Cambridge IELTS Academic 18 Reading Test 2 Answers with Explanation / IELTS Academic Reading: Stonehenge , Living with artificial intelligence ,An ideal city

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1.

Cambridge IELTS 18 Reading Test 02

READING PASSAGE 1 

Stonehenge

Q	Answer	Keywords	Location in Passage (Paragraph, Line)	Text associated with the answer
1	(deer) antlers	tools made from	Stage 1 (Paragraph 2, Line 7)	"First, Neolithic* Britons used primitive tools, which may have been fashioned out of deer antlers, to dig a massive circular ditch and bank, or henge."
2	(timber) posts	deep pits	Stage 1 (Paragraph 2, Line 8)	"Deep pits dating back to that era and located within the circle may have once held a ring of timber posts, according to some scholars."
3	tree trunks	theories about the transportation of the bluestones	Stage 2 (Paragraph 4, Line 1)	"According to one long-standing theory among archaeologists, Stonehenge’s builders fashioned sledges and rollers out of tree trunks to lug the bluestones from the Preseli Hills."
4	oxen	theories about the transportation of the bluestones	Stage 2 (Paragraph 4, Line 4)	"More recent archaeological hypotheses have them transporting the bluestones with supersized wicker baskets on a combination of ball bearings and long grooved planks, hauled by oxen."
5	glaciers	geological	Stage 2 (Paragraph 5, Line 2)	"As early as the 1970s, geologists have been adding their voices to the debate over how Stonehenge came into being... some scientists have suggested that it was glaciers, not humans, that carried the bluestones to Salisbury Plain."
6	druids	theory about the builders	Builders (Paragraph 10, Line 2)	"But who were the builders of Stonehenge? In the 17th century, archaeologist John Aubrey made the claim that Stonehenge was the work of druids..."
7	burial	purpose	Purpose (Paragraph 13, Line 2)	"While there is consensus among the majority of modern scholars that Stonehenge once served the function of burial ground..."
8	calendar	purpose	Purpose (Paragraph 13, Line 5)	"In the 1960s, the astronomer Gerald Hawkins suggested that the cluster of megalithic stones operated as a form of calendar..."
9	TRUE	sandstone slabs placement	Stage 3 (Paragraph 8, Line 1)	"The third phase of construction took place around 2000 BCE. At this point, sandstone slabs – known as ‘sarsens’ – were arranged into an outer crescent or ring; some were assembled into the iconic three-pieced structures called trilithons that stand tall in the centre of Stonehenge."
10	FALSE	bluestones repositioned	Stage 3 (Paragraph 8, Line 5)	"Radiocarbon dating has revealed that work continued at Stonehenge until roughly 1600 BCE, with the bluestones in particular being repositioned multiple times."

11	FALSE	17th-century claim support	Builders (Paragraph 11, Line 4)	"Even today, people who identify as modern druids continue to gather at Stonehenge for the summer solstice. However, in the mid-20th century, radiocarbon dating demonstrated that Stonehenge stood more than 1,000 years before the Celts inhabited the region."
12	TRUE	objects discovered	Builders (Paragraph 12, Line 2)	"Many modern historians and archaeologists now agree that several distinct tribes of people contributed to Stonehenge... Bones, tools, and other artefacts found on the site seem to support this hypothesis."
13	NOT GIVEN	criticism of Gerald Hawkins' theory	Purpose (Paragraph 14)	No information is provided in the passage about the criticism of Gerald Hawkins' theory by other astronomers.

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 .

Living with artificial intelligence

Question Number	Answer	Keywords	Location in Passage (Paragraph, Line)	Text associated with the answer
14	C	AI, first paragraph	1st Paragraph, Line 6	"But many experts believe this restriction is very temporary. By mid-century, we may have artificial general intelligence (AGI) – machines that can achieve human-level performance on the full range of tasks that we ourselves can tackle."
15	A	second paragraph	2nd Paragraph, Line 1	"But many experts believe this restriction is very temporary. By mid-century, we may have artificial general intelligence (AGI) – machines that can achieve human-level performance on the full range of tasks that we ourselves can tackle."
16	B	story of King Midas	4th Paragraph, Line 5	"Folklore is full of tales of people who ask for the wrong thing, with disastrous consequences - King Midas, for example, might have wished that everything he touched turned to gold, but didn’t really intend this to apply to his breakfast."
17	D	fourth paragraph	4th Paragraph, Line 2	"So we need to create powerful AI machines that are ‘human-friendly’ - that have goals reliably aligned with our own values. One thing that makes this task difficult is that we are far from reliably human-friendly ourselves."
18	C	future of AI	5th Paragraph, Line 1	"For safety’s sake, then, we want the machines to be ethically as well as cognitively superhuman. We want them to aim for the moral high ground, not for the troughs in which many of us spend some of our time."
19	D	sixth paragraph	6th Paragraph, Line 1	"These issues might seem far-fetched, but they are to some extent already here. AI already has some input into how resources are used in our National Health Service (NHS) here in the UK, for example."
20	YES	machines and promoting community interests	6th Paragraph, Line 3	"Machines who are better than us at sticking to the moral high ground may be expected to discourage some of the lapses we presently take for granted. We might lose our freedom to discriminate in favor of our own communities, for example."
21	NOT GIVEN	silicon police and effectiveness	-	No information provided.
22	NO	prospect of independence being restricted	6th Paragraph, Line 7	"They might be so good at doing it that we won’t notice them; but few of us are likely to welcome such a future."
23	YES	collaboration for machines to act in our best interests	6th Paragraph, Line 3	"These issues might seem far-fetched, but they are to some extent already here. AI already has some input into how resources are used in our National Health Service (NHS) here in the UK, for example."
24	C	AI's role in health service	6th Paragraph, Line 3	"AI already has some input into how resources are used in our National Health Service (NHS) here in the UK, for example."
25	A	certain professionals and their authority	6th Paragraph, Line 6	"Since we’d want to ensure that people are treated equally and that policies are fair, the goals of AI would need to be specified correctly."

26

E

reduced professional authority

6th Paragraph, Line 6

"Since we’d want to ensure that people are treated equally and that policies are fair, the goals of AI would need to be specified correctly."

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 .

An ideal city

Question Number	Answer	Keywords	Location in Passage (Paragraph, Line)	Text associated with the answer
27	NOT GIVEN	Leonardo da Vinci, genius	-	-
28	NOT GIVEN	climate crisis, deaths, plague	-	-
29	TRUE	challenges, earlier times	3rd Paragraph, Line 1	"Today, the world is on the cusp of a climate crisis, which is predicted to cause widespread displacement, extinctions and death, if left unaddressed. Then, as now, radical solutions were called for to revolutionise the way people lived and safeguard humanity against catastrophe."
30	FALSE	ideal city, constructed, 15th century	5th Paragraph, Lines 1-2	"Following a typical Renaissance trend, he began to work on an ‘ideal city’ project, which – due to its excessive costs – would remain unfulfilled."
31	TRUE	poor town planning, major contributor, climate change	6th Paragraph, Line 1	"Although the Renaissance is renowned as an era of incredible progress in art and architecture, it is rarely noted that the 15th century also marked the birth of urbanism as a true academic discipline."
32	NOT GIVEN	Pienza, Ferrara, local people fought	-	-
33	FALSE	Leonardo da Vinci, neat, organised record	7th Paragraph, Lines 1-2	"It is not easy to identify a coordinated vision of Leonardo’s ideal city because of his disordered way of working with notes and sketches."
34	transport	Leonardo da Vinci, new city, Ticino River	8th Paragraph, Line 1	"He designed the city for the easy transport of goods and clean urban spaces."
35	staircases	Leonardo da Vinci, high-rise buildings	9th Paragraph, Line 4	"Leonardo wanted the city to be built on several levels, linked with vertical outdoor staircases."
36	engineering	Leonardo da Vinci, hydraulic plants, artificial canals	11th Paragraph, Lines 2-3	"But the true originality of Leonardo’s vision was its fusion of architecture and engineering."
37	rule	Leonardo da Vinci, width of streets, height of houses	12th Paragraph, Line 3	"Leonardo also thought that the width of the streets ought to match the average height of the adjacent houses: a rule still followed in many contemporary cities across Italy."
38	Roman	Leonardo da Vinci, Roman cities	13th Paragraph, Line 1	"Although some of these features existed in Roman cities..."
39	Paris	Leonardo da Vinci, 19th century, redesigned	13th Paragraph, Lines 6-7	"For example, the subdivision of the city by function- with services and infrastructures located in the lower levels and wide and well-ventilated boulevards and walkways above for residents – is an idea that can be found in Georges-Eugene Haussmann’s renovation of Paris under Emperor Napoleon III between 1853 and 1870."
40	outwards	Leonardo da Vinci, building approach	14th Paragraph, Line 2	"Today, Leonardo’s ideas are not simply valid, they actually suggest a way forward for urban planning."