Cambridge IELTS Academic 8 Reading Test 1 Answers with Explanation / IELTS Academic Reading: A chronicle of time keeping , Air traffic control in the USA , Telepathy

READING PASSAGE 1

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

A chronicle of time keeping

Question	Answer	Keywords	Location	Text/Explanation
1	D	early, timekeeping, affected by, cold temperatures	Paragraph D, Lines 3-7	"Although these devices performed satisfactorily around the Mediterranean; they could not always be depended on in the cloudy and freezing weather of northern Europe."
2	B	importance of geography, development, calendar, farming communities	Paragraph B	"And, for those living near the equator in particular, its waxing and waning was more conspicuous than the passing of the seasons. Hence, the calendars that were developed at the lower latitudes were influenced more by the lunar cycle than by the solar year."
3	F	origins, pendulum clock	Paragraph F, Lines 7-8	"By the 16th century, a pendulum clock had been devised, but the pendulum swung in a large arc and thus was not very efficient."
4	E	simultaneous efforts, different societies, calculate time, uniform hours	Paragraph E, Lines 3-7	"in the early 14th century, a number of systems evolved. The schemes that divided the day into 24 equal parts varied according to the start of the count...Eventually these were superseded by 'small clock,' or French, hours, which split the day into two 12-hour periods commencing at midnight."
5	B	civil calendar, months, equal in length	Paragraph C	"the Egyptians had formulated a municipal calendar having 12 months of 30 days, with five days added to approximate the solar year."
6	F	divided, two equal halves	Paragraph E	"Eventually, these were superseded by 'small clock', or French, hours, which split the day into two 12-hour periods commencing at midnight."
7	D	new, cabinet shape, timekeeper	Paragraph G	"It was called the anchor escapement, which was lever-based device shaped like a ship’s anchor...and thus led to the development of a new floor-standing case design, which became known as the grandfather clock."
8	A	calendar, organize public events, work schedules	Paragraph 1, Lines 2-3	"the Babylonians began to measure time, introducing calendars to co-ordinate communal activities, to plan the shipment of goods and, in particular, to regulate planting and harvesting."
9	anchor	escapement, resembling	Paragraph G, Lines 2-3	"It was called the anchor escapement, which was a lever-based device shaped like a ship’s anchor."
10	wheel	escapement, resembling	Paragraph G, Lines 3-4	"The motion of a pendulum rocks this device (escapement) so that it catches and releases each tooth of the escape wheel."
11	tooth	escapement, resembling	Paragraph G, Lines 3-4	"The motion of a pendulum rocks this device (escapement) so that it catches and releases each tooth of the escape wheel."
12	pendulum	beats each	Paragraph G	"Moreover, this invention allowed the use of a long pendulum which could beat once a second..."
13	second	beats each	Paragraph G	"Moreover, this invention allowed the use of a long pendulum which could beat once a second..."

 

 

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 .

Air traffic control in the USA

Question Number	Answer	Keywords	Location	Text
14	ii	Aviation disaster prompts action	Paragraph A, lines 1-2	"An accident that occurred in the skies over the Grand Canyon in 1956 resulted in the establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to regulate and oversee the operation of aircraft in the skies over the United States."
15	iii	Two coincidental developments	Paragraph C, lines 3-5	".. .. .. It was only after the creation of the FAA that full-scale regulation of America’s airspace took place, and this was fortuitous, for the advent of the jet engine suddenly resulted in a large number of very fast planes… ."
16	v	An oversimplified view	Paragraph D, line 3	". . .This is a very incomplete part of the picture."
17	iv	Setting altitude zones	Paragraph E, lines 1-3	"In general, from 365m above the ground and higher, the entire country is blanketed by controlled airspace. In certain areas, mainly near airports, controlled airspace extends down to 215m above the ground . . ."
18	viii	Setting rules to weather conditions	Paragraph F, lines 1-2	"In good meteorological conditions, flying would be permitted under Visual Flight Rules (VFR), which suggests a strong reliance on visual cues to maintain an acceptable level of safety. Poor visibility necessitated a set of Instrumental Flight Rules (IFR)…"
19	vii	Defining airspace categories	Paragraph G, lines 1-3	"Controlled airspace is divided into several types, designated by letters of the alphabet. Uncontrolled airspace is designated Class F, while controlled airspace below 5,490m above sea level and not in the vicinity of an airport is Class E. All airspace above 5,490m is designated Class A."
20	FALSE	FAA, created, jet engine	Paragraph A, lines 1-2	"An accident that occurred in the skies over the Grand Canyon in 1956 resulted in the establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)."
21	FALSE	ATC, started, after Grand Canyon crash, 1956	Paragraph B, line 1	"Rudimentary air traffic control (ATC) existed well before the Grand Canyon disaster."
22	NOT GIVEN	Beacons, flashing lights, still used	-	No information provided.
23	TRUE	improvements, radio communication, World War II	Paragraph C, lines 1-3	"In the 1940s, ATC centres could and did take advantage of the newly developed radar and improved radio communication brought about by the Second World War."
24	TRUE	Class F, below 365m, not near airports	Paragraph E, lines 2	"Uncontrolled airspace is designated Class F."
25	FALSE	All, Class E, must use IFR	Paragraph G, lines 9-10	"The difference between Class E and A airspace is that in Class A, all operations are IFR . ."
26	TRUE	Class C, an average-sized city	Last Paragraph, lines 13-15	"Three other types of airspace, Classes D, C and B, govern the vicinity of airports. These correspond roughly to small municipal, medium-sized metropolitan and major metropolitan airports respectively."

READING PASSAGE 3

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

Telepathy

Question	Answer	Keywords	Location	Text
27	E	differing attitudes, agree on	paragraph 2, lines 1-5	"Sceptics and advocates alike do concur on one issue, however: that the most impressive evidence so far has come from the so-called ‘ganzfeld experiments’, a German term that means ‘whole field’."
28	B	experiences, during, meditation	paragraph 2, lines 5-10	"Reports of telepathic experiences had by people during meditation led parapsychologists to suspect that telepathy might involve ‘signals’ passing between people that were so faint that they were usually swamped by normal brain activity."
29	A	Attitudes to parapsychology, alter drastically	final paragraph, lines 4-6	"Answering such questions would transform parapsychology."
30	F	Recent autoganzfeld trials, success rates, improve with	final paragraph, lines 8-13	"Perhaps more tests like these will eventually give the researchers the evidence they are seeking and strengthen the case for the existence of telepathy."
31	sender	Ganzfeld studies 1982, person acting as	paragraph 3, lines 3-6	"In early ganzfeld experiments, the telepathy test involved identification of a picture chosen from a random selection of four taken from a large image bank."
32	picture/image	Ganzfeld studies 1982, person acting as	paragraph 3, lines 3-6	"In early ganzfeld experiments, the telepathy test involved identification of a picture chosen from a random selection of four taken from a large image bank."
33	receiver	Ganzfeld studies 1982, person acting as	paragraph 3, lines 3-6	"In early ganzfeld experiments, the telepathy test involved identification of a picture chosen from a random selection of four taken from a large image bank."
34	sensory leakage	flaw, positive results could be produced	paragraph 4, lines 4-6	"These ranged from ‘sensory leakage’ – where clues about the pictures accidentally reach the receiver – to outright fraud."
35	(outright) fraud	flaw, positive results could be produced	paragraph 4, lines 4-6	"These ranged from ‘sensory leakage’ – where clues about the pictures accidentally reach the receiver – to outright fraud."
36	computers	Autoganzfeld studies 1987, key tasks, limit the amount of	paragraph 5	"After this, many researchers switched to autoganzfeld tests – an automated variant of the technique which used computers to perform many of the key tasks such as random selection of images."
37	human involvement	Autoganzfeld studies 1987, key tasks, limit the amount of	paragraph 5	"By minimising human involvement, the idea was to minimise the risk of flawed results."
38	meta-analysis	results, subjected to	paragraph 5	"In 1987, results from hundreds of autoganzfeld tests were studied by Honorton in a ‘meta-analysis’, a statistical technique for finding the overall results from a set of studies."
39	lack of consistency	different test results, put down	paragraph 6, lines 1-6	"Yet some parapsychologists remain disturbed by the lack of consistency between individual ganzfeld tests."
40	big enough	different test results, sample groups were not	paragraph 6, lines 1-6	"If, as current results suggest, telepathy produces hit-rates only marginally above the 25 percent expected by chance, it’s