Strategies for the IELTS 2 – Test 2

Student: Well, hi everyone. In my presentation today I’m going to be talking about Sarah Guppy, a female engineer in Britain in the 19th century.

So, first some background. Um, so in Britain at that time, there weren’t many women engineers. But the 19th century was a time of great change in Britain and women were becoming increasingly active in many aspects of society. So one example would be Jane Harrison, who was a linguist and an expert on ancient civilisations. (Q31) Jane Harrison is credited with being the first woman to be employed as an academic at a British university. (Jane Harrison được ghi nhận là người phụ nữ đầu tiên được tuyển làm học giả tại một trường đại học của Anh.) And slowly women were being employed in more fields during this period. Let me just give you a few statistics to illustrate. Um, so, by the end of the 19th century, there were thousands of female musicians and actors and more than half in each group were women. When it came to the professions, the numbers were much lower. So dentists – there were 140 women, and (Q32) there were 212 women who were employed as doctors at the end of the century. (đã có 212 phụ nữ được tuyển làm bác sĩ vào cuối thế kỷ này.)

OK, so moving onto Sarah Guppy herself. Sarah was born in 1770 in the city of Birmingham into a family of merchants. Aged 25 she married Samuel Guppy and moved to the city of Bristol. Then in 1811, she patented her first invention. (Q33) This was a method of building bridges that were so strong they could withstand even severe floods (Đây là một phương pháp xây dựng những cây cầu chắc chắn đến mức chúng có thể chịu được những trận lũ lụt lớn), which might otherwise have destroyed the bridge. Her idea was used by the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel when he built the famous Clifton Suspension bridge. Sarah was not directly involved in this project as an engineer. However, (Q34) she is known to have constructed models representing the entire structure, and these were of great assistance to Brunel when he built the Clifton Suspension bridge. (bà ấy được biết là người đã xây dựng các mô hình thể hiện toàn bộ cấu trúc cầu, và chúng đã giúp ích rất nhiều cho Brunel khi ông xây dựng cây cầu Clifton Suspension.) What’s more, Sarah was involved in the project to build the Clifton Suspension bridge in another way, too. Together with her husband, (Q35) Sarah was an important investor in the project, and did well out of it financially. (Được đồng hành bởi người chồng của mình, Sarah đã trở thành một nhà đầu tư quan trọng trong dự án và thu được nhiều lợi nhuận về mặt tài chính từ nó.)

Student: However, Sarah’s talents as an engineer and designer went beyond bridges. One of her inventions was the so-called ‘barnacle buster’. (Q36) This was a device that increased the speed at which ships could sail (Đây là một thiết bị làm tăng tốc độ mà tàu có thể di chuyển), by preventing tiny creatures like barnacles growing on them. Sarah also had an interest in railways. Now, the 19th century was a time when a huge number of railway lines were being built across Britain. Frequently, this involved digging ‘cuttings’, where the railway line was cut into a hill. And (Q37) Sarah encouraged trees and vegetation to be planted in cuttings to reduce the problem of (= stop) erosion (Sarah đã khuyến khích việc trồng cây bằng cành giâm để giảm thiểu vấn đề xói mòn) – a technique that is still commonly used today.

I’d also like to mention that some of Sarah Guppy’s machines are quite amusing when we look back at them today. One that stood out for me was a machine that made tea, kept toast warm and boiled an egg all at the same time (một chiếc máy có thể pha trà, hâm nóng bánh mì và luộc trứng cùng một lúc), so (Q38) you could sit down for a typical British breakfast without waiting for anything. (bạn có thể ngồi xuống thưởng thức bữa sáng điển hình của người Anh mà không cần chờ đợi bất cứ điều gì.) It’s quite strange to look at but I guess it might have been convenient! Then there was one area where Sarah was really ahead of her time because she designed an early type of equipment (thiết kế loại thiết bị đầu tiên) that’s very common today. (Q39) This was a sort of gym machine that you could keep at home. (Đây là một loại máy tập thể dục mà bạn có thể để trong nhà.) And in the last 150 years or so that’s an industry that has really taken off.

OK, so in conclusion, what can we say about the career of Sarah Guppy? She certainly wasn’t the only woman engineer in 19th century Britain. I mean, for example there was Ada Lovelace, who is sometimes described as the first computer programmer and Hertha Marks Ayrton, a mathematician and electrical engineer. But still, Sarah’s contribution was highly unusual. Just by way of illustration, it’s worth noting that it wasn’t until 1906 – 54 years after Sarah’s death –  that (Q40) a woman studied engineering at university and graduated as an engineer for the first time. (một người phụ nữ đã học ngành kỹ thuật tại ngôi trường đại học và lần đầu tiên tốt nghiệp với tư cách là một người kỹ sư.)

Now one other thing…