Cambridge 3 Reading Test 4 - Answers With Explanation

1. Los Angeles is where regulations are "forcing manufacturers to try to sell ever cleaner cars", starting with the Zero Emission Vehicles required from 1997.

2. London is the city where local authorities are campaigning because "only the police have the power" to enforce anti-pollution laws at present.

3. Singapore's scheme uses a city-wide network of transmitters that will "charge drivers as they pass certain points", so charges depend on which roads are used.

4. A London council is trialling an infra-red spectrometer that "gauges the pollution from a passing vehicle" while it is moving.

5. Car-pooling, where several people share one car for the same journey, is described as a solution being considered in Los Angeles.

6. The RAC survey found that "12 per cent of them produced more than half the total pollution", matching the statement exactly, so YES.

7. The infra-red spectrometer already "gauges the pollution from a passing vehicle", showing that measuring a moving vehicle's exhaust is currently possible, so YES.

8. The passage says the opposite: "the total number of miles those cars drive continues to grow", so NO.

9. Car-pooling is in decline, not growing, because the average car occupancy in Los Angeles "has been falling steadily", so NO.

10. Cambridge never introduced road pricing because the proposal "faced vocal and ultimately successful opposition", so charging drivers was not achieved there, hence NO.

11. The 1992 UN/WHO study found every one of the sampled megacities had "exceeded the level the WHO deems healthy in at least one major pollutant" — so the number common to all cities is one, answer A.

12. Particulate matter is singled out as "attracting the most attention from health researchers" among the six pollutants monitored, so answer D.

13. The passage states plainly that "the old and ill" are the most vulnerable to the acute effects of heavy pollution, so answer C.

14. The exhibition is devoted to the WSPU's "organisational and commercial achievements" and marketing strategy, i.e. the success of its corporate image, so answer C.

15. Adopting the colour scheme "brought the movement the cohesion and focus it had previously lacked" — a clear purpose and direction — so answer D.

16. Display boards outline "the bills of enfranchisement of 1918 and 1928", which gave British women the vote, so both D and E are correct.

17. The newspaper turned a profit partly because "advertising space was bought in the paper" by large stores and jewellers.

18. The WSPU sold goods "all in the purple, white and green colours" that made up its corporate colour scheme.

19. The most notable fund-raising event was "the Woman's Exhibition", held in 1909 at a Knightsbridge ice rink.

20. By 1903 several countries "had already enfranchised women", including Australia, so the statement that Australian women still could not vote is contradicted — NO.

21. The two WSPU papers "played a vital role in this communication" with members nationwide, confirming they were the movement's main organs of communication, so YES.

22. The WSPU's reach is described as stretching "as far away as Scotland", so its work was not confined to London and the south — NO.

23. The papers carried "meetings, marches, fund-raising events and the latest news" on the movement, not society gossip, so NO.

24. The passage gives the fund raised by the Woman's Exhibition but says nothing about any reaction from Parliament, so NOT GIVEN.

25. The exhibition displays items the movement actually sold, including "purple, white and green trinkets", so YES.

26. The exhibition's film was "devised by the 'antis' — those opposed to women having the vote", showing opponents did make films against the movement, so YES.

27. The writer describes the exhibits approvingly and in detail without criticising them, closing on how it "illustrates the intelligence employed by women" — an informative tone, answer D.

28. The introduction asks "to what extent will the quality of his organisation suffer" if a manager pushes productivity for short-term gain, showing the study's purpose was to weigh productivity against its cost, so answer A.

29. The four divisions were designed so that "each division was organised in exactly the same way", giving identical patterns of organisation, so answer C.

30. Before the year-long experiment began, "several months were devoted to planning" plus a six-month training period, so staff spent months preparing, answer C.

31. The two programmes each changed how workers were supervised — one pushing decisions down, the other tightening control — so the missing word is supervision (or leadership/management).

32. Output was "measured continuously and computed weekly throughout the year", i.e. productivity was tracked weekly.

33. In the participative programme, "detailed supervision of the workers reduced" as decision levels were pushed down to the clerks.

34. Supervisory staff in the participative programme "were trained in group methods of leadership", which they used throughout the experimental year.

35. Timing the jobs in the hierarchical divisions showed "these divisions were overstaffed by about 30%".

36. The general manager then "ordered the managers of these two divisions to cut staff by 25%", reducing the workforce.

37. Figure 1 plots salary costs per unit of work, which the text says "reflect the change in productivity that occurred" in the divisions — answer C.

38. Figure 2 illustrates that with more participation "the employees' feeling of responsibility to see that the work got done increased", so it shows employees' feelings of responsibility towards completing work — answer D.

39. Figure 3 shows that participative-programme employees felt their manager and assistant manager were "'closer to them'" than before, matching option G.

40. Figure 4 shows employees felt supervisors were more likely to "'pull' for them, or for the company and them" rather than the company alone, i.e. their sense of personal support from management — answer F.