only viable
M a r c h 1 2 , 1 8 3 8 ,i n L o n d o n ,E n g l a n d .
medical treatment for malaria. Tht:
As a boy,Perkin's curiosity prompted drug is derived from the bark of the
early interestsirr the arts, sciences, cinchonatreet,native to SouthArnerica,
photography,and engineering.tsut it was and by 1856 demand fbr the drug was
a chancestumblingupon a run-down, surpassingthe availablesupply.Thus,
yet functional,laboratory in his late when Hofmann made some passing
grandfather'shome that solidifiedthe commentsabout thc desirability of a
young man's enthusiasmfbr chetmistry. syntheticsubstitutefor quinine, it was
As a student at the City of l.ondon School, unsurprising that his star pupil was
Perkin becameimmersedin the study of movedto take up the challengc.
chemistry.FIistalent and devotionto the During his vacationin 1856,Perkin
subjectwere perceivedby his teacher, spent his timc in the laboratory on the
Thomas Flall,who encouragedhim to top flclorof his family's hcluse.IIe was
attend a series of lectures given by the attompting to manufacture quinine
eminent scientistMichaelFaradayat the from anilincl,an inexpensiveand readily
RoyalInstitution.Thosespeechesfired availablecoal tar waste product. Dospitc
the young chemist'senthusiasmfurther, his best efforts,however.he did not end
and he later went on to attend the Royal up with quinine.Instead,he produceda
Collegeof Chemistry,which he succeeded mysteriousdark sludge.l.uckily,Perkin's
in enteringin 185.3,at the age of 15. scientifictraining and nature prompted
At the time of Perkin's enrolment,the him to investigatethe substancef'urther.
Royal Collegeof Chemistrywas headed Incorporating potassiumdichromatcand
by the noted German chemistAugust alcoholinto the anilinc at variousstages
Wilhelm I{ofmann. Perkin's scientific of the experimentalprocess,he finally
gifts soon caught Hofmann'sattention p r o d u c e da d e e pp u r p l e s o l u t i o nA
. nd,
and, within tr,voyears,he becams' proving the truth of thc lamousscientist
IJofmann'syoungestassistant.Not long Louis Pasteur's words'r:hanc:e l'avours
after that, Perkin made the scientific only the prepared mind', Perkin saw thc
breakthrough that would bring him both potential of his unexpccted find.
fame and fortune.
1

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Historically,textile dyes\\,eremade With the hclp of his father and brother,

from such nerturalsourcesas plants Perkin sct up a factorv not far frclm
and animal excretions.Sometof these, L o n d o n .U t i l i s i n gt h e c h e a pa n d p l e n t i f u l
such as the glandularmucus of snails, coal tar that was an almost unlimited
were difficult to obtain and outrageously byproductof l-ondon'sgas street lighting,
expensive.Indecd,the purple colour the dyc works began producing the
extractedfrom a snail was once so costly world's first svnthcticallydyed matrtrial
that in societyat thettime clnlytht,'ricl-r i n 1 8 5 7 . ' l ' h ec o m p a n yr e c e i v e da
could afford it. Furthcr, natural dyes commercialboostfrom thc Empress
tendedto be muddy in hue and fade Eugdnieof Iirance,\.r,hensheldecided
quickly.It was against this backdrop that the new colour flatteredhc.r.Very soon,
Perkin'sdisr:overywas made. mauvo was the necessetry shadefbr all
Perkin quickly graspedthat his purple the fashionablet ladiesin that country.
solutioncould be used to colour Not to beroutdonc,lingland'sQueen
Victoria also apperaredin public wearing
fabric,thus making it the world's first
syntheticdyc. Realisingthe importance a mauve gown, thus making it all the
rage in England as well. The dye r,vas
of this breakthrough,he lost no time
in patentingit. But perhapsthe most bold and fast, erndthc public clamouretd
fascinatingof all Perkin'sreactionsto his frrr more. Perkin went back to the
find was his nearlv instant recognition drawing board.
that the new dye had commercial Although Perkin'sfame was achieved
possibilities. and fortune assuredby his first
Perkin originallynamed his dye'Iirian discovery,the chemistcontinued
Purple,but it later becamecclmmonly his rr-'search. Among olher dyes he
known as mauve (from the French fbr derveloped and introducedwere aniline
r e d ( 1 8 5 9 )a n d a n i l i n c b l a c k ( 1 8 6 3 )a n d ,
the plant used to makc the colour violet).
He askedadviceof Scottishdye works in the latc 1860s,Perkin'sgreen.It is
owner RobertPullar,who assuredhim important to note that Perkin'ssynthetic
that manufacturing the dye would be dyc discoverieshad outcomesfar betyond
well worth it if the colour remained the mcrely decorativc.'l'hedyes also
fast (i.e.would not fade) and the cost becamcvital to medicalresearchin
r,vasrelatively low. So,over the ficrce many ways.For instance,they were used
ob.jectionsof his metntorIlofmann, he to slain previouslvinvisiblemicrobesand
left collegeto give birth to the modorn bactcria, allowingr()searchcrsto iderntify
chemical industrv. such bacilli as tubercuktsis,choletra,
arndanthrax.Artificial dyes continue tcr
play a crucial rolc todav.And, in what
would have been particularlypleasingtct
Perkin,their current use is in the searr:h
for a vaccineagainstmalaria.

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 For IELTS help http://letfl.com Reading

Quesfions 1-7

Dothefollowing
statements givenin Reading
agreewiththeinformation 1?
Passage

ln boxes1-7 on youranswersheef,write

TRUE if the statementagrees with the information

FALSE if the statementcontradictsthe information
NOT GIVEN if there is no informationon this

1 MichaelFaradaywas the firstpersonto recognise

Perkin'sabilityas a studentof
che mistry.
2 MichaelFaradaysuggestedPerkinshouldenrolin the RoyalCollegeof Chemistry.
3 P e r k i ne m p l o y e A t i l h e l mH o f m a n na s h i sa s s i s t a n t .
d ugusW
4 Perkinwas stillyoungwhen he madethe discovery
that madehim richand famous.
5 The treesfromwhichquinineis derivedgrowonlyin SouthAmerica.
6 a drugfroma coaltar wasteproduct.
Perkinhopedto manufacture
7 of the famousscientistLouisPasteur.
Perkinwas inspiredby the discoveries

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Quesfions 8-13

Answer the questionsbelow.

ChooseNO MORE THAN TWO WORDSfrom fhe passage for each answer.

Writeyour answersin boxesB-13 on your answer sheef.

8 BeforePerkin'sdiscovery,
withwhat groupin societywas the colourpurple
associated?
9 Whatpotential
did Perkinimmediately
understand
that his new dye had?
10 Whatwas the namefinallyusedto referto the firstcolourPerkininvented?
11 Whatwas the nameof the personPerkinconsulted
beforesettingup his own dye
works?
12 In whatcountrydid Perkin'snewlyinventedcolourfirstbecomefashionable?
13 Accordingto the passage,whichdiseaseis now beingtargetedby researchers
usingsyntheticdyes?

, *

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