Cambridge 8 Reading Test 1 - Answers With Explanation

1. Paragraph D describes the water clock, noting that in "the cloudy and often freezing weather of northern Europe" it could not always be relied on.

2. Paragraph B explains that "where seasonal agriculture was practised, the solar year became more crucial" to calendar-making — the link between geography and farming calendars.

3. Paragraph F traces the pendulum clock back to the 16th century, when "the pendulum swung in a large arc and thus was not very efficient."

4. Paragraph E lists several systems that arose together: "Italian hours began at sunset, Babylonian hours at sunrise, astronomical hours at midday" — parallel efforts to fix equal hours.

5. "The Egyptians had formulated a municipal calendar having 12 months of 30 days" — equal-length months, matching Egyptians.

6. "'Small clock', or French, hours... split the day into two 12-hour periods commencing at midnight" — matching French.

7. The anchor escapement, invented in England, "led to the development of a new floor-standing case design, which became known as the grandfather clock" — matching English.

8. "The Babylonians began to measure time, introducing calendars to co-ordinate communal activities... and, in particular, to regulate planting and harvesting" — matching Babylonians.

9. "It was called the anchor escapement, which was a lever-based device shaped like a ship's anchor."

10. The escapement "catches and then releases each tooth of the escape wheel, in turn allowing it to turn a precise amount."

11. Same passage: the escapement "catches and then releases each tooth of the escape wheel."

12. "This invention allowed the use of a long pendulum which could beat once a second."

13. "A long pendulum which could beat once a second" — the pendulum's beat interval.

14. Paragraph A opens with "an accident that occurred in the skies over the Grand Canyon in 1956 resulted in the establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration" — heading ii.

15. Paragraph C notes ATC benefited from both "newly developed radar and improved radio communication" from WWII and separately "the advent of the jet engine" — two coincidental developments, heading iii.

16. Paragraph D corrects a misconception: "Many people think that ATC consists of a row of controllers... This is a very incomplete part of the picture" — an oversimplified view, heading v.

17. Paragraph E describes how "from 365m above the ground and higher, the entire country is blanketed by controlled airspace" — setting altitude zones, heading iv.

18. Paragraph F contrasts "Visual Flight Rules (VFR)" in good weather with "Instrumental Flight Rules (IFR)" in poor visibility — rules tied to weather, heading viii.

19. Paragraph G explains "controlled airspace is divided into several different types, designated by letters of the alphabet" — defining airspace categories, heading vii.

20. The FAA was created first, and only afterwards "the advent of the jet engine suddenly resulted in a large number of very fast planes" — the jet engine followed the FAA, not the reverse — FALSE.

21. "Rudimentary air traffic control (ATC) existed well before the Grand Canyon disaster" — FALSE.

22. Beacons and flashing lights are described as part of 1920s ATC, but the passage never says whether they are still used today — NOT GIVEN.

23. ATC centres benefited from "improved radio communication brought about by the Second World War" — TRUE.

24. Uncontrolled airspace, "designated Class F", is the airspace recreational pilots use to fly "below 365m" without ATC restrictions — TRUE.

25. It is Class A, not Class E, where "all operations are IFR"; Class E holds general aviation aircraft that can fly VFR — FALSE.

26. Class C airspace corresponds to "medium-sized metropolitan" airports — an average-sized city — TRUE.

27. "Sceptics and advocates alike do concur on one issue, however: that the most impressive evidence so far has come from the so-called 'ganzfeld' experiments" — ending E, the significance of the ganzfeld experiments.

28. "Reports of telepathic experiences had by people during meditation" suggested signals detectable in a relaxing "whole field" — ending B, the need for a suitable environment.

29. Discovering a mechanism such as quantum entanglement matters because "answering such questions would transform parapsychology" — ending A.

30. Researchers found "creative and artistic people do much better than average" in autoganzfeld trials — ending F, more careful selection of subjects.

31. "A person acting as a 'sender' would attempt to beam the image over to the 'receiver'."

32. The test involved "identification of a picture chosen from a random selection of four."

33. The image was beamed to "the 'receiver' relaxing in the sealed room."

34–35. Positive results could arise from "'sensory leakage' - where clues about the pictures accidentally reach the receiver - to outright fraud."

36. Autoganzfeld tests "used computers to perform many of the key tasks such as the random selection of images."

37. "By minimising human involvement, the idea was to minimise the risk of flawed results."

38. Honorton studied results "in a 'meta-analysis', a statistical technique for finding the overall results from a set of studies."

39. "Some parapsychologists remain disturbed by the lack of consistency between individual ganzfeld studies."

40. A typical study of "around 40 people" is "unlikely to be detected" because "the group is just not big enough."