Cambridge IELTS Academic 4 Reading Test 4 Answers with Explanation / IELTS Academic Reading- How much higher? How much faster? , THE NATURE AND AIMS OF ARCHAEOLOGY , The Problem of Scarce Resources

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1.

How much higher? How much faster?

Question	Answer	Keywords	Location in Passage	Text
1	TRUE	modern official athletic records, date, about 1900	Paragraph 1, Lines 1-2	"Since the early years of the twentieth century, when the International Athletic Federation began keeping records..."
2	NOT GIVEN	little improvement, athletic performance, before, twentieth century	Paragraph 1, Lines 5-12	"...there has been a steady improvement in how fast athletes run, how high they jump and how far they are able to hurl massive objects, themselves included, through space..."
3	FALSE	performance, improved, most greatly, events, requiring, intensive burst of energy	Paragraph 1, Lines 12-17	"...For the so-called power events – that require a relatively brief, explosive release of energy, like the 100-metre sprint and the long jump – times and distances have improved ten to twenty percent..."
4	FALSE	improvements, athletic performance, can be fully explained, by genetics	Paragraph 2, Lines 1-3	"No one theory can explain improvements in performance, but the most important factor has been genetics..."
5	NOT GIVEN	parents of top athletes, often been successful athletes themselves	No specific location	No information about the performance of parents of top athletes is mentioned
6	TRUE	growing international importance, athletics, means, gifted athletes, can be recognised, at a younger age	Paragraph 2, Lines 8-13	"...but with increasing global participation in athletics – and greater rewards to tempt athletes – it is more likely that individuals possessing the unique complement of genes for athletic performance can be identified early..."
7	genetics	Professor Yessis, American runners, relying for their current success on	Paragraph 3, Lines 8-10	"Yesis believes that U.S. runners, despite their impressive achievements, are 'running on their genetics'..."
8	power	Yessis, describes, a training approach, from, former Soviet Union, aims to develop, an athlete’s	Paragraphs 3-4	"By applying more scientific methods, 'they're going to go much faster'. These methods include strength training that duplicates what they are doing in their running events as well as plyometrics, a technique pioneered in the former Soviet Union." "Whereas most exercises are designed to build up strength or endurance, plyometrics focuses on increasing power..."
9	injuries	Yessis, links, inadequate diet, to	Paragraph 5, Lines 2-7	"Many athletes are not getting the best nutrition, even through supplements,' Yessis insists. Each activity has its own nutritional needs. Few coaches, for instance, understand how deficiencies in trace minerals can lead to injuries."
10	training	Yessis, claims, key to setting new records, better	Paragraph 6, Lines 4-10	"Yessis asserts, 'they would be breaking records left and right.' He will not predict by how much, however: 'Exactly what the limits are it's hard to say, but there will be increases even if only by hundredths of a second, as long as our training continues to improve.'"
11	highlight areas for improvement in athletes	Biomechanics films, proving, particularly useful, because, enables, trainers	Paragraph 7, Lines 3-9	"A biomechanic films an athlete in action and then digitizes her performance, recording the motion of every joint and limb in three dimensions. By applying Newton's law to these motions, 'we can say that this athlete's run is not fast enough; that this one is not using his arms strongly enough during take-off,'..." |
| 12 |	explain the Fosbury flop	| Biomechanics specialists, used, theoretical models	| Paragraph 8, Lines 2-14 |	"For example, during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, a relatively unknown high jumper named Dick Fosbury won the gold by going over the bar backwards, in complete contradiction of all the received high-jumping wisdom, a move instantly dubbed the Fosbury flop. Fosbury himself did not know what he was doing. That understanding took the later analysis of biomechanics specialists, who put their minds to comprehending something that was too complex and unorthodox ever to have been invented through their own mathematical simulations..." |
| 13 |	basic |	John S. Raglin, believes, our current knowledge, athletics |	Paragraph 9, Lines 9-10 |	"and our understanding in many cases is fundamental..." |

 

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 15–26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 .

THE NATURE AND AIMS OF ARCHAEOLOGY

Question	Answer	Keywords	Location in Passage	Text Associated with Answer
14	YES	Archaeology, creativity	Paragraph 1, Lines 1-4	"Archaeology is partly the discovery of the treasures of the past, partly the careful work of the scientific analyst, partly the exercise of the creative imagination."
15	NOT GIVEN	Archaeologists, translate, texts, ancient languages	N/A	N/A
16	NO	Movies, realistic picture, work of archaeologists	Paragraph 2, Lines 2-6	"However, far from reality such portrayals are, they capture the essential truth that archaeology is an exciting quest – the quest for knowledge about ourselves and our past."
17	YES	Anthropologists, define, culture, more than one way	Paragraph 4, Lines 2-4	"Culture in this sense includes what the anthropologist, Edward Tylor, summarised in 1871 as ‘knowledge, belief, art, morals, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society’."
18	NOT GIVEN	Archaeology, anthropology, more demanding field of study	N/A	N/A
19	NO	History of Europe, documented, since, 3,000 BC	Paragraph 8, Lines 5-7	"Conventional historical sources begin only with the introduction of written records around 3,000 BC in western Asia, and much later in most other parts of the world."
20	D	Anthropology	Paragraph 4, Line 1	"Anthropology is thus a broad discipline – so broad that it is generally broken down into three smaller disciplines: physical anthropology, cultural anthropology and archaeology."
20	E	Anthropology	Paragraph 5, Lines 2-4	"Physical anthropology, or biological anthropology as it is also called, concerns the study of human biological or physical characteristics and how they evolved."
22	C	Tasks of an archaeologist	Paragraph 7, Lines 5-7	"but with the specific purpose of learning how such societies use material culture – how they make their tools and weapons, why they build their settlements where they do, and so on."
22	D	Tasks of an archaeologist	Paragraph 7, Lines 5-7	"but with the specific purpose of learning how such societies use material culture – how they make their tools and weapons, why they build their settlements where they do, and so on."
24	Oral histories	Much of the work, archaeologists, written records, equally valuable	Paragraph 9, Lines 4-5	"the distinction between history and pre-history is a convenient dividing line that recognises the importance of the written word, but in no way lessens the importance of the useful information contained in oral histories."
25	Humanistic study	Archaeology	Paragraph 10, Line 2	"Since the aim of archaeology is the understanding of humankind, it is a humanistic study"
26	Historical discipline	Archaeology	Paragraph 10, Line 4	"and since it deals with the human past, it is a historical discipline."
27	Scientist	Archaeology, influence, human behaviour	Paragraph 10, Lines

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 .

The Problem of Scarce Resources

Question	Answer	Keywords	Location in Passage	Text Associated with Answer
28	iv	a problem, every economically developed country	Section A	"The problem of how health-care resources should be allocated or apportioned, so that they are distributed in both, the most just and most efficient way, is not a new one. Every health system in an economically developed society is faced with the need to decide..."
29	i	the connection between health-care and other human rights	Section C	"Like education, political and legal processes and institutions, public order, communication, transport and money supply, health-care came to be seen as one of the fundamental social facilities necessary for people to exercise their other rights as autonomous human beings..."
30	iii	the role of the state in health-care	Section D	"It is also accepted that this right generates an obligation or duty for the state to ensure that adequate health-care resources are provided out of the public purse. The state has no obligation to provide a health-care system itself, but to ensure that such a system is provided..."
31	v	the impact of recent change	Section E	"people were demanding that their fundamental right to health-care be satisfied by the state. The second set of more specific changes that have led to the present concern about the distribution of health-care resources..."
32	B	between 1950 and 1980	Section E	"Just at the time when it became obvious that health-care resources could not possibly meet the demands being made upon them..."
33	B	a sharp rise in the cost of health-care	Section E	"Just at the time when it became obvious that health-care resources could not possibly meet the demands being made upon them, people were demanding that their fundamental right to health-care be satisfied by the state..."
34	A	between 1945 and 1950	Section B	"Thus, in the 1950s and 1960s, there emerged an awareness in Western societies that resources for the provision of fossil fuel energy were finite and exhaustible..."
35	B	between 1950 and 1980	Section D	"by the late 1970s, it was recognised in most societies that people have a right to health-care..."
36	NO	personal liberty, independence, directly linked	Section C	"People are not in a position to exercise personal liberty and to be self-determining if they are poverty-stricken, or deprived of basic education, or do not live within a context of law and order..."
37	YES	health-care as a right, limits of health-care resources	Section E	"Just at the time when it became obvious that health-care resources could not possibly meet the demands being made upon them, people were demanding that their fundamental right to health-care be satisfied by the state..."
38	YES	population changes, impact on health-care costs	Section E	"The second set of more specific changes that have led to the present concern about the distribution of health-care resources stems from the dramatic rise in health costs in most OECD countries, accompanied by large-scale demographic and social changes..."
39	NG	OECD governments, consistently, underestimated, level of health-care provision, needed	Not given	Not given
40	NG	most economically developed countries, elderly, will have to make, special provision, their health-care, future	Not given	Not given