Building Houses Out of Earth Reading Answers with IELTS Passage

Building Houses Out of Earth Reading Answers: The IELTS reading passage on Building Houses Out of Earth highlights the importance of sustainable housing. The passage mainly aims at offering practical knowledge about eco-friendly construction. These types of topics are commonly included in the IELTS exam to evaluate candidates’ reading skills and their ability to provide answers. 

Questions that are generally asked in IELTS exams for reading passages require candidates to identify the main ideas, select appropriate headings, and state if a statement is true or false. During IELTS preparation, candidates must practice passages like Building Houses out of Earth to improve their comprehension and answer writing ability. Additionally, students should learn how to approach the IELTS reading on mud houses to strengthen their chances of getting a good score.

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Building Houses Out of Earth Reading Answers for IELTS Passage

Here is the Building Houses Out of Earth reading passage. Candidates should read and understand the passage before heading to the questions.

Building Houses out of Earth 

On every continent, one can find houses or other buildings made of the clay–bearing soils dug up from the ground. In some places, earth building technologies have been around for a very long time. In the southwestern United States, for example, American Indian tribes such as the Pueblo people have been building earth houses and other earth structures for thousands of years. And in China’s Xinjiang Province, archaeologists have found entire earth villages dating back over 2500 years. While building houses out of Earth is certainly not new, it has never been very common because of the preference for other materials.

In some parts of the world, however, there has been renewed growth in the popularity of earth building. Two such places are Australia and New Zealand, where the practice did not exist until the relatively recent arrival of European settlers. It is estimated that there are now over 2100 houses made of Earth in Australia, and 35% of them were built within the past decade. An equal proportion of the 550 earthen structures in New Zealand were built in the last five years. This trend appears to reflect growing earth construction in North America and Eastern Europe. 

Why the renewed interest in earth building? The building material itself is probably the reason. Earth is available virtually anywhere, literally under our feet. And unlike many other building materials that typically require treatment with chemical preservatives, the Earth is non-toxic. This cannot be said for commercially sold timber and brick products.

Another well-known characteristic of earth houses is their passive solar capacity – their ability to retain warmth in the winter and keep cool in the summer without the need for dedicated solar panels, plumbing or fossil fuel energy sources. This comes entirely from the effective way in which earthen walls act to store heat.

Some people claim that earth buildings are cheaper to build than conventional brick or wooden houses, the two most common types in Australia and New Zealand. This appears to be true, according to data from the New Zealand Construction Quarterly. Assuming walls make up 15% of the cost of building a house, then the use of earthen walls would bring a total saving of 10% over timber frame construction and 38% over brick. 

But perhaps most attractive of all is the unique atmosphere provided by earth houses, with their natural colors, their acoustic properties and thick, solid walls. Not all the earth building is done the same way. The technologies used vary from region to region, depending on the types of Earth available and local building traditions. They are also undergoing constant study and improvement, with a view to bettering resistance to earthquakes and weather.

In New Zealand, stabilisers such as cement, sand, straw, even cow dung, have been found to make a stronger and longer-lasting material when added to Earth. The downside of using particularly effective stabilisers like cement is that they can be expensive and their manufacture may create much pollution. Thus, their use should be kept to a minimum.

Those who choose to build with Earth should also be careful about using paints or other coatings on the surface of the Earth’s walls. Some coatings have the effect of preventing the walls from ‘breathing’. When this happens, any water that gets absorbed into the walls may not have a way of escaping and get trapped. This may lead to cracks or other signs of the early deterioration of the earthen material.

Also Read: 

• IELTS Reading Tips And Strategies

• IELTS Listening Tips

• IELTS Writing Tips

• IELTS Speaking Tips And Tricks

How to Solve IELTS Reading Passage on Eco-Friendly Housing

Here is a strategic approach to solve IELTS reading passage on earthen houses:

• Quickly go through each paragraph to understand the topic and tone.

• Look and highlight specific information such as dates, materials, or statistics.

• Pay attention to comparative data, as some questions may be based on data.

• Highlight important terms like “advantages,” “limitations,” and “construction methods.”

• Practice True-False and matching headings questions using contextual details.

How to Approach the IELTS Reading on Mud Houses?

The best way to solve the building houses out of earth reading answers passage students should use the skimming techniques while paying attention to detail. Students should aim to break the passage into small sections. Further, they should focus on understanding the cause-effect relationships and identifying advantages and drawbacks of building with Earth. Candidates should also practice summarising each paragraph in one line.

Guidance of PW IELTS

Physics Wallah offers a few popular online IELTS courses for all students. Follow the latest IELTS articles to better prepare for the exam.