Magy's English Edu. Club
Cambridge 11 Academic Reading Test Three Passage One
The story of silk
Complete the notes.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Early silk production in China
Around 3000 BC, according to legend:
1. silkworm cocoon fell into emperor’s wife’s ……
The answer is TEA.
In paragraph one, it just so happened that while she was sipping some tea, one of the cocoons that she had collected landed in the hot tea and started to unravel into a fine thread.
2. emperor’s wife invented a …… to pull out silk fibers
The answer is REEL.
In paragraph one, she also devised a special reel to draw the fibers from the cocoon into a single thread so that they would be strong enough to be woven into fabric.
3. Only ….. were allowed to produce silk
The answer is WOMEN.
In paragraph two, originally, silkworm farming was solely restricted to women, and it was they who were responsible for the growing, harvesting and weaving.
4. Only ….. were allowed to wear silk
The answer is ROYALTY.
In paragraph two, silk quickly grew into a symbol of status, and originally, only royalty were entitled to have clothes made of silk.
5. Silk used as a form of …..
The answer is CURRENCY.
In paragraph two, sometime during the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), silk was so prized that it was also used as a unit of currency.
6. e.g. evidence found of ….. made from silk around 168 AD
The answer is PAPER.
In paragraph two, the earliest indication of silk paper being used was discovered in the tomb of a noble who is estimated to have died around 168 AD.
Silk reached rest of world
7. merchants use Silk Road to take silk westward and bring back ….. and precious metals
The answer is WOOL.
In paragraph three, demand for this exotic fabric eventually created the lucrative trade route now known as the Silk Road, taking silk westward and bringing gold, silver and wool to the East.
8. 550 AD: …… hide silkworm eggs in canes and take them to Constantinople
The answer is MONKS.
In paragraph four, according to another legend, monks working for the Byzantine emperor Justinian smuggled silkworm eggs to Constantinople (Istanbul in modern-day Turkey) in 550 AD, concealed inside hollow bamboo walking canes.
9. 20th century: …. and other manmade fibers cause decline in silk production
The answer is NYLON.
In paragraph five, then in the twentieth century, new manmade fibers, such as nylon, started to be used in what had traditionally been silk products, such as stockings and parachutes.
Do the following statements agree with the information in Reading Passage 1? Write TRUE, FALSE, or NOT GIVEN.
10. Gold was the most valuable material transported along the Silk Road.
The answer is FALSE.
In paragraph three, it was named the Silk Road after its most precious commodity, which was considered to be worth more than gold.
11. Most tradesmen only went along certain sections of the Silk Road.
The answer is TRUE.
In paragraph three, few merchants traveled the entire route; goods were handled mostly by a series of middlemen.
12. The Byzantines spread the practice of silk production across the West.
The answer is FALSE.
In paragraph four, the Byzantines were as secretive as the Chinese, however, and for many centuries the weaving and trading of silk was a strict imperial monopoly.
13. Silk yarn makes up the majority of silk currently exported from China.
The answer is NOT GIVEN.
In paragraph five, however, in more recent decades, China has gradually recaptured its position as the world’s biggest producer and exporter of raw silk and silk yarn.