Cambridge 2 Reading Test 3 - Answers With Explanation

1. The hospital had not tackled the issue before this study: "prior to this time, few active steps had been taken to measure, understand or manage the occurrence of absenteeism" — NO.

2. Nurses felt there was nothing to gain from avoiding sick leave: "there was no reward or recognition for not utilising the paid sick leave entitlement... they believed they may as well take the days off" — the opposite of the statement — NO.

3. In fact most felt misunderstood: "67 per cent of nurses felt that administration was not sympathetic to the problems shift work causes" — well over half, not just under half, felt unsympathy — NO.

4. The causes are listed "in decreasing order of frequency" as "illness in family, family social function, work to do at home and bereavement" — family illness ranks above work at home — YES.

5. The two 1989 studies covered attitudes to sick leave and reasons for absence, but the passage never compares Prince William's findings on management attitude specifically to them — NOT GIVEN.

6. The Method section states the aim plainly: "In an attempt to reduce the level of absenteeism amongst the 250... Nurses... management introduced three... strategies" — the goal was reduction, not investigating causes — NO.

7. "Over the time of the study, staff were given a larger degree of control in their rosters. This led to significant improvements in communication between managers and staff" — YES.

8. "It was possible to secure incentives from local businesses, including free passes to entertainment parks, theatres, restaurants."

9. Strategy 2 gave "staff... the opportunity to determine their working schedule within the limits of clinical needs."

10. Managers analysed "the pattern of absence of staff with excessive sick leave (greater than ten days per year for full-time employees)."

11. Managers looked for "characteristic patterns of potential 'voluntary absenteeism' such as absence before and after days off."

12. "This represents a 20 per cent improvement" in the six months following the incentive scheme.

13. The changes "facilitated improved cooperation and communication between management and staff."

14. Paragraph C contrasts "until a hundred years ago, most journeys were in the 20 km range" by horse with today's roads, where "about 90 per cent of inland freight in the United Kingdom is carried by road" — past versus present transport.

15. Paragraph F blames driver behaviour: "many people buy larger cars than they need for daily purposes or waste fuel by driving aggressively."

16. Paragraph E weighs costs against convenience: car transport is "seven times as costly as rail travel" in social costs, yet "cars easily surpass trains or buses as a flexible and convenient mode of personal transport."

17. Paragraph H sets out the writer's own forecast: "a more likely scenario seems to be a combination of mass transit systems for travel into and around cities, with small 'low emission' cars for urban use."

18. Paragraph A opens with the statistic "there are now over 700 million motor vehicles in the world - and the number is rising by more than 40 million each year."

19. Paragraph D describes how cities changed to fit cars: "adaptation to the motor car has involved adding ring roads, one-way systems and parking lots."

20. Moscow and Mexico City are both cited as badly affected, but the passage never claims European cities are worse than everywhere else — NOT GIVEN.

21. "Clearly the world cannot revert to the horse-drawn wagon" — horse transport is dismissed as impractical, not proposed as useful — NO.

22. The passage only gives the current road-freight share ("90 per cent... carried by road"); it never states that water transport of freight has ended in the UK — NOT GIVEN.

23. "In Europe most cities are still designed for the old modes of transport" — YES.

24. "Technical solutions can reduce the pollution problem" but "global car use is increasing at a faster rate than the improvement in emissions and fuel efficiency which technology is now making possible" — YES.

25. "Fuel consumption and exhaust emissions depend on which cars are preferred by customers and how they are driven" — YES.

26. Redesigning cities is described as "the long-term solution", not a short-term one — NO.

27. Paragraph B backs up the industry's growth with numbers: "some 60 biometric companies around the world pulled in at least $22 million last year and that grand total is expected to mushroom to at least $50 million by 1999" — the figures say it all, heading iv.

28. Paragraph C explains the mechanism: "the system scans the person's corresponding characteristics and attempts to match them against those on record" — how does it work, heading vii.

29. Paragraph D describes an anti-fraud use: "sixteen American states now use biometric fingerprint verification systems to check that people claiming welfare payments are genuine" — fighting fraud, heading viii.

30. Paragraph E calls the handkey "the most widely used commercial biometric system" — this type sells best, heading iii.

31. Paragraph F surveys various countries' plans: "Malaysia... is preparing to equip all of its airports with biometric face scanners" and "Japan's largest maker of cash dispensers is developing new machines" — who's planning what, heading ii.

32. Paragraph G raises objections: critics "complained that it would stigmatise recipients by forcing them to submit to a procedure widely identified with criminals" — common objections, heading i.

33. Paragraph H concludes "biometrics may well be a technology whose time has come" — accepting the inevitable, heading x.

34. Students at Montreal's Athletic Complex have "their identities... authenticated by an electronic hand scanner" — hand scanner.

35. The handkey "received its big break when it was used to control access to the Olympic Village in Atlanta by more than 65,000 athletes."

36. "Malaysia... is preparing to equip all of its airports with biometric face scanners to match passengers with luggage."

37. "Sixteen American states now use biometric fingerprint verification systems to check that people claiming welfare payments are genuine."

38. "The first commercial biometric, a hand reader used by an American firm to monitor employee attendance, was introduced in 1974."

39. "In some California housing estates, a key alone is insufficient to get someone in the door; his or her voiceprint must also be verified."

40. "Customers at some Japanese banks will have to present their faces for scanning before they can enter the building and withdraw their money."