Cambridge 2 Reading Test 2 - Answers With Explanation

1. AHI's difficulties are put down to "the country's high labour-cost structure" — the high costs are related to staff, not size or policy.

2. The new structure gives "25 per cent fewer management positions", which means 75% of the old management positions remain.

3. The hotel needed "a different approach to selecting employees who would fit in with its new policies" — a change to hiring practices.

4. "Over 7000 applicants filled in application forms for the 120 jobs initially offered at SAH" — 120 was the total advertised.

5. "Department heads and shift leaders then composed prospective teams using a combination of people from all three categories" — the categories were used to build new teams.

6. "SAH management concluded this would first require a process of 'benchmarking'".

7. "The prime objective of the benchmarking process was to compare a range of service delivery processes across a range of criteria."

8. "This process resulted in performance measures that greatly enhanced SAH's ability to improve productivity and quality."

9. The same performance measures were used "to improve productivity and quality".

10. "A program modelled on an earlier project called 'Take Charge' was implemented" at SAH.

11. "Take Charge provides an effective feedback loop from both customers and employees."

12. "Employee feedback is reviewed daily and suggestions are implemented within 48 hours, if possible" — it is the employees' suggestions that are acted on this quickly.

13. "If suggestions require analysis or data collection, the Take Charge team has 30 days in which to address the issue and come up with recommendations."

14. "Publicity comes only when a failure to communicate has major consequences, such as strikes, lost orders, legal problems, or fatal accidents."

15. The scale of the problem can only be judged from "surveys of books and documents consulted in libraries and other information agencies", which showed how little foreign-language material was used.

16. British firms were criticised because "many had their sales literature only in English."

17. English is especially a problem "as in most parts of the Far East, Russia, Eastern Europe, the Arab world, Latin America and French-speaking Africa", where it is not an official language of public administration.

18. The same point about "They don't talk the same language" is said to apply "to any encounter with unfamiliar dialects or styles within a single language" — a problem of understanding dialect or style.

19. The treatment for the mushroom poisoning had been "published only in journals written in European languages other than English", implying the American doctors only read medical articles if they are in English.

20. "The criticism and publicity given to this problem since the 1960s seems to have greatly improved the situation" — it is not as bad now as it used to be.

21–24. Since the 1960s, "industrial training schemes have promoted an increase in linguistic and cultural awareness"; "many firms now have their own translation services"; "some firms run part-time language courses"; and "some produce their own technical glossaries, to ensure consistency when material is being translated."

25. "Even in cases where foreign customers can speak English quite well, it is often forgotten that they may not be able to understand it to the required level" — English-speaking foreigners may struggle to understand English.

26. The passage's closing argument, about firms and countries finding ways to reduce miscommunication, is best summed up as "Overcoming the language barrier."

27. Paragraph B notes that although many big cities "began as ports", their port functions are "no longer dominant" yet "they remain different kinds of places from non-port cities" — heading ii, "Once a port city, always a port city."

28. Paragraph C says a port city is "open to the world", where "races, cultures, and ideas... jostle, mix and enrich each other" — heading i, a truly international environment.

29. Paragraph D explains that bigger, deeper-draught vessels left many ports "economically and physically less accessible", so they "become cultural and economic backwaters" — heading v, reasons for the decline of ports.

30. Paragraph E compares domestic and external trade and notes "estimates of the ratio of basic to service workers range from 1:4 to 1:8" — heading vi, the relative significance of trade and service industry.

31. "Madras and Colombo are examples of harbours expensively improved by enlarging, dredging and building breakwaters" — matching pair D.

32. Paragraph B lists cities including "Istanbul... and Jakarta" among those that "began as ports" but "have since grown disproportionately in other respects" — pair C.

33. Paragraph D lists "Plymouth" and "Melaka" among ports bypassed "by most of their former enriching flow of exchange" once larger vessels could no longer use them — pair F.

34. Paragraph G says this "proximity to water is also true of... Singapore... and Yokohama, where the commercial, financial, and administrative centres are still grouped around their harbours" — pair G.

35. Paragraph B says such cities "remain different kinds of places from non-port cities and their port functions account for that difference" even once other activities dominate — they do not stop being port cities — NO.

36. "What evidence we have suggests that domestic trade was greater at all periods than external trade" — YES.

37. "Most of any city's population is engaged in providing goods and services for the city itself", not in trade with the outside world — NO.

38. Ports "take advantage of the need for breaking up the bulk material", drawing in activities such as "oil refining and ore refining, which are commonly located at ports" — YES.

39. The passage never discusses a common trading language for ports — NOT GIVEN.

40. Paragraph G notes "the centre of New York is in lower Manhattan between two river mouths" and the City of London "is on the Thames" — YES.