Cambridge IELTS 15 Academic reading test 3 answers with explanation
Reading passage 1
Henry Moore (1898- 1986)
True/ False/ Not Given
- On leaving school, Moore did what his father wanted him to do.
True – First paragraph, fourth line. After leaving school, Moore hoped to become a sculptor, but instead he complied with his father’s wish that he train as a schoolteacher.
- Moore began studying sculpture in his first term at Leeds School of Art.
False – Second paragraph, first line. After the war, Moore enrolled at the Leeds School of Art, where he studied for two years. In his first year, he spent most of his time drawing. Although he wanted to study sculpture, no teacher was appointed until his second year.
- When Moore started at Royal College of Art, its reputation for teaching sculpture was excellent.
Not Given – Third paragraph. Alongside the instruction he received at the Royal College,……………………………………………………………………………………. he turned away from European sculptural traditions. Explanation: – There is no information about the reputation of the college.
- Moore became aware of ancient sculpture as a result of visiting London museum.
True – Third paragraph, first line. Moore visited many of the London museums, particularly the British Museum, which had a wide-ranging collection of ancient sculpture. During these visits, he discovered the power and beauty of ancient Egyptian and African sculpture. As he became increasingly interested in these ‘primitive’ forms of art, he turned away from European sculptural traditions.
- The Trocadero Museum’s Mayan sculpture attracted a lot of public interest.
Not Given – Fourth paragraph. After graduating, Moore spent the first six months of 1925 travelling in France. When he visited the Trocadero Museum in Paris,……………………………………………………………. including depiction of reclining women, mother-and-child groups, and masks. Explanation:- There is no such information about public interest. Only Moore became interested in stone sculpture.
- Moore thought the Mayan sculpture was similar in certain respects to other stone sculptures.
False – Fourth paragraph, second line. he was impressed by a cast of a Mayan* sculpture of the rain spirit. It was a male reclining figure with its knees drawn up together, and its head at a right angle to its body. Moore became fascinated with this stone sculpture, which he thought had a power and originality that no other stone sculpture possessed.
- The artists who belonged to Unit One wanted to make modern art and architecture more popular.
True – Fifth paragraph, second line. In 1933, he became a member of a group of young artists called Unit One. The aim of the group was to convince the English public of the merits of the emerging international movement in modern art and architecture.
Complete the notes below.
Moore’s career as an artist
8. Moore is urged to offer his …………………….. and leave the Royal College
resignation – Sixth paragraph, fourth line. There were calls for his resignation from the Royal College, and the following year, when his contract expired,
9. Moore turns to drawing because………………..for sculpting are not readily available
materials – Eighth paragraph, second line. A shortage of materials forced him to focus on drawing.
10. While visiting his hometown, Moore does some drawings of ………..
miners – Eighth paragraph, second-last line. In 1942, he returned to Castleford to make a series of sketches of the miners who worked there.
11. Moore is employed to produce a sculpture of a……………..
family – ninth paragraph, first line. In 1944, Harlow, a town near London, offered Moore a commission for a sculpture depicting a family.
12. ………………..start to buy Moore’s work
collectors – ninth paragraph, fifth line. In this way, Moore’s work became available to collectors all over the world.
13. Moore’s increased ………………….. makes it possible for him to do more ambitious sculptures
income – ninth paragraph, last line. The boost to his income enabled him to take on ambitious projects and start working on the scale he felt his sculpture demanded.
Reading Passage 2
The Desolenator: producing clean water
List of Headings
14. Section A
iii (From initial inspiration to new product) – Paragraph A, third line. Two decades later Janssen developed that basic idea he saw in Southeast Asia into a portable device that uses the power from the sun to purify water.
15. Section B
vi (Cleaning water from a range of sources) – Paragraph B, first line. The Desolenator operates as a mobile desalination unit that can take water from different places, such as the sea, rivers, boreholes and rain, and purify it for human consumption.
16. Section C
v (What makes the device different form alternatives) – Paragraph C, second line. Its main selling point is that unlike standard desalination techniques, it doesn’t require a generated power supply: just sunlight.
17. Section D
x (The number of people affected by water shortage) – Paragraph D, first line. A recent analysis found that at least two-thirds of the world’s population lives with severe water scarcity for at least a month every year.
18. Section E
iv (The range of potential customers for the device)- Paragraph E, first line. The device is aimed at a wide variety of users – from homeowners in the developing world who do not have a constant supply of water to people living off the grid in rural parts of the US.
19. Section F
viii (Profit not the primary goal) – Paragraph F, third line. ‘We are a venture with a social mission. We are aware that the product we have envisioned is mainly finding application in the developing world and humanitarian sector and that this is the way we will proceed.
20. Section G
i (Getting the finance for production)- Paragraph G, second line. It has raised £340,000 in funding so far. Within two years, he says, the company aims to be selling 1,000 units a month, mainly in the humanitarian field.
Complete the summary below
How the Desolenator works
21. The energy required to operate the Desolenator comes from sunlight. The device can be used in different locations, as it has ………………… .
wheels – Paragraph C, third line from the end. It measures 120 cm by 90 cm, and it easy to transport, thanks to its two wheels.
22. Water is fed into a pipe, and a ………………….. of water flows over a solar panel.
film – Paragraph C, fourth line from the end. Water enters through a pipe, and flows as a thin film between a sheet of double glazing and the surface of a solar panel,
23. Any particles in the water are caught in a ………………… .
filter – Paragraph C, eighth line. The device has a very simple filter to trap particles, and it can easily be shaken to remove them.
24. The purified water comes out through one tube, and all types of ………………… come out through another.
waste – Paragraph C, fourth line from bottom of this paragraph. There are two tubes for liquid coming out: one for the waste – salt from seawater, fluoride, etc.
25. A screen displays the ………………… of the device,
performance – Paragraph C, second-last line. The performance of the unit is shown on an LCD screen and transmitted to the company which provides servicing when necessary.
26. and transmits the information to the company so that they know when the Desolenator requires ………………. .
servicing – Paragraph C, last second line. The performance of the unit is shown on an LCD screen and transmitted to the company which provides servicing when necessary.
Reading Passage 3
Why fairy tales are really scary tales
Complete each sentence with the correct ending A- F, below.
27. In fairy tales, details of the plot
C (Show considerable global variation)– First paragraph, first line. People of every culture tell each other fairy tales but the same story often takes a variety of forms in different parts of the world.
- Tehrani rejects the idea that the useful lessons for life in fairy tales
B (are the reason for their survival) – Second paragraph, first line. The universal appeal of these tales is frequently attributed to the idea that they contain cautionary messages………………………………………………anthropologist Jamie Tehrani at Durham University in the UK. But his research suggests otherwise.
Explanation:- It is consider that some important (warning messages ) information in these stories has kept them survived. But Tehrani’s research tells opposite or different view.
- Various theories about the social significance of fairy tales
F (have been developed without factual basis) – Second paragraph, fifth line. ‘We have this huge gap in our knowledge about the history and prehistory of storytelling, despite the fact that we know this genre is an incredibly ancient one,’ he says.
- Insights into the development of fairy tales
A (may be provided through methods used in biological research) – Second paragraph, last line and third paragraph. Now Tehrani has found a way to test these ideas, borrowing a technique from evolutionary biologists. AND
To work out the evolutionary history, development and relationships among groups of organisms, biologists compare the …………………………………………………………compare related versions of fairy tales to discover how they have evolved and which elements have survived longest.
- All the fairy tales analysed by Tehrani
E (were originally spoken rather than written) – Fourth paragraph, first line onwards. Tehrani’s analysis focused on Little Red Riding Hood in its many forms, which include another Western fairy tale known as The Wolf and the Kids. Checking for variants of these two tales and similar stories from Africa, East Asia and other regions, he ended up with 58 stories recorded from oral traditions.
Phylogenetic analysis of Little Red Riding Hood
- Tehrani used techniques from evolutionary biology to find out if ………………….. existed among 58 stories from around the world.
D (links) – Fourth paragraph, last two lines. One his phylogenetic analysis had established that they were indeed related (link), he used the same methods to explore how they have developed and altered over time.
- He also wanted to know which aspects of the stories had fewest …………………., as he believed these aspects would be the most important ones.
F (variations) – Fifth paragraph, first line. First he tested some assumptions about which aspects of the story alter least as it evolves, indicating their importance.
- Contrary to other beliefs, he found that some ……………………. that were included in a story tended to change over time, and that the middle of a story seemed no more important than the other parts.
B (events) – Sixth paragraph, first line to third line. However, Tehrani found no significant difference in the rate of evolution of incidents compared with that of character. Certain episodes are very stable because they are crucial to the story, but there are lots of other details that can evolve quite freely, he says.
- He was also surprised that parts of a story which seemed to provide some sort of …………………. were unimportant.
C (warning) – Seventh paragraph, first line and second-last line. But the really big surprise came when he looked at the cautionary elements of the story………….. Yet in his analysis such elements were just as flexible as seemingly trivial (unimportant) details. Explanation:- The meaning of these lines is that the cautionary elements (warning) also change usually as unimportant details.
- The aspect that he found most important in a story’s survival was …………………
G (horror) – Seventh paragraph’s last line and Eighth paragraph’s first line. What, then, is important enough to be reproduced from generation to generation?
The answer, it would appear, is fear – blood-thirsty and gruesome aspects of the story, such as the eating of the grandmother by the wolf, turned out to be the best preserved of all.
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.
- What method did Jamie Tehrani use to test his ideas about fairy tales?
B (He looked at many different forms of the same basic story) – Fourth paragraph, second line. Checking for variants of these two tales and similar stories from Africa, East Asia and other regions, he ended up with 58 stories recorded from oral traditions.
- When discussing Tehrani’s views, Jack Zipes suggests that
D (Features of stories only survive if they have a deeper significance) – Second-last paragraph, first line. Jack Zipes at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, is unconvinced by Tehrani’s views on fairy tales. ‘Even if they’re gruesome, they won’t stick unless they matter,’ he says.
- Why does Tehrani refer to Chinese and Japanese fairy tales?
A (to indicate that Jack Zipes’ theory is incorrect) – Second-last paragraph’s second line. He (Jack Zipes) believes the perennial theme of women as victim in stories like Little Red Riding Hood explains why they continue to feel relevant. But Tehrani points out that although this is often the case in Western versions, it is not always true elsewhere. In Chinese and Japanese versions, often known as The Tiger Grandmother, the villain is a woman, and in both Iran and Nigeria, the victim is a boy.
- What does Mathias Clasen believe about fairy tales?
A (They are a safe way of learning to deal with fear) – Last paragraph, third line. Clasen believes that scary stories teach us what it feels like to be afraid without having to experience real danger, and so build up resistance to negative emotions.
