Cambridge 12 Reading Test 4 - Answers With Explanation

1. First paragraph: early research found bilingual children "lagged behind their monolingual peers in vocabulary size and verbal fluency" — TRUE.

2. First paragraph: recent decades have revealed "a rich set of cognitive, social, and even neurological benefits associated with bilingualism" — FALSE.

3. Second paragraph: executive function capacities "are mediated by the prefrontal cortex." TRUE.

4. Second paragraph: "Bilinguals appear to have a consistent advantage in executive function tasks across the lifespan, from childhood through middle age and into old age." TRUE.

5. Third paragraph: "bilingualism does not prevent dementia from developing; it may simply delay the point at which the symptoms become apparent" — FALSE.

6. Fourth paragraph: bilinguals "perform better on tasks measuring 'theory of mind'... understand that others may have beliefs and perspectives that differ from one's own." TRUE.

7. Fifth paragraph: "fewer than one in five adults reports being able to hold a conversation in a language other than English" — a minority, not a majority — FALSE.

8. First paragraph: early research claimed two languages placed "excessive cognitive demands on developing minds."

9. Second paragraph: this set of mental capacities is what "researchers call 'executive function.'"

10. Third paragraph: bilingual Alzheimer's patients' "symptoms appear later, on average... by as much as four to five years."

11. Third paragraph: this buffering effect is "sometimes referred to as 'cognitive reserve.'"

12. Fourth paragraph: bilinguals "perform better on tasks measuring 'theory of mind,' the ability to attribute mental states to others."

13. Sixth paragraph: critics argue supporting studies are "subject to publication bias."

14. Paragraph A frames the overall challenge, closing with: "Understanding and addressing these risks is one of the defining challenges of global development" — the broad framing that the later paragraphs' resilience efforts respond to.

15. Paragraph B: "Rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, and the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events... are already affecting crop yields."

16. Paragraph C: "Land degradation — the reduction in the productive capacity of agricultural soils... is a second major risk."

17. Paragraph D: "Price volatility on global commodity markets presents a different kind of challenge."

18. Paragraph E: promising technologies "fail to reach the smallholder farmers who could most benefit from them. The barriers to technology adoption are multiple."

19. Paragraph F: "Access to formal financial services — savings accounts, credit, insurance, and payments infrastructure — remains severely limited."

20. Paragraph G: "International trade policies can have a profound and sometimes perverse impact on smallholder farmers."

21. Paragraph B: "Subsistence farmers in semi-arid regions are particularly vulnerable: they depend entirely on rainfall for irrigation" — matches option B.

22. Paragraph C: "the rate of degradation continues to outpace recovery in many regions" — matches option C.

23. Paragraph D: the coffee price collapse "caused widespread economic distress... driving many smallholders out of coffee production altogether" — shows high sensitivity to price swings, option B.

24. Paragraph F: index-based insurance pays out "without requiring the farmer to prove individual losses" — matches option C.

25. Paragraph G: subsidies "have been criticised for depressing world commodity prices, making it harder for farmers in developing countries to compete" — matches option B.

26. Paragraph E: "Addressing these barriers requires coordinated investment in rural infrastructure, training, and appropriate regulatory frameworks" — matches option B.

27. Paragraph C contrasts the Oxford study's estimate with "a more detailed analysis by McKinsey Global Institute," which found a much lower automation risk.

28. Paragraph A: in every past wave, "those fears have ultimately proved unfounded: technological change has created new kinds of work even as it has destroyed old ones."

29. Paragraph F: "there is a real risk that automation will exacerbate existing inequalities rather than reducing them."

30. Paragraph D: displaced "workers whose skills are suddenly made obsolete may face prolonged unemployment and economic insecurity before they are able to retrain."

31. Paragraph E: "Communities that have not yet recovered from those earlier shocks may lack the economic resilience and institutional capacity to absorb a further wave of displacement."

32. The writer poses this as an open question: "The question is whether the current wave of automation... is different in kind from its predecessors" — no firm claim either way — NOT GIVEN.

33. Paragraph B: AI can perform tasks "previously thought to be the exclusive province of highly educated human professionals" — YES.

34. Paragraph C: critics say the Oxford study "assessed the automability of entire occupations rather than of the specific tasks" — implying it overstated the risk — YES.

35. Paragraph D: older workers "have less time to recoup the investment in retraining and may face age discrimination" — a disadvantage, not an advantage — NO.

36. Paragraph F: the outcome "will depend critically on policy choices," not on technology itself — NO.

37. Paragraph B: Oxford researchers estimated "around 47 per cent of US jobs were at high risk of automation."

38. Paragraph C: McKinsey found "less than 5 per cent of current jobs could be fully automated with existing technology."

39. Paragraph D: older workers "may face age discrimination from employers."

40. Paragraph F: workers need skills "complementary to, rather than in competition with, AI."