Cambridge 16 Reading Test 3 - Answers With Explanation

1. The Romans "learned to build ships from the people that they conquered, namely the Greeks and the Egyptians" — the skills flowed the other way — FALSE.

2. The passage explains the mortise and tenon method but never mentions what skill level it required — NOT GIVEN.

3. The later method "consisted of building the frame first and then proceeding with the hull" — frame before hull, not the reverse — FALSE.

4. "Rome's navy became the largest and most powerful in the Mediterranean, and the Romans had control over what they therefore called Mare Nostrum" — TRUE.

5. "Rowers were not slaves but mostly Roman citizens enrolled in the military" — TRUE.

6. "Warships were built to be lightweight and very speedy."

7. "They had a bronze battering ram, which was used to pierce the timber hulls."

8. The trireme "had rowers in the top, middle and lower levels."

9. Merchant ships had a "V-shaped hull [that] was deep underwater."

10. They had "large square sails and a small triangular sail at the bow."

11. "Music would be played on an instrument, and oars would then keep time with this."

12. Cargo included "agricultural products (e.g. grain from Egypt's Nile valley)."

13. Ships "would be intercepted by a number of towboats that would drag them to the quay."

14. Section D: "Hunters would have easily misplaced arrows and they often discarded broken bows rather than take them all the way home" — why weapons ended up left behind.

15. Section C quotes Barrett: "Fieldwork is hard work — hiking with all our equipment, often camping on permafrost" — the physical toll of the expedition.

16. Section F: "a colder turn in the Scandinavian climate would likely have meant widespread crop failures" — why food would have been scarcer.

17. Section H: "archaeologists could be extracting some of those artefacts from retreating ice in years to come."

18. Section G mentions "a booming demand for hides to fight off the cold, as well as antlers to make useful things like combs" — traded goods.

19. Section B: "glacial archaeologists need to race the clock to find newly revealed artefacts, preserve them, and study them" — time pressure.

20. Organic materials have "little protection against the microorganisms that cause decay."

21. "Reindeer once congregated on these icy patches in the later summer months to escape biting insects."

22. Reindeer gathered on the ice "to escape biting insects" found at lower ground.

23–24. "Hunters kept regularly venturing into the mountains even when the climate turned cold" and "some periods had produced lots of artefacts... but there were few or no signs of activity during other periods" — a low number of finds from certain eras.

25–26. "Growing Norwegian towns, along with export markets, would have created a booming demand for hides... Business must have been good for hunters" and "these recent discoveries show that plenty of goods travelled on overland routes" rather than only by ship.

27. The passage reports the discovery but never says how other scientists reacted to it — NOT GIVEN.

28. "It is estimated that agricultural yields will need to double by 2050, but climate change is a major threat to achieving this" — TRUE.

29. "Key crops such as wheat and rice are sensitive to high temperatures. Thermal stress reduces crop yields by around 10% for every one degree increase" — TRUE.

30. The passage discusses breeding crops resilient to heat, but never mentions reducing water needs — NOT GIVEN.

31. "If a plant finds itself in shade, phytochromes are quickly inactivated — enabling it to grow faster" — shade speeds growth, sunlight slows it — the opposite of the statement — FALSE.

32. Light-driven changes happen "in less than a second," while at night "the molecules gradually change" — different speeds, not the same — FALSE.

33. Section H notes scientists "are able to rapidly identify the genes controlling these processes in crop plants" with help from "outstanding collaborators" in applied plant biology.

34. Section D: the discovery "could help us breed tougher crops" and "accelerate the breeding of crops resilient to thermal stress" — a potential benefit.

35. Section G: the phytochrome discovery "provides the science behind a well-known rhyme... oak before ash we'll have a splash, ash before oak we're in for a soak."

36. Section C: "Farmers and gardeners have known for hundreds of years how responsive plants are to temperature... something humans have long used to predict weather and harvest times."

37. Section A: the findings were "published in the journal Science."

38. "Daffodils... can flower months in advance during a warm winter."

39. "Ash before oak we're in for a soak" — and Wigge explains a cold spring (which comes with ash-before-oak) is likely followed by "a colder summer... likely to be a rain-soaked one."

40. The research "was done in a model system, using a mustard plant called Arabidopsis."