Cambridge 5 Reading Test 2 - Answers With Explanation

1. "Thermoplastic" plastics "melt when heated and can then be reshaped", "like candlewax".

2. "Bakelite had the distinction of being the first totally synthetic thermosetting plastic."

3. Early plastics research was driven partly by "immense technological progress in the domain of chemistry".

4. "The result was a resin known as Novalak, which became soluble and malleable when heated."

5. "Other substances were then introduced: including fillers, such as woodflour, asbestos or cotton, which increase strength and moisture resistance."

6. "Hexa, a compound of ammonia and formaldehyde... supplied the additional formaldehyde necessary to form a thermosetting resin."

7. After a second grinding, "the resulting granular powder was raw Bakelite, ready to be made into a vast range of manufactured objects."

8. The heated Bakelite "was subjected to extreme heat and pressure, thereby 'setting' its form for life."

9-10. Mould design was governed by "the ease with which the resin could fill the mould" — "moulds had to be carefully designed so that the molten Bakelite would flow evenly" (B) — and "the facility with which the object could be removed from the mould" — it "could not be designed so that it was locked into the mould and therefore difficult to extract" (C).

11. Baekeland's 1907 patent described "the essential features of which are still in use today" — TRUE.

12. Bakelite "was treated with disdain in its early years" before its later popularity — the opposite of an immediate welcome, so FALSE.

13. Consumers "relished its dazzling array of shades", no longer "restricted to the wood tones and drab browns of the pre-plastic era" — a wide, not limited, range of colours, so FALSE.

14. Koestler dubbed laughter "the luxury reflex", calling it "unique in that it serves no apparent biological purpose" — the opposite of biologically important, FALSE.

15. Plato linked humour to "a delighted feeling of superiority over others" — nothing about intelligence — NOT GIVEN.

16. Kant (with Freud) felt joke-telling "relies on building up a psychic tension which is safely punctured by the ludicrousness of the punchline" — a controlled release of nervous tension, TRUE.

17. "Most modern humour theorists have settled on some version of Aristotle's belief" about incongruity — building on, not ignoring, his view — FALSE.

18. Ritchie "studies the linguistic structure of jokes in order to understand not only humour but language understanding and reasoning in machines" — linking jokes to machine/AI reasoning, TRUE.

19. The passage never discusses comedians' personal situations as a source of material — NOT GIVEN.

20. "Chimpanzees have a 'play-face' — a gaping expression accompanied by a panting 'ah, ah' noise" — TRUE.

21. "The right prefrontal [cortex, believed] to be critical for problem solving" lit up at the start of a joke.

22. "There was also activity in the temporal lobes at the side of the head", alongside the right prefrontal cortex.

23. At the punchline, "the orbital prefrontal cortex" sprang to life, "associated with evaluating information."

24. "Making a rapid emotional assessment of the events of the moment is an extremely demanding job for the brain" — it must respond instantly to whatever is happening, C.

25. Humans, "who have developed a much more complicated internal life as a result of language, respond emotionally... to their own thoughts" — A.

26. "Whether a joke gives pleasure or pain depends on a person's outlook" — responses relate to subjective views, F.

27. Derks says understanding humour would give us "a pretty good handle on how [the mind] works in general" — valuable information on the brain's operation, D.

28. "Latin was regarded as the lingua franca for European intellectuals", and original science stayed in Latin (e.g. Newton's Principia) until the late 17th century.

29. Mathematicians kept work secret, and "doctors clung the most keenly to Latin as an 'insider language'" — protecting ideas from wider readers.

30-31. English "lacked the necessary technical vocabulary" and "lacked the grammatical resources required to represent the world in an objective and impersonal way."

32. "Several members of the Royal Society... did a great deal to foster the publication of science in English."

33. "Much of this momentum was lost as German established itself as the leading European language of science."

34. English regained ground "in the 19th century... as the industrial revolution created the need for new technical vocabulary."

35. The passage mentions competing nation states pursuing trade and exploration, but not competition specifically between scientists — NOT GIVEN.

36. The passage calls Copernicus's theory of the Earth's movement "perhaps the most important scientific revolution of them all" — not the discovery of magnetism — FALSE.

37. Wallis and Wilkins, "two with interests in language", helped found the Royal Society to promote science — combining scientific and linguistic interest, TRUE.

38. Early-17th-century English-language science mostly took the form of "popular works, encyclopaedias, educational textbooks and translations."

39. "Newton published his mathematical treatise, known as the Principia, in Latin" — the example of original Latin science.

40. "Latin was suitable for an international audience of scholars, whereas English reached a socially wider, but more local, audience."