Barron's IELTS 1 Academic Reading Test 1
3 passages · 40 questions · 60 minutes
Odonata
Odonata is the order of insects that includes dragonflies and damselflies. To the human eye, their shining colors and delicate-looking wings make them beautiful creatures to behold. In the natural world, however, they are fearsome predators. Dragonflies and damselflies get their name from the powerful serrated jaws they use to tear apart their prey. The word odonata means “toothed jaw.”
Dragonflies and damselflies are often confused with each other because they are very similar. Close observation reveals the differences between them. The most obvious difference is the way they hold their wings while at rest. Dragonflies hold their wings out to the side while damselflies fold their wings back. Dragonflies have very large eyes that seem to cover the entire face because they are so close together that they touch each other. Damselflies’ eyes are smaller, and there is a space between them. Dragonflies are larger and stronger animals than damselflies and fly longer distances. Thus, they can be found in woods and fields away from the water. Damselflies are not such strong fliers and are most often seen around the edges of ponds and streams since they do not normally fly far from the water.
The largest odonata living today are the Hawaiian endemic dragonfly and the Central American damselfly, each of these species having a wingspan of 19 centimeters. The smallest is the libellulid dragonfly, native to east Asia, with a wingspan of just 20 millimeters. Fossils have been discovered that prove that dragonflies have been in existence for over 300 million years. The largest dragonfly fossil ever found belongs to the now-extinct meganeura monyi, which lived 300 million years ago and had a wingspan of 75 centimeters. This giant was a fearsome predator indeed, which feasted on small amphibians as well as on other insects.
Dragonflies and damselflies both lay their eggs on or just below the surface of the water in a pond or stream. Some species lay their eggs on the stem of an aquatic plant. The babies emerge from the eggs in the form of nymphs. They live underwater, breathing through gills and preying upon water insects, tadpoles, small fish, and even other nymphs. They hunt by hiding in the shadows at the bottom of a pond or stream, waiting for prey animals to swim by. They have a special lip that they can extend far forward in order to grab their prey when it comes close. Depending on the species, they live this way for several months or even several years. As the nymph grows, it sheds its skin several times. Finally, it leaves the water and sheds its skin one last time. The adult emerges, ready to live the next few weeks or months on land and in the air. The adults do not live for more than four months, and many species live as adults for only a few weeks.
The exceptional visual abilities and flying skills of dragonflies and damselflies make them very adept hunters. Their special eyes give them a nearly 360-degree field of vision, and they can detect even the smallest movement or flash of light caused by other flying insects. They have two sets of wings that can move independently of each other. This gives them great maneuverability in the air, which is important to these creatures because they catch their prey while flying. They can hover, make sharp turns, and fly backward. Some species of dragonflies can fly 60 kilometers an hour or more. Their prey consists of flying insects such as mosquitoes, deerflies, smaller dragonflies, and butterflies and moths. One species of dragonfly takes spiders out of their webs.
Bloodthirsty predators that they are, dragonflies and damselflies are prey for other animals in their turn. The nymphs are eaten by fish, frogs, toads, and other aquatic creatures. In the adult stage, they are hunted by birds, frogs, and larger dragonflies and damselflies. They might also be caught in a spider’s web. What goes around comes around.
Questions 1–6
Which of the facts below are true of dragonflies, and which are true of damselflies, according to the information in the passage? Choose A–C.
List of Options
A if it is a fact about dragonflies only
B if it is a fact about damselflies only
C if it is a fact about both dragonflies and damselflies
1. They have sawlike jaws.
2. They hold their wings on their backs while resting.
3. Their eyes have a gap between them.
4. They can be seen in fields at a distance from ponds and streams.
5. The largest species has a wingspan of 19 centimeters.
6. The largest fossil has a wingspan of 75 centimeters.
Questions 7–13
Complete the notes about the life cycle of odonata below. Choose your answers from the box below.
List of Words
A in the air
B with their lips
C tadpoles
D fliers
E near the water’s surface
F nymphs
G at the bottom of a pond
H months or years
I weeks or months
J swimmers
K with their wings
7. The eggs are laid ………………………….
8. The young dragonflies and damselflies, called …………………………,
9. live underwater for a few ………………………….
10. They eat small water animals, catching their food ………………………….
11. When they are almost fully grown, they leave the water. The adults live for only a few ………………………….
12. They are skillful …………………………
13. and catch their prey ………………………….
History of Fire Fighting and Prevention
More than two thousand years ago, Roman emperor Augustus organized a group of watchmen whose job was mainly to look out for fires and sound an alarm in the event of one. For many centuries that followed, fire equipment was limited to buckets of water that got passed from person to person. The ax was later found to be a useful tool both for removing fuel in large fires and for opening holes to allow smoke and flames to escape from burning buildings. Watchmen also learned to create firebreaks with long hooked poles and ropes in order to pull down structures that provided fuel for a fire. In 1066, in order to reduce the risk of fire in thatched-roof houses, King William the Conqueror made a ruling: Citizens had to extinguish their cooking fires at night. His term couvre-feu, meaning “cover fire,” is the origin of the modern day term curfew, which no longer carries a literal translation.
The event that had the largest influence in the history of fire fighting was the Great Fire of London in 1666. The devastating blaze originated at the King’s Bakery near the London Bridge. At the onset, Lord Mayor Bludworth showed little concern for the fire, assuming it would extinguish itself before he could organize a group of men to attend to it. However, the summer of 1666 had been uncharacteristically hot and dry, and the wooden houses nearby caught fire quickly. Within a short time, the wind had carried the fire across the city, burning down over 300 houses in its path. Although the procedure of pulling down buildings to prevent a fire from spreading was standard in Britain, the mayor grew concerned over the cost it would involve to rebuild the city and ordered that the surrounding structures be left intact. By the time the king ordered the destruction of buildings in the fire’s path, the fire was too large to control. It was not until the Duke of York ordered the Paper House to be destroyed in order to create a crucial firebreak that the London fire finally began to lose its fuel.
When it became clear that four-fifths of the city had been destroyed by the fire, drastic measures were taken in London to create a system of organized fire prevention. At the hands of architects such as Christopher Wren, most of London was rebuilt using stone and brick, materials that were far less flammable than wood and straw. Because of the long history of fires in London, those who could afford to build new homes and businesses began to seek insurance for their properties. As insurance became a profitable business, companies soon realized the monetary benefits of hiring men to extinguish fires. In the early years of insurance companies, all insured properties were marked with an insurance company’s name or logo. If a fire broke out and a building did not contain the insurance mark, the fire brigades were called away and the building was left to burn.
The British insurance companies were largely responsible for employing people to develop new technology for extinguishing fires. The first fire engines were simple tubs on wheels that were pulled to the location of the fire, with water being supplied by a bucket brigade. Eventually, a hand pump was designed to push the water out of the tub into a hose with a nozzle. The pump allowed for a steady stream of water to shoot through a hose directly at the fire source. Before long, companies began to utilize water pipes made from hollowed tree trunks that were built under the roadway. By digging down into the road, firemen could insert a hole into the tree-trunk pipe and access the water to feed into the pump.
Fire fighting became a competitive business, as companies fought to be the first to arrive at a scene to access the water pipes. After a series of fires destroyed parts of London, fire-fighting companies were forced to reconsider their intentions. By the eighteenth century, fire brigades began to join forces, and in 1833 the Sun Insurance Company along with ten other London companies created the London Fire Engine Establishment. In 1865, the government became involved, bringing standards to both fire prevention and fire fighting and establishing London’s Metropolitan Fire Brigade. Though the firemen were well paid, they were constantly on duty and thus obliged to call their fire station home for both themselves and their families.
New technology for fighting fires continued to develop in both Europe and the New World. Leather hoses with couplings that joined the lengths together were hand-sewn in the Netherlands and used until the late 1800s, when rubber hoses became available. The technology for steam engine fire trucks was available in Britain and America in 1829, but most brigades were hesitant to use them until the 1850s. It was the public that eventually forced the brigades into putting the more efficient equipment to use. In the early 1900s, when the internal-combustion engine was developed, the trucks became motorized. This was a timely advancement in fire-fighting history, as World War I put added pressure on brigades throughout the world.
Questions 14–20
Complete the chart below. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text for each answer.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Men used poles and ropes to pull down buildings near a fire. | The fire did not have (14) …………………………. |
| Thatched-roof houses burn down easily. | The King ordered people to (15) ………………………… their fires nightly. |
| At the time of the Great Fire of London, the weather was _____. | The fire spread quickly. |
| The Mayor of London thought it would be too expensive to _____. | He told people not to pull down buildings in the fire’s path. |
| The Great Fire destroyed most of London. | People built new buildings out of (18) …………………………. |
| There had been many _____ in London over time. | People started to buy insurance to protect their homes. |
| Insurance companies did not want to pay for rebuilding clients’ houses destroyed by fire. | Insurance companies hired men to (20) …………………………. |
Questions 21–23
Choose the correct letters, A–C.
21. The first fire engines
A carried water to the site of the fire.
B used hand pumps.
C had very long hoses.
22. In 1865,
A London was destroyed by a series of fires.
B fire brigades began to join forces.
C the Metropolitan Fire Brigade was established.
23. Firemen who worked for the Metropolitan Fire Brigade
A earned low salaries.
B lived at the fire station.
C were not allowed to marry.
Questions 24–26
Do the following statements agree with the information in the reading passage?
YESif the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NOif the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVENif it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
24. Leather hoses for fire fighting were made by machine.
25. Steam engine fire trucks were used until the early 1900s.
26. Fires caused a great deal of damage in London during World War I.
The Luddites
The term Luddite is used to refer to a person who is opposed to new technology. The word derives from the name Ned Ludd, a man who may or may not have actually existed. The original Luddites were textile workers in early nineteenth-century England who protested changes brought on by the industrial revolution. These weavers made lace and stockings by hand, carrying out their craft independently in their homes according to traditional methods. In the 1800s, automated power looms and stocking frames were introduced, radically changing the traditional work system. Weavers’ work was moved from individual homes to factories; individuals could not afford to buy the new machines for themselves. The new machines were not difficult to run. They could be operated by unskilled workers and turned out an inferior product, but they produced large quantities cheaply, which was the aim of the new factory owners. The makers of finely crafted, handmade textiles could not compete with the new machines. Instead of continuing their tradition as skilled, independent workers, they would have to go to work in factories for low wages.
The industrial revolution was happening everywhere. In the textile-producing towns of England, workers focused on the new weaving machines as the source of their troubles. The height of Luddite activity occurred in the years 1811–1812. Groups of men, often in disguise, would arrive at a factory and make demands for higher wages and better working conditions. If these demands were not met, the group retaliated by smashing the factory machines. These groups often claimed that they were working under the command of General Ned Ludd, and thus came to be called Luddites.
Who was Ned Ludd? Rumors about this mysterious person abounded. He came to be associated with that traditional champion of the poor, Robin Hood. The original Luddite activity was centered around Nottingham, and many said that Ned Ludd hid out in nearby Sherwood Forest, just as the legendary Robin Hood had. According to another tradition, Ned Ludd was a weaver who had accidentally broken two stocking frames, and from that, came to be the one blamed any time an expensive piece of weaving equipment was damaged. Whoever Ned Ludd may or may not have been, riots protesting the new factories were carried out in his name throughout England’s textile-producing region.
Workers’ families suffered as wages fell and food prices rose. There were food riots in several towns, and Luddite activity spread. In the winter of 1812, the Frame-Breaking Act was passed, making the destruction of factory equipment a crime punishable by death. The government sent thousands of troops into areas affected by the riots. In the spring of that year, several factory owners were killed during Luddite riots, and a number of textile workers died as well. Following one of the largest incidents, when rioters set fire to a mill in Westhoughton, four rioters, including a young boy, were executed. In another incident that spring, a group of over a thousand workers attacked a mill in Lancashire with sticks and rocks. When they were beaten back by armed guards protecting the mill, they moved to the mill owner’s house and burned it down. The wave of violence resulted in a crack down by the government. Suspected Luddites were arrested and imprisoned, and many of them were hanged.
By the summer of 1812, Luddite activity had begun to die down, although there continued to be sporadic incidents over the next several years. In 1816, a bad harvest and economic downturn led to a small revival of rioting. In June of that year, workers attacked two mills, smashing equipment and causing thousands of dollars worth of damage. Government troops were brought in to stop the violence. In the end, six of the rioters were executed for their participation. However, rioting never again reached the levels it had in 1811 and 1812.
The Luddites were short-lived, but they left an impressive mark. They were responsible for destroying close to one thousand weaving machines during the height of their activity in 1811–1812, as well as burning down several factories. Beyond the physical damage, however, they left their mark in people’s minds. The famed English novelist Charlotte Brontë set her novel Shirley in Yorkshire at the time of the riots. This novel is still widely read today. In our present time of rapid technological change, people who are concerned about the pace of technological advance often call themselves Neo-Luddites. Although the responses to it may differ, concern about the changes brought on by technology continues.
Questions 27–32
Match each cause in List A with its effect in List B. Choose A–J. There are more effects in List B than you will need, so you will not use them all.
List B – Effects
A Troops were sent into the area.
B Weavers stopped working at home and went to work in factories.
C Rioters often wore disguises.
D Workers destroyed factory equipment.
E Many rioters were hanged.
F Charlotte Brontë wrote a novel about the Luddites.
G Prices went up, and salaries went down.
H Factory owners did not need to hire skilled weavers.
I Luddite rioting resumed for a short while.
J People compared Ned Ludd to Robin Hood.
27. The new weaving machines were expensive to buy.
28. The new weaving machines were easy to operate.
29. Workers’ demands for better pay and conditions were not met.
30. Rioting spread to many towns.
31. A law was passed against destroying factory equipment.
32. Economic conditions worsened in 1816.
Questions 33–40
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage?
TRUEif the statement agrees with the information
FALSEif the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVENif there is no information on this
33. A Luddite is a person who resists new technology.
34. Before the nineteenth century, weavers made lace by hand.
35. Factory owners as well as workers died as a result of Luddite rioting.
36. The Luddite movement did not spread beyond England.
37. Nobody knows for certain who Ned Ludd was.
38. Worker protests during the economic downturn of 1816 were nonviolent.
39. Luddite activity lasted for many years.
40. Neo-Luddites do not use computers.
Answers
1. C
2. B
3. B
4. A
5. C
6. A
7. near the water’s surface
8. nymphs
9. months or years
10. with their lips
11. weeks or months
12. fliers
13. in the air
14. fuel
15. extinguish
16. hot and dry
17. rebuild the city
18. stone and brick
19. fires
20. extinguish fires
21. carried water to the site of the fire.
22. the Metropolitan Fire Brigade was established.
23. lived at the fire station.
24. No
25. Yes
26. Not Given
27. B
28. H
29. D
30. A
31. E
32. I
33. True
34. True
35. True
36. Not Given
37. True
38. False
39. False
40. Not Given
Explanations
- 1. C
- The answer is C because the sentence naming the jaws covers both insects at once: 'Dragonflies and damselflies get their name from the powerful serrated jaws...'. The statement's 'sawlike' is a paraphrase of 'serrated' (a serrated edge is a saw edge), and 'jaws' is repeated directly. Because the subject of that sentence is the pair, not one of them, neither A nor B can be right.Common trap: Paraphrase recognition (‘sawlike’ ← ‘serrated’) plus spotting that the sentence names both insects.
- 2. B
- The answer is B because only damselflies 'fold their wings back', which is what 'hold their wings on their backs while resting' describes; dragonflies do the opposite and hold them 'out to the side'. The passage sentence contrasts the two directly, so the trap is answering C after seeing both names in one sentence.Common trap: Contrast sentence containing both insects — only one half matches.
- 3. B
- The answer is B: the passage says damselflies' eyes have 'a space between them', which is what 'a gap between them' means. Dragonflies are described in the previous sentence as having eyes 'so close together that they touch each other' — the exact opposite — so A is contradicted.Common trap: Distractor in the immediately preceding sentence describing the opposite insect.
- 4. A
- The answer is A because it is dragonflies that 'can be found in woods and fields away from the water'. The statement's 'at a distance from ponds and streams' paraphrases 'away from the water'. Damselflies are explicitly said to stay 'around the edges of ponds and streams' and not to 'fly far from the water', which rules out B and C.Common trap: Similar detail in a nearby sentence — ‘ponds and streams’ actually appears in the damselfly sentence.
- 5. C
- The answer is C because the 19-centimeter record is shared: the largest living odonata are a dragonfly and a damselfly, and 'each of these species' has that wingspan. 'The largest species' in the question maps onto 'The largest odonata living today', so the fact is true of both groups.Common trap: Number-matching trap — the paragraph also gives 20 millimeters and 75 centimeters for other insects.
- 6. A
- The answer is A because the 75-centimeter fossil is specifically 'The largest dragonfly fossil ever found'. No damselfly fossil is mentioned anywhere in the passage, so the fact belongs to dragonflies only and C is wrong.Common trap: Adjacent-sentence confusion with Q5, where the same paragraph gives a figure that does apply to both.
- 7. near the water’s surface
- Option E is correct because the passage says the eggs are laid 'on or just below the surface of the water' — 'on or just below the surface' is exactly what 'near the water’s surface' summarises. The other water-related option, 'at the bottom of a pond', describes where the nymphs later hunt, not where the eggs go.Common trap: Distractor from a later sentence — ‘at the bottom of a pond’ belongs to hunting, not egg-laying.
- 8. nymphs
- Option F is correct: the passage calls the newly hatched young 'nymphs'. The note's 'The young dragonflies and damselflies' restates 'The babies... in the form of nymphs'. 'Tadpoles' is a decoy — tadpoles appear in the passage only as something the nymphs eat.Common trap: Word plucked from the wrong role — ‘tadpoles’ are prey, not the young odonata.
- 9. months or years
- Option H is correct because the underwater nymph stage lasts 'several months or even several years'. The note's 'live underwater for a few _____' matches that duration. The similar option 'weeks or months' describes the adult stage on land, later in the same paragraph.Common trap: Near-identical distractor — ‘weeks or months’ belongs to the adult stage (Q11).
- 10. with their lips
- Option B is correct: nymphs catch prey with 'a special lip that they can extend far forward'. 'Catching their food' paraphrases 'to grab their prey'. 'With their wings' is impossible here because nymphs are still underwater and wingless.Common trap: Word-form trap — the passage says ‘lip’ (singular); the option pluralises it to ‘lips’.
- 11. weeks or months
- Option I is correct because the adult stage lasts 'the next few weeks or months'; the passage adds that adults never live more than four months. The note's 'The adults live for only a few _____' echoes 'ready to live the next few...'. 'Months or years' is the nymph stage, not the adult one.Common trap: Mirror-image distractor — easy to swap with ‘months or years’ from Q9.
- 12. fliers
- Option D is correct because 'skillful' restates 'exceptional... flying skills' and 'very adept', and the noun the passage supports is 'fliers' (it also calls damselflies 'not such strong fliers' in paragraph 2). 'Swimmers' is not supported — the passage never praises adult odonata as swimmers.Common trap: Unsupported plausible option — ‘swimmers’ sounds reasonable for a water insect but is never claimed.
- 13. in the air
- Option A is correct: adults 'catch their prey while flying', and the same sentence locates that manoeuvring 'in the air'. 'While flying' and 'in the air' are direct equivalents. 'With their wings' is a trap — the wings provide the manoeuvrability, but the prey is seized in flight, not with the wings.Common trap: Mechanism-vs-location trap — wings enable the flight, but the answer asked for where.
- 14. fuel
- The answer is 'fuel'. Pulling structures down with 'long hooked poles and ropes' created a firebreak precisely because those structures 'provided fuel for a fire' — remove them and the fire no longer has fuel. The chart's cause cell reuses the passage's 'poles and ropes', so the missing effect is the loss of that fuel.Common trap: Paraphrase recognition — ‘firebreak’ is the mechanism, but the word the gap needs is what the fire lost.
- 15. extinguish
- The answer is 'extinguish'. The chart's cause, 'Thatched-roof houses burn down easily', matches 'in order to reduce the risk of fire in thatched-roof houses', and the ruling was that citizens 'had to extinguish their cooking fires at night' — 'nightly' paraphrases 'at night'.Common trap: Word-form / part-of-speech trap — the gap follows ‘ordered people to’, so it needs the base verb, not ‘extinguished’ or ‘curfew’.
- 16. hot and dry
- The answer is 'hot and dry'. The chart pairs the weather with the effect 'The fire spread quickly', and the passage attributes the quick spread to a summer that 'had been uncharacteristically hot and dry'. The adverb 'uncharacteristically' is not part of the weather description itself and would also break the three-word limit if added to both adjectives.Common trap: Over-copying trap — including ‘uncharacteristically’ exceeds NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.
- 17. rebuild the city
- The answer is 'rebuild the city'. The chart's effect — he told people not to pull down buildings — matches 'ordered that the surrounding structures be left intact', and the reason given is that 'the mayor grew concerned over the cost it would involve to rebuild the city'. 'Too expensive' paraphrases 'concerned over the cost'.Common trap: Distractor from an adjacent clause — ‘pull down buildings’ is the effect, not what was expensive.
- 18. stone and brick
- The answer is 'stone and brick'. After the fire destroyed most of the city, London 'was rebuilt using stone and brick'. The chart's 'People built new buildings out of _____' asks for the building materials, and the contrasting pair 'wood and straw' names what was used before, not after.Common trap: Similar detail in the same sentence — ‘wood and straw’ is the old material, not the new one.
- 19. fires
- The answer is 'fires'. The effect cell ('People started to buy insurance to protect their homes') restates 'began to seek insurance for their properties', and the stated cause is 'the long history of fires in London'. The chart's 'over time' paraphrases 'long history'.Common trap: Paraphrase recognition — ‘long history’ becomes ‘over time’, leaving only the plural noun for the gap.
- 20. extinguish fires
- The answer is 'extinguish fires'. The passage says insurance companies 'realized the monetary benefits of hiring men to extinguish fires' — cheaper than paying out for burned houses, which is the cause cell. 'Hired men to' in the chart mirrors 'hiring men to' exactly, so only the purpose phrase is missing.Common trap: Over-copying trap — ‘hiring men to extinguish fires’ repeats words already printed in the chart.
- 21. carried water to the site of the fire.
- Option A is correct because the earliest engines were 'simple tubs on wheels that were pulled to the location of the fire' — that is, water carried to the site. Options B and C describe the hand pump and hose that the passage explicitly introduces later ('Eventually, a hand pump was designed...'), so they belong to a subsequent stage of the technology.Common trap: Chronology trap — later developments in the same paragraph presented as features of the first engines.
- 22. the Metropolitan Fire Brigade was established.
- Option C is correct because the sentence beginning 'In 1865' ends with 'establishing London’s Metropolitan Fire Brigade'. The other two options are real events from the same paragraph but carry different dates — joining forces happened 'by the eighteenth century' and in 1833.Common trap: Date-matching trap — three dated events (18th century, 1833, 1865) crowded into one paragraph.
- 23. lived at the fire station.
- Option B is correct: being 'obliged to call their fire station home' means they lived at the station. A is contradicted by 'well paid', and C is contradicted by the mention of 'their families' living there too.Common trap: Concession-clause trap — ‘Though the firemen were well paid’ can be misread as a complaint about pay.
- 24. No
- NO — the passage directly contradicts the statement. It says the leather hoses were 'hand-sewn in the Netherlands', and hand-sewn is the opposite of 'made by machine'. This is a contradiction, not a silence, so it cannot be NOT GIVEN.Common trap: False vs Not Given confusion — the contradicting word ‘hand-sewn’ is a single compound easily skimmed past.
- 25. Yes
- YES — the passage supports the statement across two sentences: brigades took up steam engine trucks from the 1850s, and it was only 'In the early 1900s, when the internal-combustion engine was developed' that 'the trucks became motorized'. So steam trucks were in service right up to the early 1900s, when the combustion engine replaced them.Common trap: Multi-sentence inference — the end date has to be read off the sentence about what replaced them.
- 26. Not Given
- NOT GIVEN — World War I is mentioned only as having 'put added pressure on brigades throughout the world'. The passage says nothing about how much damage fires did in London during the war, and 'added pressure on brigades' is not the same claim. Since nothing contradicts the statement either, it is NOT GIVEN rather than NO.Common trap: False vs Not Given confusion — the topic (World War I, fire brigades) appears, but the specific claim does not.
- 27. B
- B is correct because the cost of the machines is exactly why the work relocated: 'individuals could not afford to buy the new machines for themselves', so 'Weavers’ work was moved from individual homes to factories'. 'Expensive to buy' paraphrases 'could not afford to buy'.Common trap: Distractor from the same paragraph — H (no need for skilled weavers) is caused by ease of operation, not cost.
- 28. H
- H is correct: because the machines 'were not difficult to run', they 'could be operated by unskilled workers' — which is precisely why factory owners no longer needed skilled weavers. 'Easy to operate' is a positive restatement of 'not difficult to run'.Common trap: Paraphrase recognition through a double negative (‘not difficult’ → ‘easy’).
- 29. D
- D is correct because the passage states the consequence explicitly: when demands were refused, 'the group retaliated by smashing the factory machines'. 'Workers destroyed factory equipment' paraphrases 'smashing the factory machines'.Common trap: Nearby distractor — C (disguises) sits in the same sentence pair but is not an effect of the refusal.
- 30. A
- A is correct: once riots had spread through several towns, 'The government sent thousands of troops into areas affected by the riots'. 'Troops were sent into the area' restates that directly. The Frame-Breaking Act sentence sits between the two, which is what makes this pairing easy to misread.Common trap: Distractor from an intervening sentence — the Frame-Breaking Act belongs to Q31, not Q30.
- 31. E
- E is correct because the law made machine-breaking 'a crime punishable by death', and the passage later records the result: 'Suspected Luddites were arrested and imprisoned, and many of them were hanged.' The law is the cause; the hangings are its effect.Common trap: Cause-effect spread over two paragraphs — the linking word ‘death’ must be tied to ‘hanged’.
- 32. I
- I is correct: 'a bad harvest and economic downturn' in 1816 'led to a small revival of rioting'. 'Luddite rioting resumed for a short while' paraphrases 'a small revival of rioting', and the passage confirms it was short-lived — rioting 'never again reached the levels it had in 1811 and 1812'.Common trap: Distractor G — rising prices and falling wages describe 1812, not the 1816 downturn.
- 33. True
- TRUE — the opening sentence defines a Luddite as 'a person who is opposed to new technology'. 'Resists' is a direct synonym of 'is opposed to', so the statement restates the definition without adding anything.Common trap: Straightforward paraphrase — the only risk is over-thinking a definition given verbatim.
- 34. True
- TRUE — the passage says these weavers 'made lace and stockings by hand' using 'traditional methods', and the machines that ended the practice were only 'introduced' 'In the 1800s'. So hand-weaving of lace is what existed before the nineteenth century.Common trap: Date inference — ‘before the nineteenth century’ must be read against ‘In the 1800s... introduced’.
- 35. True
- TRUE — the sentence names both groups: 'several factory owners were killed during Luddite riots, and a number of textile workers died as well.' The statement simply reverses the order in which the two groups are listed.Common trap: Order reversal — the statement lists the groups in the opposite order to the passage.
- 36. Not Given
- NOT GIVEN — the passage places the Luddites in England and notes that 'The industrial revolution was happening everywhere', but it never says whether the movement itself reached other countries. Because the passage neither confirms nor denies spread beyond England, this is NOT GIVEN rather than TRUE.Common trap: False vs Not Given confusion — the passage’s exclusive focus on England is not the same as a statement that it stayed there.
- 37. True
- TRUE — Ned Ludd 'may or may not have actually existed', 'Rumors about this mysterious person abounded', and the passage offers two competing traditions about him. That uncertainty is exactly what 'Nobody knows for certain' expresses.Common trap: Hedged language — ‘may or may not’ signals uncertainty, which some readers treat as Not Given.
- 38. False
- FALSE — the passage contradicts 'nonviolent' outright: in 1816 workers 'attacked two mills, smashing equipment', troops were 'brought in to stop the violence', and six rioters were executed. The information is present and opposite, so it is FALSE, not NOT GIVEN.Common trap: False vs Not Given confusion — the contradiction is explicit, including the word ‘violence’.
- 39. False
- FALSE — the passage says plainly that 'The Luddites were short-lived'. Activity peaked in 1811–1812 and 'had begun to die down' by the summer of 1812, with only 'sporadic incidents' afterwards. 'Many years' contradicts 'short-lived'.Common trap: Sporadic-incidents trap — the mention of later incidents can be misread as a long-running movement.
- 40. Not Given
- NOT GIVEN — Neo-Luddites are described only as 'concerned about the pace of technological advance', and the passage adds that 'the responses to it may differ'. Nothing is said about whether they use computers, so the statement can be neither confirmed nor contradicted.Common trap: False vs Not Given confusion — an assumption about behaviour that the passage deliberately leaves open.
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