Cambridge 15 Reading Test 3 - Answers With Explanation

1. "He complied with his father's wish that he train as a schoolteacher" — TRUE.

2. "In his first year, he spent most of his time drawing... no teacher was appointed until his second year" — he didn't begin sculpture study straight away — FALSE.

3. The passage says nothing about the Royal College's reputation for teaching sculpture — NOT GIVEN.

4. "Alongside the instruction he received at the Royal College, Moore visited many of the London museums... he discovered the power and beauty of ancient Egyptian and African sculpture" — TRUE.

5. No mention of public interest in the Trocadero's Mayan sculpture — NOT GIVEN.

6. Moore thought the Mayan sculpture "had a power and originality that no other stone sculpture possessed" — the opposite of similar — FALSE.

7. "The aim of the group was to convince the English public of the merits of the emerging international movement in modern art and architecture" — TRUE.

8. "There were calls for his resignation from the Royal College."

9. "A shortage of materials forced him to focus on drawing."

10. "He returned to Castleford to make a series of sketches of the miners who worked there."

11. "Harlow... offered Moore a commission for a sculpture depicting a family."

12. "Moore's work became available to collectors all over the world."

13. "The boost to his income enabled him to take on ambitious projects."

14. Section A traces the idea's origin: Janssen saw "basic rooftop solar heating systems" in Thailand, then "developed that basic idea... into a portable device" — from inspiration to product.

15. Section B: the Desolenator "can take water from different places, such as the sea, rivers, boreholes and rain" — cleaning water from a range of sources.

16. Section C: "unlike standard desalination techniques, it doesn't require a generated power supply: just sunlight" — what sets it apart from alternatives.

17. Section D: "at least two-thirds of the world's population lives with severe water scarcity for at least a month every year" — the number of people affected.

18. Section E: the device "is aimed at a wide variety of users — from homeowners in the developing world... to people living off the grid in rural parts of the US."

19. Section F: "We are a venture with a social mission... there is a bottom line to keep in mind" — the company isn't chasing profit above all else.

20. Section G: "It has raised £340,000 in funding so far," describing how the company is financing production.

21. "It is easy to transport, thanks to its two wheels."

22. "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. "The device has a very simple filter to trap particles."

24. "There are two tubes for liquid coming out: one for the waste... and another for the distilled water."

25. "The performance of the unit is shown on an LCD screen."

26. Same sentence: performance data is "transmitted to the company which provides servicing when necessary."

27. "The same story often takes a variety of forms in different parts of the world" — in some versions "the wolf swallows up the grandmother, while in others it locks her in a cupboard" — considerable global variation.

28. Tehrani's analysis found cautionary elements "were just as flexible as seemingly trivial details," undermining the idea that useful life lessons are why the tales survive.

29. Academics had been "devising theories to explain the importance of fairy tales," but only now has Tehrani "found a way to test these ideas" — the theories existed without solid testing behind them.

30. Tehrani "borrowed a technique from evolutionary biologists" — phylogenetic analysis — to study how the tales evolved.

31. "He ended up with 58 stories recorded from oral traditions" — spoken, not written, origins.

32. Phylogenetic analysis established whether the 58 stories "were indeed related" — testing for links between them.

33. He tested "which aspects of the story alter least as it evolves" — the ones with fewest variations were assumed most important.

34. "Tehrani found no significant difference in the rate of evolution of incidents [events] compared with that of characters" — events could change just as freely.

35. "The cautionary elements of the story... were just as flexible as seemingly trivial details" — the warning content turned out not to be specially protected.

36. "The answer, it would appear, is fear — blood-thirsty and gruesome aspects of the story... turned out to be the best preserved of all."

37. "Tehrani's analysis focused on Little Red Riding Hood in its many forms... checking for variants of these two tales and similar stories."

38. Zipes says: "Even if they're gruesome, they won't stick unless they matter" — details only survive if they carry deeper meaning.

39. Tehrani points out that women-as-victims "is not always true elsewhere" — citing Chinese, Japanese, Iranian and Nigerian versions — as a challenge to Zipes' theory.

40. Clasen believes 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."