Stonehenge: reading answers and analysis
Stonehenge took about 1,500 years to build, in three main stages: a ditch and bank, then Welsh bluestones hauled (or perhaps carried by glaciers) nearly 300 km, then the great sandstone trilithons. The druid theory fell when radiocarbon dating showed the monument was far older than the Celts. Its purpose is still debated: burial ground certainly, but also calendar or place of healing.
Questions 1-13 · 13 marks · 2 question blocks
Where the answers sit
The notes (1-8) run from B to J under three headings: construction, builders and purpose. TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN (9-13) goes back through F, G, H and J.
Questions 1-8
The note headings follow the passage's structure, so work stage by stage. Several answers are two-word phrases (the tool material, what stood in the pits, what the sledges were made from), and the shorter one-word version is accepted for two of them. The purpose notes use adjective forms: a burial site, and a kind of calendar.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | deer antlers | antlers |
| 2 | timber posts | posts |
| 3 | tree trunks | — |
| 4 | oxen | — |
| 5 | glaciers | — |
| 6 | druids | — |
| 7 | burial | — |
| 8 | calendar | — |
Questions 9-13
Both FALSEs contradict a specific detail. The bluestones were moved many times up to 1600 BCE, not left in place, and radiocarbon dating disproved Aubrey's druid claim. The NOT GIVEN asks who criticised Hawkins, and the passage just says 'critics'.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | TRUE | — |
| 10 | FALSE | — |
| 11 | FALSE | — |
| 12 | TRUE | — |
| 13 | NOT GIVEN | — |
The questions most people get wrong
FALSE. Radiocarbon dating shows work continued until about 1600 BCE, with the bluestones repositioned multiple times, which is the opposite of standing in the same spot.
The giant wicker baskets were hauled by oxen, and the 'or' in the note sets it against the tree-trunk sledges. Don't write 'ball bearings' or 'planks', which are what the baskets ran on.
NOT GIVEN. The critics say the builders lacked the knowledge or that clouds would have blocked the view, but they're never identified as astronomers.
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Cambridge IELTS 18, Test 2, 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.