Practice Tests
IELTS Reading (AC) Task 1 #207

A. The invention of writing is one of the most profound intellectual achievements in human history, marking the transition from prehistory to history. It allowed for the accurate recording and transmission of information, laws, literature, and knowledge across vast distances and time, laying the foundation for complex societies, states, and empires. Writing did not appear suddenly but evolved independently in several different parts of the world over thousands of years, starting as simple pictures and developing into complex abstract scripts.

B. The earliest known form of true writing emerged in Mesopotamia, with the Sumerians, around 3,400 BC. This script, known as cuneiform, began as a system of pictographs used primarily for administrative and accounting purposes, such as recording grain supplies and commercial transactions. Over time, these pictographic signs became more stylised and abstract, eventually coming to represent not just objects, but also sounds and syllables, making it a much more flexible and powerful system of communication.

C. Independently, writing also developed in other civilisations. In ancient Egypt, the hieroglyphic script emerged around 3,200 BC, used for monumental and religious inscriptions. In China, the earliest evidence of writing is found on oracle bones dating to around 1,200 BC, which formed the basis of the modern Chinese writing system. In the Americas, the Olmec and Maya peoples developed complex hieroglyphic scripts, though many of these are still not fully deciphered.

D. A crucial development in the history of writing was the invention of the alphabet, a system where each symbol represents a single sound (a phoneme). The first alphabetic scripts were developed by Semitic-speaking peoples in the ancient Near East around 1,800 BC. This innovation was later adopted and adapted by the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans, eventually leading to the alphabets used by most of the world''s languages today. The alphabet was a revolutionary simplification that made literacy accessible to a much larger portion of the population.