Cambridge 11 Reading Test 4 - Answers With Explanation

1. "Any differences between them... must be due to environmental factors such as less time spent in the sun" — not genetic causes — FALSE.

2. The passage explains how twin studies measure heritability of disease, but never compares twins' overall illness risk to non-twins — NOT GIVEN.

3. The passage says twins "eventually visited Thomas Bouchard's lab" but never describes how they were recruited — NOT GIVEN.

4. "Epigenetic processes are chemical reactions tied to neither nature nor nurture but representing what researchers have called a 'third component'" — TRUE.

5. Galton "first suggested the approach (and coined the phrase 'nature and nurture')" — the term distinguishing the two factors.

6. Reed says of epigenetics: "Now that we're actually able to look at the DNA and see where the pencil writings are, it's sort of a whole new world" — expecting greater understanding ahead.

7. "The key to their approach was a statistical concept called heritability" — Bouchard's mathematical measure of genetic influence.

8. "The idea of using twins to measure the influence of heredity dates back to 1875, when the English scientist Francis Galton first suggested the approach" — the pioneer.

9. Bouchard ran "the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart," researching twins separated at birth.

10. "Epigenetic processes are chemical reactions" that influence gene activity.

11. These reactions help "build our bones, brains and all the other parts of our bodies" — our internal organs.

12. Epigenetics reveals "a mechanism by which the environment directly impacts on genes."

13. Stress in a pregnant rat "can cause epigenetic changes in a fetus that lead to behavioral problems as the rodent grows up."

14. "We really cannot afford to underestimate the importance of film sound" — it would be wrong to overlook sound's contribution.

15. "The actor Humphrey Bogart is the character Sam Spade; film personality and life personality seem to merge" — actor and character seeming alike.

16. In 2001, dialogue was "banal and of little intrinsic interest," portraying the "inadequacy of human responses" compared to technology — dull dialogue with a purpose.

17. In Bringing Up Baby, rapid dialogue "underscores not only the dizzy quality of the character... but also the absurdity of the film itself" — dialogue emphasising key elements.

18. "If the 'click' of an opening door is part of an ominous action... the sound mixer may call attention to the 'click' with an increase in volume; this helps to engage the audience in a moment of suspense" — manipulating audience response.

19. Background music "has become so ubiquitous as to be noticeable in its absence" — its absence would surprise audiences — TRUE.

20. "Background music often foreshadows a change in mood. For example, dissonant music may be used... to indicate an approaching (but not yet visible) menace" — TRUE.

21. The passage never compares how strongly background music affects different individuals — NOT GIVEN.

22. "Background music may aid viewer understanding by linking scenes" through repeated musical themes — TRUE.

23. Background music is "usually not meant to be noticeable," and "the effects of sound are often largely subtle and often are noted by only our subconscious minds" — audiences are generally unaware — FALSE.

24. "These three tracks must be mixed and balanced so as to produce the necessary emphases which in turn create desired effects" — controlling audience response through combining voice, sound and music.

25. "Dialogue serves to tell the story and expresses feelings and motivations of characters" — clarity comes from listening to dialogue.

26. "When voice textures fit the performer's physiognomy and gestures, a whole and very realistic persona emerges" — appearance, voice and movement working together.

27. Paragraph A: "the advent of language is what made us human... everything we have ever achieved depends on language" — why language matters most of all inventions.

28. Paragraph B: "Language is mankind's greatest invention — except, of course, that it was never invented" — an apparent contradiction in language's nature.

29. Paragraph C: "Run them through the cogs and wheels of the language machine... there is nothing that these meaningless streams of air cannot do" — a handful of sounds organised into vast meaning.

30. Paragraph D: the language machine works for "just about everybody — from pre-modern foragers... to post-modern philosophers" — universal ability.

31. Paragraph E: "it is only the estrangement of foreign tongues... that brings home the wonder of language's design," illustrated by the long Turkish word — differences highlighting impressiveness.

32. Paragraph F: in Sumerian, "even the absence of a sound has been enlisted to express something specific" — silence carrying meaning.

33. "Other inventions — the wheel, agriculture, sliced bread — may have transformed our material existence" — the wheel's impact was material.

34. By contrast, "everything we have ever achieved depends on language and originates from it" — its impact is described as foremost and fundamental.

35. Language is "this marvellous invention of composing out of twenty-five or thirty sounds that infinite variety of expressions" — complex despite few building blocks.

36. "One doesn't have to be a genius to set its wheels in motion" and it works "apparently without the slightest exertion" — easy to use.

37. "Without language, we could never have embarked on our ascent to unparalleled power over all other animals" — the opposite of the statement — NO.

38. "No one since has celebrated more eloquently the magnitude of its achievement" than the Port-Royal grammarians — the writer endorses their view — YES.

39. The passage discusses word length and compactness across languages but never compares clarity of a single word versus a full sentence for complex ideas — NOT GIVEN.

40. Sumerian was "spoken on the banks of the Euphrates some 5,000 years ago by the people who invented writing and thus enabled the documentation of history" — YES.