If you are an IELTS aspirant, you must be aware that the IELTS exam has an advantage for you to go abroad to work, study, or migrate. The test calculates your capabilities in writing, reading, listening, and speaking English.
While IELTS preparation, all the candidates focus on inculcating and improving all these English skills to fetch high scores to make their dreams true. You need to make yourself the most deserving candidate for the examination by practicing and preparing during the preparation phase.
The passage to keep a watchful eye on bridges reading answers is given in this article to give you an opportunity to get excellent in the reading section of the IELTS exam. So, let’s go through the passage perfectly and try to give the answers.
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Keep a Watchful Eye on Bridges Reading Answers
IELTS Reading Answers Part One
Most road and rail bridges are only inspected visually, if at all. Every few months, engineers have to clamber over the structure in an attempt to find problems before the bridge shows obvious signs of damage. Technologies developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, and Texas A&M University may replace these surveys with microwave sensors that constantly monitor the condition of bridges.
“The device uses microwaves to measure the distance between the sensor and the bridge, much like radar does,” says Albert Migliori, a Los Alamos physicist “Any load on the bridge – such as traffic-induced displacements, which change that distance as the bridge moves up and down.” By monitoring these movements over several minutes, the researchers can find out how the bridge resonates. Changes in its behaviour can give an early warning of damage.
IELTS Reading Answers Part Two
The Interstate 40 bridge over the Rio Grande river in Albuquerque provided the researchers with a rare opportunity to test their ideas. Chuck Farrar, an engineer at Los Alamos, explains: “The New Mexico authorities decided to raze this bridge and replace it. We were able to mount instruments on it, test it under various load conditions, and even inflict damage just before it was demolished.”
In the 1960s and 1970s, 2500 similar bridges were built in the US. They have two steel girders supporting the load in each section. Highway experts know that this design is “fracture critical” because a failure in either girder would cause the bridge to fail.
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Part Three
After setting up the microwave dish on the ground below the bridge, the Los Alamos team installed conventional accelerometers at several points along the span to measure its motion. They then tested the bridge while traffic roared across it and while subjecting it to pounding from a “shaker”, which delivered precise punches to a specific point on the road.
“We then created damage that we hoped would simulate fatigue cracks that can occur in steel girders,” says Farrar. They first cut a slot about 60 centimeters long in the middle of one girder. They then extended the cut until it reached the bottom of the girder and finally they cut across the flange – the bottom of the girder’s “I” shape.
Part Four
The initial, crude analysis of the bridge’s behaviour, based on the frequency at which the bridge resonates, did not indicate that anything was wrong until the flange was damaged. But later the data were reanalyzed with algorithms that took into account changes in the mode shapes of the structure – shapes that the structure takes on when excited at a particular frequency.
These more sophisticated algorithms, which were developed by Norris Stubbs at Texas A&M University, successfully identified and located the damage caused by the initial cut.
Part Five
“When any structure vibrates, the energy is distributed throughout with some points not moving, while others vibrate strongly at various frequencies,” says Stubbs. “My algorithms use pattern recognition to detect changes in the distribution of this energy.” NASA already uses Stubbs’ method to check the behaviour of the body flap that slows space shuttles down after they land.
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Part Six
A commercial system based on the Los Alamos hardware is now available, complete with the Stubbs algorithms, from the Quatro Corporation in Albuquerque for about $100,000. Tim Darling, another Los Alamos physicist working on the microwave interferometer with Migliori, says that as the electronics become cheaper, a microwave inspection system will eventually be applied to most large bridges in the US. “In a decade I would like to see a battery or solar-powered package mounted under each bridge, scanning it every day to detect changes,” he says.
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. In the _______________, 2500 similar bridges were built in the US.
Answer: 1960s and 1970s.
#2. A commercial system based on the Los Alamos hardware is now available, complete with the Stubbs algorithms, from the _____________ in Albuquerque for about $100,000.
Answer: Quatro Corporation
#3. The sophisticated algorithms were developed by ___________ at Texas A&M University
Answer: Norris Stubbs
#4. Most __________ and ___________ are only inspected visually
Answer:- road, rail bridges
#5. ___________ is a Los Alamos physicist
Answer: Albert Migliori.
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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. Changes in its behaviour can give an early warning of progression.
Answer: FALSE.
#2. Tim Darling is a Los Alamos physicist working on the microwave interferometer with Migliori.
Answer: TRUE
#3. A commercial system based on the Los Alamos hardware is now available.
Answer: TRUE
#4. “We then created damage that we hoped would simulate fatigue cracks that can occur in steel girders,” says Farrar.
Answer: TRUE
#5. “When any structure vibrates, the energy is distributed throughout with some points not moving, while others vibrate strongly at various frequencies,” says Jack.
Answer: FALSE
#6. The Interstate 100 bridge over the Rio Grande river in Albuquerque provided the researchers with a rare opportunity to test their ideas.
Answer: FALSE
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Conclusion
Therefore, you can practice for the IELTS reading answers through this passage and the questions given after it. If you want to prepare for the section perfectly, you can visit the IELTS Ninja website.
The IELTS preparation requires you to move in the correct direction with the authentic sources and correct information so that you can perform best in the IELTS exam. The IELTS exam is the biggest opportunity for the candidates to achieve their targets and get admission to the best colleges of the world with IELTS scores. If you are doing IELTS preparation, you have to get IELTS guidance from the experts.
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