Does education fuel economic growth?: reading answers and analysis
Sheilagh Ogilvie's team built a database of 300 years of court records, guild ledgers and household inventories from two German communities. History doesn't show high literacy making countries industrialise sooner. Early findings suggest education's benefits can be blocked by guilds that restricted trades, migration and innovation.
Questions 14-26 · 13 marks · 4 question blocks
Where the answers sit
Section matching (14-18) uses A, C, D, E and F. The summary (19-22) is the life stories in D. The two choose-TWO blocks say where to look: B for 23-24 and F for 25-26.
Questions 14-18
A lists the record types the database draws on, and C lists what went into the inventories (from badger skins to Bibles). D has the individual who defied a rule. E explains comparing people with the same level of wealth over time. F calls German-speaking central Europe an excellent laboratory.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | E | — |
| 15 | A | — |
| 16 | D | — |
| 17 | F | — |
| 18 | C | — |
Questions 19-22
D follows people and their descendants over 300 years, and tells of women told off for reading during a church service and a weaver punished by her guild. The last gap is what guilds could block besides skilled work.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 19 | descendants | — |
| 20 | sermon | — |
| 21 | fine | — |
| 22 | innovation | — |
Questions 23-24
B says Germany had excellent literacy between 1600 and 1900, and that there's plenty of evidence growth increases education (not the reverse). England had only mediocre literacy yet industrialised first, so D contradicts the text.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 23-24 | B and E(in either order) | — |
Questions 25-26
F says guilds legislated against anything that undermined their monopolies and blocked labour migration. Nothing is said about training young people, record-keeping compared with other guilds, or who their members were.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 25-26 | B and D(in either order) | — |
The questions most people get wrong
E. Keeping wealth 'constant' while following people over time is the fairly consistent income in the question.
C tempts, but B says modern analyses struggle to find clear evidence, so 'strong evidence' contradicts it. The link B does mention runs from growth to education (E).
D ends by saying the guilds held back even the simplest industrial innovation, and the summary's 'prevent ___' needs that noun.
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The full Cambridge 17 Test 4 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 17, Test 4, 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.