Rethinking the Past: reading answers and analysis
A writer pulls two lessons from recent archaeology. Building and art go back to species older than us, including the small-brained Homo naledi. And old assumptions about gender, like 'Man the Hunter', say more about the archaeologists than about prehistory.
Questions 27-40 · 14 marks · 3 question blocks
Where the answers sit
The multiple choice (27-30) points to paragraphs B, F, G and I. The sentence endings (31-34) use C for the first two and H for the last two. YES / NO / NOT GIVEN (35-40) covers D and E.
Questions 27-30
Each question names a paragraph, and three of the four ask what the writer means rather than what happened. Question 29 quotes a phrase, so read the sentence before it: 'this stuff' points back to research shaped by old patriarchal views.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 27 | A | — |
| 28 | A | — |
| 29 | D | — |
| 30 | A | — |
Questions 31-34
Six endings, four sentences. Each sentence start names a specific finding, so find that finding and ask what it proves. Two endings are decoys. One talks about when Homo sapiens emerged, which comes from paragraph A, not from any of the four findings.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 31 | E | — |
| 32 | F | — |
| 33 | D | — |
| 34 | B | — |
Questions 35-40
All six are about art and the Homo naledi debate in D and E. The writer is careful: more evidence is needed on dating, and brain size is a distraction. Hold every statement against those two positions.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 35 | NO | — |
| 36 | NOT GIVEN | — |
| 37 | NOT GIVEN | — |
| 38 | YES | — |
| 39 | YES | — |
| 40 | NO | — |
The questions most people get wrong
What was unconventional was the journal the results were published in (E), not the methods used to study the cave. NOT GIVEN, and the most common wrong answer is YES.
The Kalambo Falls logs are older than our species, so someone else was doing skilled woodwork (E). Ending A is about when Homo sapiens emerged, which the passage dates in paragraph A.
The writer says the species' small brains are a distraction. Calling brain size a key factor contradicts that, so NO.
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The full Cambridge 21 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 21, 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.