IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test 11: Passage 1

Few everyday objects have changed as little in their basic design as the umbrella. A circular canopy stretched over ribs that radiate from a central stick would have been perfectly familiar to people living thousands of years ago. Yet the meaning of the umbrella has changed a great deal. For most of its history it was not a humble tool for keeping dry but a mark of rank, and in many societies only the powerful were permitted to have one carried above their heads.

The earliest umbrellas were designed to provide shade rather than shelter from rain. Carvings from ancient Egypt and Assyria show rulers walking beneath parasols held by servants, and in parts of Asia the number of parasols carried in a procession, or the number of tiers on a single parasol, came to indicate a person's status. The link with the sun survives in language: 'parasol' combines words meaning 'to shield' and 'sun', while 'umbrella' ultimately comes from the Latin umbra, meaning 'shade'. In ancient Greece and Rome, sunshades appear to have been used mainly by women, and this association would last in Europe for many centuries.

It was in China that the umbrella seems first to have been adapted for wet weather. Chinese craftsmen developed canopies of paper or silk treated with oil or wax so that they would repel water, and over the centuries umbrella-making became a highly skilled craft. In some regions, oil-paper umbrellas are still made by hand today in much the same way as in the past, and the process involves a surprising number of stages.

The work begins with bamboo, which is cut and then left for several months so that it can dry out thoroughly, since poorly seasoned bamboo tends to split or warp later. The stems are divided into long, thin strips, which will become the ribs, and a small hole is drilled into each one. The ribs are then joined to a central shaft with thread passed through these holes, producing a frame that can open and close. Next, sheets of paper, traditionally made from the bark of the mulberry tree, are pasted onto the frame with a natural glue, and any surplus paper around the edge is trimmed away. At this stage the canopy is often decorated, with flowers, birds or landscapes painted on by hand with a brush. Finally, the paper is coated with tung oil, which is pressed from the seeds of the tung tree, and the umbrella is left to dry in the sun, sometimes for several days. The oil makes the paper waterproof and gives it its characteristic translucent appearance.

Umbrellas were known in Europe by the seventeenth century, but for a long time few men in northern Europe would be seen carrying one. In England, the umbrella was regarded as a feminine accessory, and a gentleman caught in a shower was expected either to put up with getting wet or to hire a carriage. The person usually credited with changing this attitude is Jonas Hanway, an English traveller and philanthropist who had seen umbrellas in use in Persia and who, from the middle of the eighteenth century, regularly carried one through the streets of London. He was mocked by passers-by, and drivers of hackney carriages, who feared that umbrellas would cost them customers, were particularly hostile. Yet by the end of the century umbrellas had become far more common among men, and for a time they were even nicknamed 'Hanways'.

Early European umbrellas were heavy and awkward. Their ribs were usually made of whalebone or cane, and their covers of oiled silk or cotton, which became even heavier when wet. The most important improvement came in 1852, when the English manufacturer Samuel Fox introduced a frame with ribs of steel that had a U-shaped cross-section, which made them both light and strong. Fox is said to have used steel that had originally been intended for corsets. His design, which he named the 'Paragon', was soon widely copied, and the basic structure of most umbrellas made since then is based upon it. During the same period, specialist umbrella shops opened in cities across Europe, and the umbrella became a standard part of a well-dressed person's outfit.

In the twentieth century, inventors turned their attention to making umbrellas smaller. In the late 1920s, a German inventor patented a telescopic umbrella that could be folded small enough to carry in a pocket or handbag, and compact folding designs became increasingly popular. After the Second World War, nylon gradually replaced silk and cotton as the main canopy material, since it was cheaper, lighter and dried more quickly. Today, the great majority of the world's umbrellas are manufactured in China, many of them so cheaply that they are thrown away as soon as they break. Ironically, an object that once announced the wealth of its owner has become one of the most disposable things that people own.