Tyes and Greens Reading Answers: IELTS Reading Practice Test

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Tyes and Greens Reading Passage 

Paragraph A:

In this area of East Anglia, there are several settlements with names that include the word "tye." The Oxford English Dictionary asserts that the word's earliest recorded use goes back to 832 and that the term’s origin is Anglo-Saxon. A "tye" was a green space or a small patch of inhabited public land, typically located away from the main city or community, maybe at the intersection of two or more roads. The tye was available for locals and passing tourists to graze their horses, pigs, and other farm animals.

Paragraph B:

It appears that there were five or six of such tyes in the Pebmarsh region, all except one located on the parish's outskirts. These marginal clearings are all found far from the richer farming area along the river and, in the cases of Cooks Green, Hayles Tye, and Dorking Tye, near the edge of still-existing pieces of old forest. It is probable that, elsewhere in East Anglia, ancient freemen were authorized to clear a small section of the forest and establish a small farm. In any scenario, the rich aristocratic or monastic landlords would not have been interested in buying such unproductive forest terrain. Earls Colne Priory, a rich monastery located approximately 10 kilometers to the south, acquired most of the land in the vicinity around Pebmarsh Village. It's possible that during the 13th and 14th centuries, tenant farmers who paid rent to the Priory were responsible for maintaining the tyes.

Paragraph C:

Hayles Tye appears to have derived its name from a certain John Hayle, who was documented in the 1380s, though there are documents indicating the site's occupation is far older. The word was still used in 0, and it reappears frequently in the 16th and 17th centuries, generally in association with the payment of taxes or tithes. The name was switched to File's Green sometime during the 18th century, even though no indication of an owner named File has been discovered. The original houses that existed at the location vanished at the same time in the 18th century. This land and its houses may have simply been abandoned during this time because a large portion of this region faced economic depression. The population of the neighboring village of Alphamstone was considerably reduced due to the desertion of several farms, leaving insufficient money to maintain the fabric of the church, which rapidly deteriorated. However, it is also possible that the File's Green dwellings were destroyed by fire, as fires were very unusual at the time.

Paragraph D:

Charles Townsend of Ferriers Farm owned the land by 1817, and in 1821 he constructed two brick cottages there, each of which was inhabited by two families of farm laborers. These cottages had a relatively simple design, with a two-story rectangular structure that was separated in the middle by a large communal chimneypiece. Each house had a fireplace; however, the two families seemed to have shared a brick broad oven that bulged out from the back of the cottage. The exterior wall of the bread oven may still be visible on the remaining cottage. The chimney design and the fireplaces themselves seem to be older than those of the 1821 cottages and could have been from earlier residences. The common land had long since vanished, and the two cottages remained on a small plot of land that is barely an acre, on which the laborers could yield a few vegetables and raise a few chickens or a pig. They spent most of their time working on Ferrier's farm.

Paragraph E:

On maps from 1874, both cottages are visible, but by the end of the century, one of the two had vanished. Again, the latter quarter of the 19th century was a time of agricultural depression, and many smaller farms in the vicinity were deserted. There are remnants of Mosse's Farm, which is still partially surrounded by a highly overgrown moat and is less than a kilometer from File's Green. One of the houses was probably abandoned, allowed to deteriorate, and then dismantled when the demand for agricultural labor was reduced. In the garden of the remaining cottage, stray pieces of debris and brick could still be found.

Paragraph F:

This house was sold in 1933 to the manager of the recently founded gravel works towards the northwest of Pebmarsh village. These two dwellings were merged by him. Therefore, File's Green Cottage is the only house that remains on the site.

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