The IELTS exam provides you with the wings and opportunities to study in your choice of nation and college. So, let’s prepare for the paper by going through the Australia Sporting Success IELTS reading answers.

Also Read: The Dead Sea Scrolls Reading Answers: Check Out the Best Answers for IELTS Reading Section!

IELTS Reading Answers Part One

They play hard, they play often, and they play to win. Australian sports teams win more than their fair share of titles, demolishing rivals with seeming ease. How do they do it? A big part of the secret is an extensive and expensive network of sporting academies underpinned by science and medicine.

At the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), hundreds of youngsters and pros live and train under the eyes of coaches. Another body, the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), finances programs of excellence in a total of 96 sports for thousands of sportsmen and women. Both provide intensive coaching, training facilities, and nutritional advice.

Part Two

Inside the academies, science takes centre stage. The AIS employs more than 100 sports scientists and doctors and collaborates with scores of others in universities and research centres. AIS scientists work across a number of sports, applying skills learned in one – such as building muscle strength in golfers – to others, such as swimming and squash.

They are backed up by technicians who design instruments to collect data from athletes. They all focus on one aim: winning.‘We can’t waste our time looking at ethereal scientific questions that don’t help the coach work with an athlete and improve performance,’ says Peter Pricker, chief of science at AIS.

Part Three

A lot of their work comes down to measurement – everything from the exact angle of a swimmer’s dive to the second-by-second power output of a cyclist. This data is used to wring improvements out of athletes. The focus is on individuals, tweaking performances to squeeze an extra hundredth of a second here, an extra millimetre there.

No gain is too slight to bother with. It’s the tiny, gradual improvements that add up to world-beating results. To demonstrate how the system works, Bruce Mason at AIS shows off the prototype of a 3D analysis tool for studying swimmers.

A wire-frame model of a champion swimmer slices through the water, her arms moving in slow motion. Looking side-on, Mason measures the distance between strokes. From above, he analyses how her spine swivels. When fully developed, this system will enable him to build a biomechanical profile for coaches to use to help budding swimmers.

Mason’s contribution to sport also includes the development of the SWAN (SWimming ANalysis) system now used in Australian national competitions. It collects images from digital cameras running at 50 frames a second and breaks down each part of a swimmer’s performance into factors that can be analyzed individually – stroke length, stroke frequency, the average duration of each stroke, velocity, start, lap, and finish times, and so on. At the end of each race, SWAN spits out data on each swimmer.

Also Read: Migrants and Refugees IELTS Reading Answers: Here’s IELTS Reading Material for IELTS Exam Preparation!

Part Four

Take a look,’ says Mason, pulling out a sheet of data. He points out the data on the swimmers in second and third place, which shows that the one who finished third actually swam faster. So why did he finish 35 hundredths of a second down? ‘His turn times were 44 hundredths of a second behind the other guy,’ says Mason.‘If he can improve on his turns, he can do much better.’This is the kind of accuracy that AIS scientists’ research is bringing to a range of sports.

The Cooperative Research Centre for Micro Technology in Melbourne, they are developing unobtrusive sensors that will be embedded in an athlete’s clothes or running shoes to monitor heart rate, sweating, heat production, or any other factor that might have an impact on an athlete’s ability to run.

There’s more to it than simply measuring performance. Pricker gives the example of athletes who may be down with coughs and colds II or 12 times a year. After years of experimentation, AIS and the University of Newcastle in New South Wales developed a test that measures how much of the immune-system protein immunoglobulin A is present in athletes’ saliva. If large levels suddenly fall below a certain level, training is eased or dropped altogether. Soon, lgA levels start rising again, and the danger passes. Since the tests were introduced, AIS athletes in all sports have been remarkably successful at staying healthy.

Part Five

Using data is a complex business. Well before a championship, sports scientists and coaches start to prepare the athlete by developing a ‘competition model’, based on what they expect will be the winning times.’You design the model to make that time,’ says Mason.’

A start of this much, each free-swimming period has to be this fast, with a certain stroke frequency and stroke length, with turns done in these times.’All the training is then geared towards making the athlete hit those targets, both overall and for each segment of the race. Techniques like these have transformed Australia into arguably the world’s most successful sporting nation.

Part Six

Of course, there’s nothing to stop other countries from copying – and many have tried. Some years ago, the AIS unveiled coolant-lined jackets for endurance athletes. At the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, these sliced as much as two percent off cyclists’ and rowers’ times. Now everyone uses them. The same has happened to the ‘altitude tent’, developed by AIS to replicate the effect of altitude training at sea level. But Australia’s success story is about more than easily copied technological fixes, and up to now, no nation has replicated its all-encompassing system.

Also Read: New Zealand Seaweed IELTS Reading Answers: Let’s Check Out the Passage for the IELTS Exam!

Questions Related to IELTS Reading Passage

Question Number One

Following are a few statements given from the passage above. You have to check the answers from the passage and write them correctly.

#1. AIS and the ______________ developed a test that measures how much of the immune-system protein immunoglobulin A is present in athletes’ saliva.

Answer: University of Newcastle in New South Wales

#2. The AIS employs more than ______________ scientists and doctors and collaborates with scores of others in universities and research centers.

Answer: 100 sports

#3. At the _____________, hundreds of youngsters and pros live and train under the eyes of coaches.

Answer: Australian Institute of Sport (AIS)

#4. The ________________ finances programmes of excellence in a total of 96 sports for thousands of sportsmen and women.

Answer: Australian Sports Commission (ASC)

#5. Using _________ is a complex business.

Answer: data

Question Number Two

Look at the statements below and after reading them, write TRUE or FALSE in front of them.

TRUE – If the statement agrees with the information that is given above in the passage.

FALSE – If the statement disagrees with the information that is given above in the passage.

#1. The AIS unveiled coolant-lined jackets for endurance athletes.

Answer: TRUE

#2. You design the model to make that time,’ says Andrew.’

Answer: FALSE

#3. Inside the academies, science takes center stage.

Answer: TRUE

#4. Australian sports teams win more than their fair share of titles.

Answer: TRUE

#5. Mason’s contribution to sport also includes the development of the SWAN.

Answer: TRUE

Also Read: Computer Security IELTS Reading Answers: Check Out the Reading Answers for IELTS!

Conclusion

Therefore, the IELTS exam preparation requires practice on all the sections of the paper. You must prepare yourself to score well in all the parts of the IELTS exam. Let’s visit IELTS Ninja to prepare perfectly.

Content Protection by DMCA.com

About the Author

Shruti Rag

Shruti is a creative and enthusiastic content writer along with being a budding journalist. She is a genuine-hearted and exploring girl with a dash of millennial approach. Her love for speaking and writing has made her pursue her bachelor's in journalism and mass communication. She believes in the quote, "if you will never fail in life, you will never rise like a phoenix from its ashes''. She gives strengthening and positive paths to the students by her content. Her interest lies in reading, traveling, and singing. Innovations and realism let you discover your identity. She has faith in wisdom and determination to touch the skies.

View All Articles