Cambridge 8 Reading Test 2 - Answers With Explanation

1. "The first successful method for making clear, flat glass involved spinning."

2. Because it never touched a surface while hardening, the spun glass "stayed perfectly unblemished, with a 'fire finish'."

3. The spinning method's key drawback was that "the process took a long time and was labour intensive."

4. The ribbon process "allowed glass of virtually any thickness to be made non-stop."

5. With the ribbon method, "the rollers would leave both sides of the glass marked", so it needed grinding and polishing.

6. Molten glass is what flows in at the start, being poured "onto the molten tin" in the float bath.

7. Pilkington's idea was "using a bed of molten metal" — tin — for the glass to float on.

8. Once hardened, the glass "could be transported out of the cooling zone by rollers."

9. The metal had to melt below glass's hardening point yet "could not boil at a temperature below the temperature of the molten glass" — specific properties were essential — TRUE.

10. The passage mentions the venture "costing the company £100,000 a month" but never says Pilkington invested his own money — NOT GIVEN.

11. "It took 14 months of non-stop production... before the plant produced any usable glass", and even then a further four-month restart was needed — not an instant success — FALSE.

12. "The principle of float glass is unchanged since the 1950s. However, the product has changed dramatically" — the process has since been improved — TRUE.

13. Automated inspection is capable of "locating flaws the unaided eye would be unable to see" — computers outperform humans here — TRUE.

14. Paragraph B states these climatic shifts "are the deeply important context for the current unprecedented global warming" — heading ii, the relevance of the Little Ice Age today.

15. Paragraph D introduces "a narrative history of climatic shifts during the past ten centuries" — heading vii, a study covering a thousand years.

16. Paragraph E notes that increased farm productivity "offered effective protection against famine" — heading ix, enough food at last.

17. Paragraph F explains that land clearance ended up "triggering for the first time humanly caused global warming" — heading iv, human impact on the climate.

18–19. Before systematic weather records, our only sources of past climate data are "'proxy records' reconstructed largely from tree rings and ice cores" — C and B.

20. The Little Ice Age was "an irregular seesaw of rapid climatic shifts", not a uniform freeze — A.

21. The seesaw brought years of "heavy spring and early summer rains... and frequent Atlantic storms" — H.

22. Other periods brought "droughts, light northeasterly winds, and summer heat waves" — G.

23. In the Modern Warm Period, "a vast migration from Europe by land-hungry farmers" went to farm new continents — C.

24. Also in the Modern Warm Period, cleared land "released vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere" — C.

25. During the Medieval Warm Period, "Norse voyagers... explored northern seas, settled Greenland, and visited North America" — A.

26. In the Little Ice Age, cooler seas meant "changes in water temperatures forced fishing fleets to work further offshore" — B.

27. Paragraph A shows "smell can evoke strong emotional responses" — heading viii, the relationship between smell and feelings.

28. Paragraph B calls odours "essential cues in social bonding" — heading ii, the role of smell in personal relationships.

29. Paragraph C says smell "is probably the most undervalued sense in many cultures" — heading vi, why our sense of smell is not appreciated.

30. Paragraph D notes odours "cannot be named in many languages because the specific vocabulary simply doesn't exist" — heading i, the difficulties of talking about smells.

31. Paragraph E predicts that "interest in the psychology of smell is inevitably set to play an increasingly important role for researchers" — heading iii, future studies into smell.

32. Paragraph F argues "our commonly held feelings about smells can help distinguish us from other cultures" — heading v, smell as a factor in defining groups.

33. "It is only when the faculty of smell is impaired for some reason that we begin to realise the essential role" it plays — answer C.

34. The clothing test showed that "even when not consciously considered, smells register" — we use smell without realising it — answer A.

35. The writer concedes human smell seems "feeble and undeveloped" next to animals', but insists it is "still remarkably acute" — rejecting that common belief — answer C.

36. Paragraph E states "researchers have still to decide whether smell is one sense or two" — smell is yet to be defined — answer D.

37. "Women and men were able to distinguish by smell alone clothing worn by their marriage partners" from other people's.

38. Odours "cannot be named in many languages because the specific vocabulary simply doesn't exist."

39. One unanswered question is whether smell also involves "registering odourless chemicals in the air."

40. "Smells that are considered to be offensive in some cultures may be perfectly acceptable in others."