IELTS READING FLOW CHARTS

READING: FLOW CHART COMPLETION EXERCISES

EXERCISE 1
Doll Restoration Reading Passage

This is a good example of how the average doll collector receives a doll. They will find a beautiful
antique doll that does not look as beautiful as it should, but with proper restoration, she can be as
beautiful as the day she was created. Here, there are two main problems, the eye mechanism has
lost its original look, and it has a loose head. We removed the mohair wig and removed the eye
system. Then we separated the head from the composition body and chemically cleaned the head,
removing old dirt, and wax, but not harming the original artwork. We repaired the missing porcelain
teeth by making duplicate porcelain teeth to match and reinserted them. Then we took the original
eye system and reconditioned it. We then did the waxing of the eye mechanism and reset the eyebar
so the eyebar would open and close as it originally did. What a wonderful difference to chemically
clean and restyle the original mohair wig. Our seamstress took over point with suggestions from the
owner on likes and dislikes using original period designs. She now looked, I'm sure, very much as she
would have originally looked when the little child fell in love with her for the first time.

Questions 1 - 8

Complete the flow chart below

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer

eye mechanism a loose head

we separated

old dirt wax

original
eye system

original mohair wig

clothing designs
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EXERCISE 2
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APPLICATIONS

WALK IN DAY

SWIMMING TEST

VERBAL REFERENCES

RECRUIMENT POOL

FULL INTERVIEW

EMERGENCY
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EXERCISE 3
ROBOTS AT WORK

A The newspaper production process has come a long way from the old days when the paper was
written, edited, typeset and ultimately printed in one building with the journalists working on the
upper floors and the printing presses going on the ground floor. These days the editor, subeditors
and journalists who put the paper together are likely to find themselves in a totally different building
or maybe even in a different city. This is the situation which now prevails in Sydney. The daily paper is
compiled at the editorial headquarters, known as the prepress centre, in the heart of the city, but
printed far away in the suburbs at the printing centre. Here human beings are in the minority as
much of the work is done by automated machines controlled by computers.

B Once the finished newspaper has been created for the next morning’s edition, all the pages are
transmitted electronically from the prepress centre to the printing centre. The system of
transmission is an update on the sophisticated page facsimile system already in use on many other
newspapers. An imagesetter at the printing centre delivers the pages as film. Each page takes less
than a minute to produce, although for colour pages four versions, once each for black, cyan,
magenta and yellow are sent. The pages are then processed into photographic negatives and the film
is used to produce aluminium printing plates ready for the presses.

C A procession of automated vehicles is busy at the new printing centre where the Sydney Morning
Herald is printed each day. With lights flashing and warning horns honking, the robots (to give them
their correct name, the LGVs or laser guided vehicles) look for all the world like enthusiastic
machines from a science fiction movie, as they follow their own random paths around the plant
busily getting on with their jobs. Automation of this kind is now standard in all modern newspaper
plants. The robots can detect unauthorised personnel and alert security staff immediately if they find
an “intruder”; not surprisingly, tall tales are already being told about the machines starting to take on
personalities of their own.

D The robots’ principal job, however, is to shift the newsprint (the printing paper) that arrives at the
plant in huge reels and emerges at the other end some time later as newspapers. Once the size of
the day’s paper and the publishing order are determined at head office, the information is punched
into the computer and the LGVs are programmed to go about their work. The LGVs collect the
appropriate size paper reels and take them where they have to go. When the press needs another
reel its computer alerts the LGV system. The Sydney LGVs move busily around the press room
fulfilling their two key functions to collect reels of newsprint either from the reel stripping stations,
or from the racked supplies in the newsprint storage area. At the stripping station the tough
wrapping that helps to protect a reel of paper from rough handling is removed. Any damaged paper
is peeled off and the reel is then weighed.

E Then one of the four paster robots moves in. Specifically designed for the job, it trims the paper
neatly and prepares the reel for the press. If required the reel can be loaded directly onto the press;
if not needed immediately, an LGV takes it to the storage area. When the press computer calls for a
reel, an LGV takes it to the reel loading area of the presses. It lifts the reel into the loading position
and places it in the correct spot with complete accuracy. As each reel is used up, the press drops the
heavy cardboard core into a waste bin. When the bin is full, another LGV collects it and deposits the
cores into a shredder for recycling.

F The LGVs move at walking speed. Should anyone step in front of one or get too close, sensors stop
the vehicle until the path is clear. The company has chosen a laser guide function system for the
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vehicles because, as the project development manager says “The beauty of it is that if you want to
change the routes, you can work out a new route on your computer and lay it down for them to
follow”. When an LGV’s batteries run low, it will take itself off line and go to the nearest battery
maintenance point for replacement batteries. And all this is achieved with absolute minimum human
input and a much-reduced risk of injury to people working in the printing centres.

G The question newspaper workers must now ask, however is, “how long will it be before the robots
are writing the newspapers as well as running the printing centre, churning out the latest edition
every morning?”

Question 33-40
Complete the flow-chart below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 33-40 on your answer sheet.

transmitted

film/negative

printing plates

program

damaged paper

weighed

paster robot

storage area