Roman shipbuilding and navigation: reading answers and analysis
The Romans learned shipbuilding from the Greeks and Egyptians. They first built hulls from sewn, then interlocking, planks, and later switched to building the frame first. Light, fast warships with bronze rams stayed near the coast, while deep, wide merchant ships carried grain and stone to Ostia and Pozzuoli. Navigation relied on landmarks, stars, the sun and the wind.
Questions 1-13 · 13 marks · 2 question blocks
Where the answers sit
TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN (1-5) covers the first four paragraphs. The summary (6-13) goes back to the warship paragraph and runs to the last paragraph, in order.
Questions 1-5
Two FALSEs reverse the direction of the text: the Romans learned from the Greeks and Egyptians (not the other way round), and the later method built the frame before the hull. The passage never says what skills mortise and tenon needed.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | FALSE | — |
| 2 | NOT GIVEN | — |
| 3 | FALSE | — |
| 4 | TRUE | — |
| 5 | TRUE | — |
Questions 6-13
The summary splits into warships, merchant ships and cargo, in passage order. Watch the forms: an adjective for the design goal, the metal of the ram, the word for the trireme's three tiers of rowers, the hull shape, the small sail's shape, what kept rowers in time, one farm product, and what pulled ships to the quay.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | lightweight | — |
| 7 | bronze | — |
| 8 | levels | — |
| 9 | hull | — |
| 10 | triangular | — |
| 11 | music | — |
| 12 | grain | — |
| 13 | towboats | — |
The questions most people get wrong
TRUE. Contrary to popular belief, rowers were not slaves but mostly Roman citizens enrolled in the military.
The trireme had rowers in top, middle and lower 'levels'. 'Banks' also appears, but it counts the rowers in each tier.
Ships were dragged to the quay by 'towboats', one word. 'Tugs' isn't in the passage.
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The full Cambridge 16 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 16, Test 3, Reading Passage 1. 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.