The writer looks back at the first public film show in Paris in 1895 and the panic caused by a train arriving on screen. Cinema's realism, its picture of America for the world, its stars and its turn to storytelling all show the special power film has had in just 100 years.
The paragraph matching (1-5) jumps around the ten paragraphs. The YES / NO / NOT GIVEN statements (6-9) go from B to H in order. The multiple choice (10-13) follows C, D and H, then asks about the whole text.
Answer key and self-check
Type what you wrote and hit mark. Hide the key first if you haven't done the passage yet. Every question number jumps to its explanation.
Q
Your answer
Answer
Questions 1-5 · Matching information (paragraphs A-J)
How to attack this block: Ten paragraphs for five items, so most are distractors. H mentions stories in its first line, but the explanation of how cinema became a story medium is in the paragraph after it. Paragraph E is about learning how other people live, F about future generations.
Question 1
Answer: AParagraph A, first sentence
Which paragraph says where the first cinema was?
The Lumiére Brothers opened their Cinematographe, at 14 Boulevard des Capucines in Paris
Question says → Passage says
the locationat 14 Boulevard des Capucines in Paris
the first cinemaopened their Cinematographe
Why: 'Location' asks for an address or place, and A gives a street number, a street and a city. It's the only paragraph with a place for the cinema.
The trap: Paragraph C describes the platform in the Lumières' train film, which is a location too, but it's the place shown in a film, not where the cinema stood.
Question 2
Answer: IParagraph I
Which paragraph explains how films came to be mainly about stories?
But what happened was that it became, overwhelmingly, a medium for telling stories.
Question says → Passage says
came to focus on storiesbecame, overwhelmingly, a medium for telling stories
howOriginally these were conceived as short stories… Then, in 1912… Hollywood settled upon the novel-length narrative
Why: I gives the route: cinema could have gone documentary or TV-like, but it became a story medium, first short stories, then the 2-hour narrative after 1912. 'How' is answered by that sequence.
The trap: Paragraph H opens 'Cinema has also given a new lease of life to the idea of the story', so it looks like the answer. H then talks only about the novelty of movement. The story development itself is in I.
Question 3
Answer: JParagraph J, first two sentences
Which paragraph comments on how fast cinema has changed things?
And it has all happened so quickly. Almost unbelievably, it is a mere 100 years since that train arrived
Question says → Passage says
the speedso quickly / a mere 100 years
Why: 'So quickly' is the speed, and 'a mere 100 years' stresses how short the time has been. J looks back at the whole change in that light.
The trap: Paragraph A gives the date, 'over 100 years ago', but just as a fact. Only J makes a point of the speed.
Question 4
Answer: EParagraph E, first four sentences
Which paragraph shows cinema teaching people about other places and cultures?
One effect of this realism was to educate the world about itself. For cinema makes the world smaller.
Question says → Passage says
teaches useducate the world about itself
other culturesthey knew how other people worked and lived
Why: 'Educate' is 'teach', and knowing 'how other people worked and lived' before travelling there is learning about other cultures.
The trap: Paragraph F is also about film recording life, but it's about future generations learning about our century, not about other countries now.
Question 5
Answer: GParagraph G
Which paragraph explains why film actors fascinate us?
Because we watch them so closely and because everybody in the world seems to know who they are, they appear more real to us than we do ourselves.
Question says → Passage says
actors in filmsThe cinema star / Film personalities
the attractionsuch an immediate presence / they appear more real to us than we do ourselves
Why: G explains the star effect: close watching and world fame make actors seem 'super-real'. That pull on the audience is the attraction.
The trap: Paragraph E mentions American cowboys and cities becoming film's main imagery, but that's about places and values, not the actors.
YES / NO / NOT GIVEN
Questions 6-9
How to attack this block: This block asks for the writer's views, so check who is speaking. Praise for the train film comes from Tarkovsky, not the writer. The Hollywood paragraph says American life dominates film, but never calls that biased.
Question 6
Answer: YESParagraph B, second sentence
Does the writer think it matters to understand how the first audiences reacted?
But it is worth trying, for to understand the initial shock of those images is to understand the extraordinary power and magic of cinema
Question says → Passage says
It is important to understandit is worth trying… to understand
how the first audiences reactedthe initial shock of those images
Why: The writer says it's 'worth trying' to imagine that first shock, because it explains cinema's power. Saying something is worth the effort because it reveals so much is calling it important. YES.
The trap: The first sentence of B says it takes 'a determined leap of the imagination', which can sound like the writer thinks it's too hard to bother. Read on to 'But it is worth trying'.
Question 7
Answer: NOT GIVENParagraph C, first four sentences
Does the writer say the train film was one of the greatest films ever?
Yet the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, one of the greatest of all film artists, described the film as a 'work of genius'.
Question says → Passage says
one of the greatestone of the greatest of all film artists / a 'work of genius'
Why: 'A work of genius' is Tarkovsky's opinion, and 'one of the greatest' describes Tarkovsky himself. The writer never gives his own view of where the film ranks, so NOT GIVEN.
The trap: Both phrases are right there, so YES is very tempting. Check who says it and about what: 'greatest' is about the director, and 'genius' is someone else's view. Also notice 'And that is all that happens', which isn't high praise.
Question 8
Answer: NOT GIVENParagraph E, second half
Does the writer think cinema gives a one-sided picture of other countries?
Overwhelmingly, the lives recorded - at least in film fiction - have been American.
Question says → Passage says
other countriesAmerican imagery - the cars, the cities, the cowboys
Cinema presentsFilm carried American life and values around the globe
Why: The writer says films have mostly shown American life. That's about which country gets shown, not whether the picture of other countries is fair or unfair. No judgement of bias is given, so NOT GIVEN.
The trap: Hollywood dominating sounds like bias, so people answer YES. 'Mostly American' is a fact about quantity. 'Biased' would need the writer to say the view is distorted, and he doesn't.
Question 9
Answer: NOParagraph H, third sentence
Does the writer say stories mattered in the very earliest films?
All that mattered at first was the wonder of movement.
Question says → Passage says
in very early cinemaat first
Storylines were importantAll that mattered… was the wonder of movement
Why: If 'all that mattered' at first was movement, stories didn't matter. That contradicts the statement, so NO.
The trap: Paragraph I says early producers made 'short stories', which looks like stories were there from the start. But that came after the novelty phase, and H is explicit about 'at first'.
Multiple choice
Questions 10-13
How to attack this block: Each option borrows a real detail: the film's simplicity, novels, the fairground. Ask what the detail is doing in the text. For the title, reject any option that covers only one paragraph.
Question 10
Answer: BParagraphs B and C
Why does the writer mention the train film?
The frightened audience could not accept that they were watching a mere picture.
Question says → Passage says
the impact of early filmspanic started in the theatre: people jumped and ran away / the initial shock of those images
Why: B says we need to grasp the 'impact of those first moving images', and C's train film shows it: the audience panicked and ran. The example is there to show impact, B.
The trap: A (simplicity) tempts because the film is described as just a train arriving, 'And that is all that happens'. That simple content is the set-up. The point is the huge reaction to it.
Question 11
Answer: CParagraph D, second half
What, for Tarkovsky, is the special appeal of cinema?
For Tarkovsky, the key to that magic was the way in which cinema created a dynamic image of the real flow of events.
Question says → Passage says
the attraction of the cinemathe key to that magic
illustrates the passing of timethe real, objective flow of time was captured
Why: Tarkovsky contrasts cinema with still pictures and novels: only film captures the real flow of time. Showing time passing is C.
The trap: B (tells stories better than books) borrows the novel comparison. But Tarkovsky's point is about how time works in each, not about storytelling being better.
Question 12
Answer: DParagraph H, second half
What did people think when cinema first started?
it was by no means obvious how it would be used… some said that, once this novelty had worn off, cinema would fade away
Question says → Passage says
its future was uncertainit was by no means obvious how it would be used / cinema would fade away
Why: Nobody knew how cinema would be used, and some thought it would disappear. Not knowing what will happen is an uncertain future, D.
The trap: B (used in fairgrounds) picks up 'a fairground attraction'. That was a dismissive comparison by critics, not a view that it should be used there.
Question 13
Answer: DWhole passage, especially Paragraph B
Which title best fits the whole passage?
the extraordinary power and magic of cinema, the unique, hypnotic quality that has made film the most dynamic, effective art form of the 20th century
Question says → Passage says
The power of the big screenthe extraordinary power and magic of cinema / its unique power to embrace its audiences
Why: Every paragraph returns to cinema's power: the panic of the first audience, its realism, its teaching, its stars, its stories. 'Power' is the writer's own word, so D.
The trap: A (the rise of the cinema star) and C (Hollywood) are each one paragraph, G and E. B (cinema and novels) is one sentence in D. A good title covers the whole text.
D. 'A fairground attraction' was critics dismissing cinema, not a view that it belonged in fairgrounds.
Words from this passage worth keeping
stunned(A)
so surprised you can't react
leap of the imagination(B)
a big effort to imagine something unfamiliar
hypnotic(B)
holding your attention completely
at the whim of(D)
depending only on someone's wishes
encyclopaedic(F)
very complete and detailed
enduring legacies(G)
lasting effects left behind
a new lease of life(H)
a fresh chance to be successful
gimmick(H)
a trick to attract attention, with no lasting value
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The full Cambridge 6 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 6, Test 3, Reading Passage 1. The passage and questions belong to Cambridge University Press and are not reproduced here. We quote short extracts only as evidence for our own commentary, and the answers are published for self-marking. Get the book for the full text, or sit the test on Langujet.
The rest of Cambridge 6 Test 3
Passage 1 · Questions 1-13 · You're hereThe magic of film
