Do you want to excel in the IELTS exam with perfection? Are you aiming to get admission to the most incredible colleges and universities in the world through this test? If yes, IELTS preparation is the key that can open the door to success for you. You need to focus on each section of the IELTS exam during the IELTS preparation.

The reading section is extremely significant in the IELTS exam as you can fetch high scores through it. You need to practice the passages well during the preparation and learn to answer the questions correctly from the given passage.

The reading section is all about your concentration, English skills, and performance within the given time. So, to avoid any hustle and distractions, you should go ahead with the passage given in this article. When the tulip bubble burst passage will give you the knowledge about this section.

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When the Tulip Bubble Burst: IELTS Reading Answers Part One

Tulips are spring-blooming perennials that grow from bulbs. Depending on the species, tulip plants can grow as short as 4 inches (10 cm) or as high as 28 inches (71 cm). The tulip’s large flowers usually bloom on scapes or sub-scapose stems that lack bracts. Most tulips produce only one flower per stem, but a few species bear multiple flowers on their scapes (e.g. Tulipa turkestanica).

The showy, generally cup or star-shaped tulip flower has three petals and three sepals, which are often termed tepals because they are nearly identical. These six sepals are often marked on the interior surface near the bases with darker colorings. Tulip flowers come in a wide variety of colors, except pure blue (several tulips with “blue” in the name have a faint violet hue).

Long before anyone ever heard of Qualcomm, CMGI, Cisco Systems, or the other high-tech stocks that have soared during the current bull market, there was Semper Augustus. Both more prosaic and more sublime than any stock or bond, it was a tulip of extraordinary beauty, its midnight-blue petals topped by a band of pure white and accented with crimson flares. To denizens of 17th century Holland, little was as desirable.

When the Tulip Bubble Burst: IELTS Reading Answers Part Two

Around 1624, the Amsterdam man who owned only a dozen specimens was offered 3,000 guilders for one bulb. While there’s no accurate way to render that in today’s greenbacks, the sum was roughly equal to the annual income of a wealthy merchant. (A few years later, Rembrandt received about half that amount for painting The Night Watch.) Yet the bulb’s owner, whose name is now lost to history, nixed the offer.

When the Tulip Bubble Burst: IELTS Reading Answers Part Three

Who was crazier, the tulip lover who refused to sell for a small fortune, or the one who was willing to splurge. That’s a question that springs to mind after reading Tulipmania: The Story of the World’s Most Coveted Flower and the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused by British journalist Mike Dash.

In recent years, as investors have intentionally forgotten everything they learned in Investing 101 in order to load up on unproven, unprofitable dot-com issues, tulip mania has been invoked frequently. In this concise, artfully written account, Dash tells the real history behind the buzzword and in doing so, offers a cautionary tale for our times.

When the Tulip Bubble Burst: IELTS Reading Answers Part Four

The Dutch were not the first to go gaga over the tulip. Long before the first tulip bloomed in Europe-in Bavaria, it turns out, in 1559-the flower had enchanted the Persians and bewitched the rulers of the Ottoman Empire. It was in Holland, however, that the passion for tulips found its most fertile ground, for reasons that had little to do with horticulture.

Holland in the early 17th century was embarking on its Golden Age. Resources that had just a few years earlier gone toward fighting for independence from Spain now flowed into commerce. Amsterdam merchants were at the center of the lucrative East Indies trade, where a single voyage could yield profits of 400%.

They displayed their success by erecting grand estates surrounded by flower gardens. The Dutch population seemed to have two contradictory impulses: a horror of living beyond one’s.

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When the Tulip Bubble Burst: IELTS Reading Answers Part Five

Enter the tulip. “It is impossible to comprehend the tulip mania without understanding just how different tulips were from every other flower known to horticulturists in the 17th century,” says Dash. “The colors they exhibited were more intense and more concentrated than those of ordinary plants.”

Despite the outlandish prices commanded by rare bulbs, ordinary tulips were sold by the pound. Around 1630, however, a new type of tulip fancier appeared, lured by tales of fat profits. These “florists,” or professional tulip traders, sought out flower lovers and speculators alike. But if the supply of tulip buyers grew quickly, the supply of bulbs did not.

The tulip was a conspirator in the supply squeeze: It takes seven years to grow one from seed. And while bulbs can produce two or three clones, or “offsets,” annually, the mother bulb only lasts a few years.

When the Tulip Bubble Burst: IELTS Reading Answers Part Six

Bulb prices rose steadily throughout the 1630s, as ever more speculators entered the market. Weavers and farmers mortgaged whatever they could to raise cash to begin trading. In 1633, a farmhouse in Hoorn changed hands for three rare bulbs. By 1636 any tulip-even bulbs recently considered garbage could be sold off, often for hundreds of guilders.

A futures market for bulbs existed, and tulip traders could be found conducting their business in hundreds of Dutch taverns. Tulipmania reached its peak during the winter of 1636-37 when some bulbs were changing hands ten times in a day.

The zenith came early that winter, at an auction to benefit seven orphans whose only asset was 70 fine tulips left by their father. One, a rare Violetten Admiral van Enkhuizen bulb that was about to split in two, sold for 5,200 guilders, the all-time record. All told, the flowers brought in nearly 53,000 guilders.

When the Tulip Bubble Burst: IELTS Reading Answers Part Seven

Soon after, the tulip market crashed utterly, spectacularly. It began in Haarlem, at a routine bulb auction when, for the first time, the greater fool refused to show up and pay. Within days, the panic had spread across the country. Despite the efforts of traders to prop up demand, the market for tulips evaporated.

Flowers that had commanded 5,000 guilders a few weeks before now fetched one-hundredth that amount. Tulipmania is not without flaws. Dash dwells too long on the tulip’s migration from Asia to Holland. But he does a service with this illuminating, accessible account of incredible financial folly.

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When the Tulip Bubble Burst: IELTS Reading Answers Part Eight

Tulipmania differed in one crucial aspect from the dot-com craze that grips our attention today: Even at its height, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, well-established in 1630, wouldn’t touch tulips. “The speculation in tulip bulbs always existed at the margins of Dutch economic life,” Dash writes.

After the market crashed, a compromise was brokered that let most traders settle the debts for a fraction of the liability. The overall fallout on the Dutch economy was negligible. Will we say the same when Wall Street’s current obsession finally runs its course?

Questions Related to IELTS Reading Passage

Question Number 1

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

#1. The tulip was a conspirator in the supply squeeze: It takes _____________ to grow one from seed.

Answer: seven years.

#2. “It is impossible to comprehend the tulip mania without understanding just how different tulips were from every other flower known to horticulturists in the 17th century,” says ___________.

Answer: Dash.

#3. Around ________a new type of tulip fancier appeared, lured by tales of fat profits.

Answer: 1630.

#4. Depending on the species, tulip plants can grow as short as ___________ or as high as _______________.

Answer: 4 inches (10 cm) and 28 inches (71 cm).

#5. ___________ were not the first to go gaga over the tulip.

Answer: The Dutch.

Also Read: Seed Hunting: Here’s is the IELTS Reading Answers for the IELTS Examination

Question Number 2

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. Bulb prices rose steadily throughout the 1630s, as ever more speculators entered the market.

Answer: TRUE.

#2. Tulipmania reached its peak during the winter of 1636-37 when some bulbs were changing hands twenty times in a day.

Answer: FALSE.

#3. The Amsterdam man who owned the only dozen specimens was offered 50,000 guilders for one bulb.

Answer: FALSE.

#4. Most tulips produce only one flower per stem, but a few species bear multiple flowers on their scapes.

Answer: TRUE.

#5. While bulbs can produce two or three clones, or “offsets,” annually, the mother bulb only lasts a few years.

Answer: TRUE.

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Conclusion

Well, we hope that the passage given in this article will help you in the IELTS preparation. The IELTS exam is the dream of the millennials to get the best universities to study. If you want to fetch high scores on this test, you would require expert guidance.

You should visit the IELTS Ninja website to meet the experts, take lectures, and prepare exponentially for your ambition. The articles available on the website will help you incredibly to get the information. Comment below in case of queries or share your experience. Best wishes!

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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.

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