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British Council Academic Reading Practice Test One Passage Three Answer Explained
Time Travel
You can find the passage in here.
I would recommend you open both the passage and my website together after you have tried to solve the passage. This approach can help you become familiarized with the pattern of answers and paraphrasing that Cambridge utilizes to create the IELTS reading tests.
Questions 28–33
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?
True – if the statement agrees with the information
False – if the statement contradicts the information
Not Given – if there is no information on this
28. It is unclear where neutrinos come from.
The answer is FALSE.
In the first paragraph, time travel took a small step away from science fiction and toward science recently when physicists discovered that sub-atomic particles known as neutrinos – progeny of the sun’s radioactive debris – can exceed the speed of light.
29. Neutrinos can pass through a person’s body without causing harm.
The answer is TRUE.
In the first paragraph, the unassuming particle – it is electrically neutral, small but with a “non-zero mass” and able to penetrate the human form undetected – is on its way to becoming a rock star of the scientific world.
30. It took scientists between 50-70 nanoseconds to send the neutrinos from Geneva to Italy.
The answer is NOT GIVEN.
In the second paragraph, the neutrinos arrived promptly – so promptly, in fact, that they triggered what scientists are calling the unthinkable – that everything they have learnt, known or taught stemming from the last one hundred years of the physics discipline may need to be reconsidered.
31. Researchers accounted for effects the moon might have had on the experiment.
The answer is TRUE.
In the third paragraph, the duration of the experiment also accounted for and ruled out any possible lunar effects or tidal bulges in the earth’s crust.
32. The theory of relativity has often been called into question unsuccessfully.
The answer is TRUE.
In the fourth paragraph, yet each prior challenge has come to no avail, and relativity has so far refused to buckle.
33. This experiment could soon lead to some practical uses for time travel
The answer is FALSE.
In the fifth paragraph, how anyone harnesses that to some kind of helpful end is far beyond the scope of any modern technologies, however, and will be left to future generations to explore.
Questions 34–39
Complete the table below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
| Original Theorist | Theory | Principle |
| René Barjavel | Grandfather paradox | Time travel would allow for 34 …………… that would actually make time travel impossible. |
| Igor Novikov | Self-consistency principle | It is only possible to alter history in ways that result in no 35 ………………… . |
| 36 ……………… | Many-worlds interpretation | Each possible event has an 37 …………………, so a time traveller changing the past would simply end up in a different branch of history than the one he left. |
| Unknown | 38 ……………… | If a time traveller changed the past to prevent his future life, he would not have a 39 ………………… as the person never existed. |
34. past actions
In the sixth paragraph, in other words, there is a paradox in circumventing an already known future; time travel is able to facilitate past actions that mean time travel itself cannot occur.
35. inconsistencies
In the seventh paragraph, it would be possible, however, to “affect” rather than “change” historical outcomes if travelers avoided all inconsistencies.
36. Hugh Everett
In the eighth paragraph, popularized by Bryce Seligman DeWitt in the 1960s (from the seminal formulation of Hugh Everett), the many-worlds interpretation holds that an alternative pathway for every conceivable occurrence actually exists.
37. alternative pathway
In the eighth paragraph, popularized by Bryce Seligman DeWitt in the 1960s (from the seminal formulation of Hugh Everett), the many-worlds interpretation holds that an alternative pathway for every conceivable occurrence actually exists.
38. non-existence theory
In the ninth paragraph, non-existence theory suggests exactly that – a person would quite simply never exist if they altered their ancestry in ways that obstructed their own birth.
39. historical identity
In the ninth paragraph, their “historical identity” would be gone.
Question 40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Stephen Hawking has stated that
C. Human time travel might be possible, but only moving forward in time.
In the tenth paragraph, world-renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking believes that once spaceships can exceed the speed of light, humans could feasibly travel millions of years into the future in order to repopulate earth in the event of a forthcoming apocalypse.