Cambridge 4 Reading Test 4 - Answers With Explanation

1. "Since the early years of the twentieth century, when the International Athletic Federation began keeping records, there has been a steady improvement" — official records date from around 1900, TRUE.

2. The passage discusses improvement since official records began but says nothing about performance before the twentieth century — NOT GIVEN.

3. Power events "have improved ten to twenty per cent... the results [in endurance events] have been more dramatic" — endurance events improved more than power/burst events, so FALSE.

4. Yessis states genetics "only determines about one third of what an athlete can do" — not a full explanation, FALSE.

5. The passage never discusses whether elite athletes' parents were themselves athletes — NOT GIVEN.

6. "With increasing global participation in athletics and greater rewards to tempt athletes, it is more likely that individuals possessing the unique complement of genes for athletic performance can be identified early" — TRUE.

7. "U.S. runners, despite their impressive achievements, are 'running on their genetics'" — their current success rests on genetics.

8. Yessis cites "plyometrics, a technique pioneered in the former Soviet Union" that "focuses on increasing power."

9. "Few coaches... understand how deficiencies in trace minerals can lead to injuries" — inadequate nutrition is linked to injuries.

10. Yessis says with focused training "we'd be breaking records left and right", and that improvement continues "as long as our training continues to improve" — better training is the key.

11. Biomechanics films let a coach say precisely "this athlete's run is not fast enough; that this one is not using his arms strongly enough" — pinpointing areas for improvement, matching A.

12. Biomechanics specialists "put their minds to comprehending something that was too complex and unorthodox to have been invented through their own mathematical simulations" — they used models to explain the already-invented Fosbury flop, matching D.

13. Raglin says "so many variables enter into the equation, and our understanding in many cases is fundamental. We've got a long way to go!" — describing current knowledge as basic, matching B.

14. Archaeology is "partly the careful work of the scientific analyst, partly the exercise of the creative imagination" — both creativity and careful investigation, YES.

15. The passage never discusses translating ancient texts as a requirement for archaeologists — NOT GIVEN.

16. "However far from reality such portrayals are, they capture the essential truth" about the excitement of the quest — the writer explicitly says films aren't realistic, NO.

17. Anthropologists use 'culture' broadly ("knowledge, belief, art, morals, custom...") and "also use the term 'culture' in a more restricted sense" for one society — more than one definition, YES.

18. No comparison of how demanding archaeology is versus anthropology is made — NOT GIVEN.

19. Written records begin "around 3,000 BC in western Asia, and much later in most other parts of the world" — Europe, not being western Asia, is implicitly among the "much later" regions, so NO.

20-21. Anthropology "is generally broken down into three smaller disciplines" (matching D, subdivided for study) and physical anthropology specifically "concerns... how they evolved" (matching E, human evolutionary patterns).

22-23. The passage asks "why are some dwellings round and others square?" (matching C) and describes archaeologists studying "how [societies] make their tools and weapons" (matching D, how cultures make and use objects).

24. Archaeology's material-remains approach "in no way lessens the importance of the useful information contained in oral histories."

25-26. "It is a humanistic study, and since it deals with the human past, it is a historical discipline" — both descriptions are given directly.

27. The archaeologist's method — collecting data, testing a hypothesis, building a model of the past — "is rather like that of the scientist."

28. Section A opens with a problem "every health system in an economically developed society is faced with" — a problem shared by every developed country, matching iv.

29. Section C links health-care to "education, political and legal processes and institutions" as fundamental to exercising "other rights as autonomous human beings" — the connection between health-care and human rights, matching i.

30. Section D discusses the state's obligation to ensure resources are provided, even though "the state has no obligation to provide a health-care system itself" — the state's role in health-care, matching iii.

31. Section E covers the OECD-wide rise in health costs and demographic change — the impact of recent change, matching v.

32. "In the 1950s and 1960s, there emerged an awareness in Western societies that resources for the provision of health-care... were finite" — this realisation belongs to the 1950-1980 window, matching B.

33. Health costs "increased from 3.8% of GDP in 1960 to 7% of GDP in 1980" — the sharp rise happened within the 1950-1980 window, matching B.

34. "In the years immediately after the 1939-45 World War, it was assumed... that all the basic health needs of any community could be satisfied" by economic progress — this belief belongs to the 1945-1950 window, matching A.

35. "By the late 1970s it was recognised... that people have a right to health-care" and that this obliges the state to ensure provision — falling within the 1950-1980 window, matching B.

36. "People are not in a position to exercise personal liberty and to be self-determining if they are poverty-stricken... basic health-care is a condition of the exercise of autonomy" — the opposite of never being linked, so NO.

37. "At exactly the same time as this new realisation of the finite character of health-care resources was sinking in, an awareness of a contrary kind was developing" — that people have a right to health-care — the two happened together, YES.

38. Demographic change has meant "elderly people are now major (and relatively very expensive) consumers of health-care resources" — population change affecting costs, YES.

39. No claim is made that OECD governments have consistently underestimated provision needed — NOT GIVEN.

40. The passage doesn't say the elderly themselves will need to make special provision for their own care — NOT GIVEN.