Magy's English Edu. Club
Cambridge 11 Academic Reading Test Four Passage Three
'This Marvellous Invention'
Reading Passage 3 has six paragraphs, A—F.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A–F from the list of headings.
27. Paragraph A
The answer is VI. > Why language is the most important invention of all
In paragraph one, compared to language, all other inventions pale in significance, since everything we have ever achieved depends on language and originates from it.
28. Paragraph B
The answer is IV. > Apparently incompatible characteristics of language
In paragraph two, in its own right it is a tool of extraordinary sophistication, yet based on an idea of ingenious simplicity: ‘this marvelous invention of composing out of twenty-five or thirty sounds that infinite variety of expressions which, whilst having in themselves no likeness to what is in our mind, allow us to disclose to others its whole secret, and to make known to those who cannot penetrate it all that we imagine, and all the various stirrings of our soul.
29. Paragraph C
The answer is II. > The way in which a few sounds are organized to convey a huge range of meaning
In paragraph three, wood in themselves, these configurations of mouth – p, f, b, v, t, d, k, g, sh, a, e, and so on – amount to nothing more than a few haphazard spits and splitters, random noises with no meaning, no ability to express, no power to explain. But run through the cogs and wheels of the language machine, let it arrange them in some very special orders, and there is nothing that these meaningless streams of air cannot do: from sighing the interminable boredom of existence to unraveling the fundamental order of the universe.
30. Paragraph D
The answer is VII. > The universal ability to use language
In paragraph four, the language machine allows just about everybody – from pre-modern foragers in the subtropical savannah, to post-modern philosophers in the suburban sprawl – to tie these meaningless sounds together into an infinite variety of subtle senses, and all apparently without the slightest exertion.
31. Paragraph E
The answer is I. > Differences between languages highlight their impressiveness
In paragraph five, often, it is only the estrangement of foreign tongues, with their many exotic and outlandish features, that brings home the wonder of language’s design.
32. Paragraph F
The answer is V. > Even silence can be meaningful
In paragraph six, this sleek design allows single sounds to convey useful information, and in fact even the absence of a sound has been enlisted to express something specific.
Complete the summary using the list of words, A–G.
The importance of language
33 and 34. The wheel is one invention that has had a major impact on ….. aspects of life, but no impact has been as …… as that of language.
The answer is E. > MATERIAL
The answer is G. > FUNDAMENTAL
In paragraph one, other inventions – the wheel, agriculture, sliced bread – may have transformed our material existence, but the advent of language is what made us human. Compared to language, all other inventions pale in significance, since everything we have ever achieved depends on language and originates from it.
35. Language is very ……., yet composed of just a small number of sounds.
The answer is B. > COMPLEX
In paragraph two, in its own right it is a tool of extraordinary sophistication, yet based on an idea of ingenious simplicity.
36. Language appears to be ……. to use. However, its sophistication is often overlooked.
The answer is F. > EASY
In paragraph two, in its own right it is a tool of extraordinary sophistication, yet based on an idea of ingenious simplicity.
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
Write YES, NO, or NOT GIVEN.
37. Human beings might have achieved their present position without language.
The answer is NO.
In paragraph one, compared to language, all other inventions pale in significance, since everything we have ever achieved depends on language and originates from it.
38. The Port-Royal grammarians did justice to the nature of language.
The answer is YES.
In paragraph two, this is how, in 1660, the renowned French grammarians of the Port-Royal abbey near Versailles distilled the essence of language, and no one since has celebrated more eloquently the magnitude of its achievement.
39. A complex idea can be explained more clearly in a sentence than in a single word.
The answer is NOT GIVEN.
In paragraph six, this sleek design allows single sounds to convey useful information, and in fact even the absence of a sound has been enlisted to express something specific.
40. The Sumerians were responsible for starting the recording of events.
The answer is YES.
In paragraph six, and if that sounds like some one-off freak, then consider Sumerian, the language spoken on the banks of the Euphrates some 5,000 years ago by the people who invented writing and thus enabled the documentation of history.