The Davies Sisters là một bài đọc IELTS Reading có độ khó vừa phải với chủ đề nghệ thuật và lịch sử. Bài đọc kể về hành trình sưu tầm tranh của hai chị em Gwendoline và Margaret Davies – những nhà sưu tập nghệ thuật tiên phong đã góp phần đưa các tác phẩm của trường phái Ấn tượng Pháp đến gần hơn với công chúng xứ Wales. Dù nội dung không quá học thuật, passage vẫn chứa nhiều mốc thời gian, tên riêng và thông tin chi tiết dễ khiến thí sinh bỏ sót đáp án.
Trong bài giải đề này, mình sẽ cùng bạn:
- Phân tích chi tiết từng câu hỏi trong bài đọc.
- Hướng dẫn cách xác định từ khóa và tìm đáp án nhanh hơn.
- Giải thích vì sao đáp án đúng và chỉ ra những bẫy thường gặp.
- Tổng hợp từ vựng quan trọng xuất hiện trong passage.
👉 Cùng bắt đầu giải đề nhé!
READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
The Davies Sisters
Between 1908 and 1924, Gwendoline and Margaret Davies amassed one of the largest collections of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century French paintings in Britain.
Gwendoline (1882–1951) and Margaret (1884–1963) Davies were the granddaughters of David Davies, a Welshman who amassed a fortune in the shipping and mining industries. In 1907, when Gwendoline came into her inheritance (Margaret would follow in 1909), the sisters were said to be the wealthiest unmarried women in Britain. Their religious upbringing in rural Wales gave them a deep sense of social responsibility and they chose to use their inheritance for cultural and philanthropic* purposes.
While there was no real family history of art collecting, the sisters’ education was rigorously geared toward such pursuits. Their London school focused on cultural rather than academic study, and they travelled extensively with their governess, Jane Blaker, visiting art galleries and making extensive notes on the collections there.
The sisters began to make regular art purchases from 1908, which roughly coincided with the dates of their inheritance. They took advice from various people, including the art dealer Hugh Blaker (the brother of Jane Blaker) and David Croal Thompson, who was also an art dealer. While it was long assumed that these men were largely responsible for the nature of the sisters’ collection, it has recently been accepted that Gwendoline and Margaret retained a far more active role in the process.
The sisters’ journals reveal their preference for Old Master** paintings. Yet they initially made very few attempts to secure any such works. While the sisters were wealthy in relative terms, their income was nothing compared to the fortunes of American art collectors of this period, such as J. Pierpont Morgan. Quite simply, high quality Old Master works were, if not beyond their means, then beyond what they were willing to pay for them. Instead, their early purchases were of the fashionable, safe variety, and included, for example, paintings by the French artist Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot.
*philanthropic: seeking to promote the welfare of others, often by charitable funding
**Old Master: : a highly respected artist of great skill who worked in Europe before about 1800
However, it was only a few years before their collecting took a new direction and they turned to the work of the French Impressionists***. We know that Hugh Blaker, as a champion of contemporary French art had a hand in the decision, and we know also that they would have seen examples on their various trips to Paris. Whatever the precise reason for this change, their first purchases of Impressionist art, made in October 1912, were scenes of Venice by the French artist Claude Monet. Over the next 12 years, the sisters amassed the bulk of their Impressionist collection, including six further works by Monet, two more by Manet, and three by Renoir, including his well-known painting La Parisienne.
The First World War (1914–1918) played a part in the development of the sisters’ collection. Their initial response to the war effort was to finance the safe passage of artists from occupied Belgium to Wales, as a humanitarian act, but also with the hope of establishing a vibrant artists’ community in the area. Later in the conflict, both sisters decided to volunteer at a canteen for troops at Troyes, in northern France; Gwendoline in 1916, followed by Margaret in 1917.
It was tedious and distressing work, which would have a permanent effect on Gwendoline’s health. Yet on one of numerous trips to nearby Paris, she visited the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery. Here she acquired two works by Cézanne – Provençal Landscape and The François Zola Dam. The paintings were shipped directly to Bath, England, where they became the first works by Cézanne to go on display in a public gallery in Britain.
Commentators have often described the sisters as unlikely pioneer collectors. Much is made of their isolation in rural Wales, and the fact that they didn’t make friends with artists or gallery owners. Yet they didn’t feel obliged to follow fashionable tastes and were free to pursue their own preferences. Although they relied on a trusted circle of advisers, they made frequent trips to London and Paris, and also regularly had paintings sent to their home for consideration.
By the early 1920s, Gwendoline felt increasingly uncomfortable buying art works when faced with the poverty and social upheaval created by the First World War. Her philanthropic pursuits then became focused almost exclusively on social causes and the development of the sisters’ home at Gregynog Hall into a conference center and venue for the Gregynog Festival of Music and Poetry. Gwendoline made her final art purchase in March 1926. Margaret also stopped collecting around this time, but started again in the 1930s acquiring, on a relatively small scale, work by contemporary British artists.
The sisters collected French Impressionist paintings at a time when such art was routinely ignored by individuals and institutions alike. The Gwendoline and Margaret Davies collection, donated in 1951 and 1963 respectively to the National Museum Wales, contains major examples of work by leading French Impressionists. In collecting paintings that they loved, the sisters created a lasting and meaningful cultural legacy for the people of Wales and beyond.
***Impressionist: an artist with a style of painting that developed in France in the late 1800s by Renoir, including his well-known
Questions 1–7
Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1–7 on your answer sheet.
| Gwendoline and Margaret Davies Family and early life * their grandfather’s wealth came from 1 ______ and transportation businesses * their upbringing gave them a sense of social responsibility * their 2 ______ was designed to give them an interest in activities such as collecting art * their governess took them on trips to art galleries * they took lengthy 3 ______ about the things they saw in art galleries The sisters as art collectors * their 4 ______ showed they liked Old Master paintings, but they were expensive to buy * their early purchases were safe, popular paintings * the first Impressionist paintings they bought showed places in 5 ______ Impact of First World War * they helped bring artists from Belgium to Wales * they worked in a 6 ______ for soldiers in France Opinions about the sisters as art collectors * were not considered typical collectors – they lived in isolation in the countryside and did not have any 7 ______ who were artists |
Questions 8–13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 8–13 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
8 The Davies sisters’ childhood influenced the way they decided to use their wealth.
9 The Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot paintings in the Davies sisters’ collection were purchased from a gallery in France.
10 Hugh Blaker opposed the Davies sisters’ decision to buy art by French Impressionists.
11 The exhibition of Cézanne paintings at the Bath gallery was very popular with the public.
12 The impact of the First World War encouraged Gwendoline to reconsider her interest in collecting art.
13 The Davies sisters bought French Impressionist art during a period when very few people were doing so.
Xem thêm các dạng bài giải đề khác:
- Reading Practice: The Lost Animals of Australia
- Reading Practice: Fishbourne roman palace
- Reading Practice: Classical music over the centuries
Answers
| Question | Answer |
| 1 | mining |
| 2 | education |
| 3 | notes |
| 4 | journals |
| 5 | Venice |
| 6 | canteen |
| 7 | friends |
| 8 | TRUE |
| 9 | NOT GIVEN |
| 10 | FALSE |
| 11 | NOT GIVEN |
| 12 | TRUE |
| 13 | TRUE |
Vừa rồi, mình đã cùng bạn hoàn thành bài IELTS Reading – The Davies Sisters với hai dạng câu hỏi quen thuộc là Note Completion và True/ False/ Not Given. Đây là một passage có độ khó trung bình, chủ yếu kiểm tra khả năng tìm kiếm thông tin chi tiết và theo dõi trình tự sự kiện trong bài đọc.
😉 Đừng xem đáp án trước khi tự làm bài để đánh giá chính xác năng lực của mình nhé!
Sau khi luyện xong, hãy lưu ý một số lỗi thường gặp:
- Bỏ sót từ khóa vì bài đọc chứa nhiều tên người, tên địa danh và tác phẩm nghệ thuật.
- Chọn đáp án True/ False/ Not Given dựa trên suy luận cá nhân thay vì thông tin được nêu trong bài.
- Nhầm lẫn giữa thông tin được đề cập và thông tin không được nhắc tới trong passage.
Hy vọng bài giải này giúp bạn hiểu rõ hơn cách xử lý các dạng câu hỏi trong IELTS Reading và nâng cao kỹ năng đọc hiểu học thuật. Chúc bạn học tốt và sớm đạt được band điểm IELTS mong muốn!
Hoàng Long 
