Cambridge 15 Reading Test 4 - Answers With Explanation

1. "The only year-round source of water is located tens of metres below the surface" and huarango roots "stretch down 50–80 metres" to reach it.

2. "He believes the huarango was key to the ancient people's diet."

3. "It allowed local people to withstand years of drought when their other crops failed."

4. "Cutting down native woodland leads to erosion, as there is nothing to keep the soil in place."

5. "So when the huarangos go, the land turns into a desert."

6. "Its branches were used for charcoal for cooking and heating" — fuel.

7. "Its leaves and bark were used for herbal remedies" — medicine.

8. "Its trunk was used to build houses" — construction.

9. The passage doesn't say local families told Whaley about traditional uses; it's Whaley and Milliken who are running the project — NOT GIVEN.

10. "His farm is relatively small and doesn't yet provide him with enough to live on" — not yet a good profit — FALSE.

11. "He's persuading farmers to let him plant forest corridors on their land" — cooperation is needed to protect wildlife movement — TRUE.

12. "It's not like a rainforest that needs to have this huge expanse... if you just have a few trees left, the population can grow up quickly" — a large area isn't required — FALSE.

13. Whaley says his project "has the potential to be rolled out" to places like Africa, but the passage never says he plans to go there himself — NOT GIVEN.

14. No comparison is made between La Gomera's height and that of the other Canary Islands — NOT GIVEN.

15. "Any Spanish sentence could be whistled" — not limited to short, simple messages — FALSE.

16. Silbadores showed left-temporal-lobe activation, but "when the experiments were repeated with non-whistlers... activation was observed in all areas of the brain" — different results — TRUE.

17. "Indigenous Canary Islanders... already had a whistled language when Spain conquered the volcanic islands in the 15th century" — Silbo predates the Spanish, wasn't introduced by them — FALSE.

18. "There are thought to be as many as 70 whistled languages still in use, though only 12 have been described and studied scientifically" — most lack precise data — FALSE.

19. "Since 1999, Silbo Gomero has been taught in all of the island's elementary schools" — TRUE.

20. "Individual words recoded into whistles which have high- and low-frequency tones."

21. "A whistler... puts a finger in his or her mouth to increase the whistle's pitch."

22. "The other hand can be cupped to adjust the direction of the sound."

23. "In daily life they use whistles to communicate short commands."

24. "Silbo has proved particularly useful when fires have occurred on the island."

25. "With modern communication technology now widely available, researchers say whistled languages like Silbo are threatened with extinction."

26. Authorities are "trying to get an award from the organisation [UNESCO] to declare [Silbo Gomero] as something that should be preserved for humanity."

27. "A business may maximize the amount of money it makes... by damaging the environment and hurting people" — no moral constraint stops this when it's profitable.

28. "An unmanaged fishery without quotas" and the claim that damage follows "if government regulation is ineffective" — a lack of control.

29. Damage is also likely "if the public doesn't care" — a lack of public involvement.

30. "Fishermen in an unmanaged fishery without quotas" — leading to overfishing.

31. "International logging companies with short-term leases on tropical rainforest land" — destruction of trees.

32. "It is the public, either directly or through its politicians, that has the power to make such destructive policies unprofitable and illegal" — ordinary people can stop the damage.

33. The fourth paragraph lists actions like suing businesses, buying sustainable products, and pressing governments — ways the public can influence both business and government policy.

34. "When a major fast-food company then made the same demands after customer purchases of its hamburgers plummeted, the meat industry complied within weeks" — pressure forced compliance with the FDA rules.

35. "The public must accept the necessity for higher prices for products to cover the added costs, if any, of sound environmental practices" — YES.

36. The passage doesn't compare the moral principles of different businesses against each other — NOT GIVEN.

37. "My conclusion is not a moralistic one about who is right or wrong, admirable or selfish" — the writer avoids drawing a clear line — NO.

38. "In the past, businesses have changed when the public came to expect and require different behavior" — the public has influenced businesses before — YES.

39. The writer predicts changes in public attitude "will be essential" for businesses to change, but doesn't say businesses will definitely become more environmentally concerned — NOT GIVEN.

40. The whole passage weighs whether responsibility for environmental harm lies with businesses or the public — matching this subheading's framing of blame.