This is an Academic Reading Part 1 (so it's good for GT too).
The structure is chronological (in order of time) which helps you locate the answers more easily.
It's also very similar to a text on my website: The Story Of Silk, which you can find here:
https://ieltsetc.com/2018/12/ielts-reading-story-silk/
and I refer to last week's podcast about The Eucalyptus Tree to show you how similar they are in terms of the gapfill answers.
Check out my blog relating to the grammar in this reading here:
https://ieltsetc.com/2020/09/how-to-use-the-former-the-latter/
