Why fairy tales are really scary tales: reading answers and analysis
Anthropologist Jamie Tehrani borrowed biologists' 'phylogenetic analysis' to trace 58 related versions of Little Red Riding Hood. Plot events changed as freely as characters, and cautionary messages weren't especially stable. What survived best was the gruesome, frightening detail. Jack Zipes thinks stories last only if they matter, while Mathias Clasen sees scary tales as a safe way to practise fear.
Questions 27-40 · 14 marks · 3 question blocks
Where the answers sit
The sentence endings (27-31) cover the first four paragraphs. The summary (32-36) covers Tehrani's method and findings. The multiple choice (37-40) runs from the method to Clasen at the end.
Questions 27-31
Plot details vary around the world (the wolf eats the grandmother or locks her up). Tehrani rejects the idea that survival lessons are why the tales last. Academics have built theories despite a 'huge gap' in knowledge, so without factual basis. Biology's methods give insights, and all 58 stories came from oral traditions.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 27 | C | — |
| 28 | B | — |
| 29 | F | — |
| 30 | A | — |
| 31 | E | — |
Questions 32-36
Tehrani first checked whether links existed among the stories, then which aspects had the fewest variations. Events changed as freely as characters. Warning elements were no more stable than trivial details, and horror survived best. 'Plot' and 'people' are near-synonym traps.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 32 | D | — |
| 33 | F | — |
| 34 | B | — |
| 35 | C | — |
| 36 | G | — |
Questions 37-40
Tehrani compared many versions of one basic story. Zipes says gruesome details won't last unless they matter. Tehrani cites Chinese and Japanese versions, where the villain is a woman, to show Zipes' women-as-victims theory doesn't hold everywhere. Clasen sees scary stories as a safe way to learn fear.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 37 | B | — |
| 38 | D | — |
| 39 | A | — |
| 40 | A | — |
The questions most people get wrong
F. Theories were devised despite a 'huge gap in our knowledge' of storytelling's history, so they lack a factual basis.
B, not D. Tehrani used a biological method on many versions of one tale. He didn't compare stories with living creatures.
B (events). He found incidents evolved just as fast as characters, contradicting the folklorists' belief that events are the stable core.
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The full Cambridge 15 Test 3 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 15, Test 3, 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.