The Step Pyramid of Djoser: reading answers and analysis
Egypt's pyramids began with one king and one architect: Imhotep stacked shrinking stone slabs into Djoser's Step Pyramid at Saqqara. Building it took much trial and error. The complex was the size of a city, with false doors and a trench to keep people out, and tunnels full of 40,000 stone vessels. Robbers still got in, but the pyramid became the model all later pyramids followed.
Questions 14-26 · 13 marks · 3 question blocks
Where the answers sit
The headings (14-20) take one paragraph each, A to G. The notes (21-24) are all in D. The choose-TWO (25-26) needs B and F.
Questions 14-20
Read each paragraph for its job. A: amid all the argument, one thing is certain about where Egyptian pyramids began. B: Imhotep's new idea for tombs. C: the builders' struggles. D: the outer complex. E: what lay inside and under the pyramid. F: little was left, yet the dig still amazed. G: the design everyone copied. Two headings are left over.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | iv | — |
| 15 | vii | — |
| 16 | ii | — |
| 17 | v | — |
| 18 | i | — |
| 19 | viii | — |
| 20 | vi | — |
Questions 21-24
D lists the complex's features in the same order as the notes: its size compared to a settlement, who lived there, the ring around the wall, and what uninvited visitors would have had to know about the true entrance.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | city | — |
| 22 | priests | — |
| 23 | trench | — |
| 24 | location | — |
Questions 25-26
B says Djoser 'is thought' to have ruled 19 years while others suggest longer, which is a disagreement. F says archaeologists found a small number of his valuables. Djoser actually honoured Imhotep by carving his name on the monument, so C is the opposite of the text.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 25-26 | B and D(in either order) | — |
The questions most people get wrong
iv. A says theories about the pyramid form have been argued over for centuries, yet in Egypt it clearly began with this one monument: a single certainty.
viii. F admits the robbers took almost everything but says enough was left to amaze the archaeologists. The 'few remains' is the key.
C is a trap. Djoser was so proud that he broke with tradition and put Imhotep's name on the monument, which is the opposite of failing to appreciate him.
Sit this test on Langujet, then come back
The full Cambridge 16 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 16, Test 1, Reading Passage 2. 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.