ARCHITECTURE: Reaching for the Sky: reading answers and analysis
Modern architecture grew from the industrial age's new materials (steel, glass, reinforced concrete) and its crowded cities. Modernism and the International Style brought simple, functional forms, delayed by depression and war, then cheapened into poorly built high-rises. Conservation, High Tech and Post-Modernism followed, and the skyscraper defines the century.
Questions 29-40 · 12 marks · 2 question blocks
Where the answers sit
The table (29-35) moves through the passage decade by decade. The cause-and-effect matching (36-40) draws on the whole passage, ending with the skyscraper paragraph.
Questions 29-35
Use the dates as signposts. The old materials before the 18th century, the style introduced in the 1920s, the 1930s-50s style, what went wrong in the 1960s, what happened to historic buildings in the 1970s, the other 1970s style, and what defines Post-Modernism. The key accepts several wordings.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 29 | timber and stone | stone and timber |
| 30 | Modernism | — |
| 31 | International Style | — |
| 32 | badly designed buildings | multi-storey housing / mass-produced, low-cost high-rises / mass-produced low-cost high-rises |
| 33 | preservation | preserving |
| 34 | High-Tech | High Tech |
| 35 | co-existence of styles | coexistence of styles / different styles together / styles mixed |
Questions 36-40
Each cause has its result in the same paragraph. Rural people moving to cities created slums. Functional design removed unnecessary decoration. Depression and war delayed Modernism until later. The 1960s estates have since been knocked down. The need to use less land led to tall buildings, made possible by light steel frames and lifts.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 36 | G | — |
| 37 | F | — |
| 38 | H | — |
| 39 | C | — |
| 40 | D | — |
The questions most people get wrong
D. Tall buildings began in the US to use land more economically, which depended on light steel frames and safe passenger lifts.
The key accepts 'badly designed buildings' or the mass-produced high-rises. Profit-driven, cheaply built blocks discredited Modernism.
F. Buildings were stripped of unnecessary decoration so they served their main purpose. 'Architecture reflects the age' (B) is the general point from the opening.
Sit this test on Langujet, then come back
The full Cambridge 1 Test 1 reading paper: all three passages, 60 minutes, marked the second you finish with a review of every answer. Already done it? Take it again and see if the same traps still get you.
Cambridge IELTS 1, Test 1, Reading Passage 3. The passage name belongs to Cambridge University Press. No passage text or question wording is reproduced on this page. The answers are published for self-marking, and the analysis is our own.