Cambridge 4 Reading Test 3 - Answers With Explanation

1. The two testimonials that open the article (from Doreen Soko and Fan Kaoma) illustrate what participants have gained from S.K.I.'s programme — they exemplify its effects, matching A.

2. "S.K.I. has been working... to support the economic lives of street children" through "small-scale business training and credit programs" — its main purpose is providing business training and loans, matching D.

3. Children end up on the streets due to factors including "the demand for income at home" — a poverty-related pressure, matching C (unemployment, war and crime are not mentioned as causes).

4. "Many children may choose entrepreneurship because it allows them to participate in other activities such as education" and offers "a degree of independence" — setting up their own business, matching C.

5. "The S.K.I. Bicycle Courier Service first started in the Sudan... A similar program was taken up in Bangalore, India" — both countries ran this project.

6. Courier Service participants "were supplied with bicycles, which they used to deliver parcels and messages."

7. "The Shoe Shine Collective, was a partnership program with the Y.W.C.A. in the Dominican Republic" — this names the project type.

8. S.K.I. requires "training programs that include the development of basic business and life skills" — the Zambia programme's training covers life skills alongside business training.

9. "Being an entrepreneur is not for everyone, nor for every street child" — directly contradicts the idea that any child could succeed with enough support, NO.

10. The passage discusses involving parents and guardians so staff can "understand more about each individual's situation", but makes no claim that families need financial support — NOT GIVEN.

11. "As the entrepreneurs gain experience, the enterprises can be gradually expanded and consideration can be given to increasing loan amounts" — loans can grow over time, not stay fixed at one, NO.

12. "All S.K.I. programs have charged interest on the loans... though the rates have been modest (lower than bank rates)" — children do pay back slightly more than they borrowed, YES.

13. The conclusion states "credit must be extended in association with other types of support that help participants develop critical life skills as well as productive businesses" — lending as part of a wider aid programme, matching A.

14. Section A explains how volcanoes made "the continents", "the world's first stable atmosphere" and "all the water for the oceans" — the shaping of the planet's basic features, matching iii.

15. Section B describes the earth's molten core and mantle and how fracture zones in the crust are "where earthquakes happen. And, very often, volcanoes" — explaining what causes eruptions, matching i.

16. Section C contrasts slow-forming granite intrusions with fast, violent eruptions like Krakatoa — different types of volcanic eruption, matching iv.

17. Section D opens "But volcanoes are not very predictable" and gives examples of sudden eruptions after centuries of dormancy — the unpredictability of eruptions, matching vi.

18. "These fracture zones... are where the collisions occur" between what the passage calls "plates" that make up the earth's crust — the tectonic plates.

19. "Vast bubbles of magma — molten rock from the mantle" is explicitly named as magma.

20. "The most dramatic of these is the Pacific 'ring of fire' where there have been the most violent explosions."

21. "In the case of Mount Pinatubo, this took 600 years" — the length of its dormancy before erupting.

22. "Volcanoes have not only made the continents, they are also thought to have made the world's first stable atmosphere and provided all the water for the oceans."

23. "Vast bubbles of magma... inch towards the surface, cooling slowly" — this slow-moving type is magma/lava/molten rock.

24. This slow horizontal-sheet eruption is found "as in Northern Ireland, Wales and the Karoo in South Africa... In the Deccan plateau in western India, there are more than two million cubic kilometres."

25. When magma rises very fast, "it explodes with tremendous force" — the third, violent eruption type.

26. "The gases trapped inside the boiling rock expand suddenly... and it explodes" — the sudden expansion of trapped gases causes the violence.

27. "People talk abnormally when they know they are being recorded, and sound quality can be poor" — describing the 'observer's paradox', how recording affects the way people talk.

28. "Transcriptions always benefit from any additional commentary provided by an observer" on non-verbal behaviour — the value of noting body language alongside recordings.

29. "The topic of conversation and the characteristics of the social setting... are also highly relevant" when choosing informants — how social situation shapes language.

30. The passage lists ways to reduce self-consciousness: "keeping the tape recorder out of sight, or using radio microphones" and introducing a familiar topic — techniques for helping informants relax.

31. "Linguists also make great use of structured sessions" alongside interview sheets, questionnaires and elicitation techniques — various methods for generating specific data.

32. "Often, when studying their mother tongue, linguists act as their own informants" — convenient, but their own judgements "are often uncertain."

33. Using a non-linguist as informant "is unavoidable when working on foreign languages, or child speech."

34. Recording an informant lets claims be checked, but "people talk abnormally when they know they are being recorded, and sound quality can be poor."

35. Video recordings let researchers observe "non-verbal behaviour" — "a facial expression, for example, can dramatically alter the meaning of what is said."

36. Even video has limits: "the camera cannot be everywhere" — it may miss things happening outside its view.

37. "A corpus enables the linguist to make unbiased statements about frequency of usage."

38. Some corpora "are extremely selective, providing a collection of material that deals only with a particular linguistic feature."

39. Building a corpus "can take up to several hours to provide an accurate transcription of a few minutes of speech" — the time available limits how large (or small) the resulting corpus can be.

40. No corpus covers a whole language, so linguists rely on extra information "derived from the intuitions of native speakers of the language."