PRE-INT IELTS – MODULE Z TEST

Part I: READING TEST

READING PASSAGE

THE POMPIDOU CENTRE

More than three decades after it was built, the Pompidou Centre in Paris has survived its
moment at the edge of architectural fashion and proved itself to be one of the most remarkable
buildings of the 20th century.
It was the most outstanding new building constructed in Paris for two generations. It
looked like an explosion of brightly coloured service pipes in the calm of the city centre.
However, when in 1977 the architects Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano stood among a large
crowd of 5,000 at the opening of the Centre Culturel d’Art Georges Pompidou (known as the
Pompidou), no one was really aware of the significance of this unusual building.
Rogers was only 38 when he and Piano won the competition to design a new cultural
centre for Paris in the old market site. Young, unknown architects, they had been chosen from a
field of nearly 700 to design one of the most prestigious buildings of its day. After six difficult
years, with 25,000 drawings, seven lawsuits, battles over budgets, and a desperate last-minute
scramble to finish the building, it had finally been done.
Yet the opening was a downbeat moment. The Pompidou Centre had been rubbished by
the critics while it was being built, there was no more work in prospect for the architects, and
their partnership had effectively broken down. But this was just a passing crisis. The Centre,
which combined the national museum of modern art, exhibition space, a public library and a
centre for modern music, proved an enormous success. It attracted six million visitors in its first
year, and with its success, the critics swiftly changed their tune.
The architects had been driven by the desire for ultimate flexibility, for a building that
would not limit the movement of its users. All the different parts were approached through the
same enormous entrance hall and served by the same escalator, which was free to anyone to
ride, whether they wanted to visit an exhibition or just admire the view. With all the services at
one end of the building, escalators and lifts at the other, and the floors hung on giant steel
beams providing uninterrupted space the size of two football pitches, their dream had become a
reality.
The image of the Pompidou pervaded popular culture in the 1970s, making appearances
everywhere – on record-album covers and a table lamp, and even acting as the set for a James
Bond film. This did much to overcome the secretive nature of the architectural culture of its time,
as it enabled wider audience to appreciate the style and content of the building and so moved
away from the strictly professional view.
The following year, Rogers was commissioned to design a new headquarters for Lloyd’s
Bank in London, and went on to create one of Britain’s most dynamic architectural practices.
Piano is now among the world’s most respected architects. But what of their shared creation?
It was certainly like no previous museum, with its plans for a flexible interior that not only
had movable walls, but floors that could also be adjusted up or down. This second feature did not
in the end survive when the competition drawings were turned into a real building. In other ways,
however, the finished building demonstrated a remarkable degree of refinement – of
craftsmanship even – in the way the original diagram was transformed into a superbly detailed
structure. It was this quality which, according to some critics, suggested that the Pompidou
should be seen as closer to the 19th-century engineering tradition than the space age.
Nevertheless, as a model for urban planning, it has proved immensely influential. The
Guggenheim in Bilbao* and the many other major landmark projects that were built in the belief
that innovatively designed cultural buildings can bring about urban renewal are all following the
lead of the Pompidou Centre.
Other buildings may now challenge it for the title of Europe’s most outlandish work of
architecture. However, more than a quarter of a century later, this construction – it is hard to call
it a building when there is no façade, just a lattice of steel beams and pipes and a long external
escalator snaking up the outside – still seems extreme.
Today, the Pompidou Centre itself still looks much as it did when it opened. The shock
value of its colour-coded plumbing and its structure has not faded with the years. But while
traditionalists regarded it as an ugly attack on Paris when it was built, they now see it for what it
is – an enormous achievement, technically and conceptually.
*a modern-art museum in Spain designed by the North American architect, Frank O. Gehry
adapted from [Link]

Questions 1–4
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
1. What does the writer say in the first 3. What is the writer’s main purpose in the
paragraph about the opening of the third paragraph?
Pompidou Centre?
A. to explain the multi-functional role of
A. The elderly did not like it. the centre
B. The architects were not present. B. to praise the architects for their design
C. The atmosphere was very noisy. ideas
D. The people did not realise its C. to say why some people’s opinions
importance. quickly altered
D. to show how the media benefited from
2. What does the writer say in the second
its success
paragraph about the construction of the
Pompidou? 4. What was the architects’ ‘dream’, referred
to in the fourth paragraph?
A. There was a hurry to complete it.
B. It cost less than expected. A. to become famous
C. Other experts helped draw the plans. B. to provide entertainment
D. The market location was criticised. C. to allow visitors to use it freely
D. to build the biggest museum in the
world
Questions 5–8
Complete each sentence with the correct A reminded some people of past building
ending, A–F, below. styles.
B were used to decorate everyday objects.
C fitted in well with the external
5. The escalators and lifts inside the surroundings.
Pompidou D were situated on one side of the
building.
E showed people which area to visit.
F were changed during the construction
process.
6. In the 1970s, pictures of the Pompidou
7. The original plans for the floors of the Pompidou
8. The detailed structure of the finished building
Questions 9–14
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the reading passage?
Write
 YES – if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
 NO – if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
 NOT GIVEN – if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

9. The Pompidou has influenced the way cities are designed.

10. The Guggenheim has been more popular than the Pompidou.
11. The word building fits the Pompidou better than the word construction.
12. The Pompidou’s appearance has changed considerably since it opened.
13. Nowadays, the design of the Pompidou fails to shock people.
14. The traditionalist view of the Pompidou has changed over the years.
PART II: LISTENING
Questions 1-10
Complete the notes below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each
answer.

TRADITIONAL SAMOAN HOUSES

Overall design
 house: round or 1 ………………
 no walls
 2 ………………: to shelter occupants from wind and rain
 floor: 3 ……………… to control temperature
Roof
 dome-shaped and thatched using 4 ……………… leaves
 5 ……………… sides prevent dampness
 high top permits 6 ……………… loss
Supporting posts
 made using wood from the 7 ……………… around the village
 used to show 8 ……………… of chiefs and speakers at meetings
 attached using rope made by the 9 ……………… in the village
 rope pulled tightly to form a 10 ……………… around beams and
posts

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