THE LOST CITY - IELTS Reading Answers & Explanations
From IELTS Recent Actual Test 2 Academic Reading Test 4 · Part 2 · Questions 14–26
Reading Passage
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
THE LOST CITY
Thanks to modern remote-sensing techniques, a ruined city in Turkey is slowly revealing itself as one of the greatest and most mysterious cities of the ancient world. Sally Palmer uncovers more.
A The low granite mountain, known as Kerkenes Dag, juts from the northern edge of the Cappadocian plain in Turkey. Sprawled over the mountainside are the ruins of an enormous city, contained by crumbling defensive walls seven kilometers long. Many respected archaeologists believe these are the remains of the fabled city of Pteria, the sixth-century BC stronghold of the Medes that the Greek historian Herodotus described in his famous work The Histories. The short-lived city came under Median control and only fifty years later was sacked, burned and its strong stone walls destroyed.
B British archaeologist Dr Geoffrey Summers has spent ten years studying the site. Excavating the ruins is a challenge because of the vast area they cover. The 7 km perimeter walls run around a site covering 271 hectares. Dr Summers quickly realised it would take far too long to excavate the site using traditional techniques alone. So he decided to use modern technology as well to map the entire site, both above and beneath the surface, to locate the most interesting areas and priorities to start digging.
C In 1993, Dr Summers hired a special hand-held balloon with a remote-controlled camera attached. He walked over the entire site holding the balloon and taking photos. Then one afternoon, he rented a hot-air balloon and floated over the site, taking yet more pictures. By the end of the 1994 season, Dr Summers and his team had a jigsaw of aerial photographs of the whole site. The next stage was to use remote sensing, which would let them work out what lay below the intriguing outlines and ruined walls. “Archaeology is a discipline that lends itself very well to remote sensing because it revolves around space,” says Scott Branting, an associated director of the project. He started working with Dr Summers in 1995.
D The project used two main remote-sensing techniques. The first is magnetometry, which works on the principle that magnetic fields at the surface of the Earth are influenced by what is buried beneath. It measures localised variations in the direction and intensity of this magnetic field. “The Earth's magnetic field can vary from place to place, depending on what happened there in the past,” says Branting. “If something containing iron oxide was heavily burnt, by natural or human actions, the iron particles in it can be permanently reoriented, like a compass needle, to align with the Earth's magnetic field present at that point in time and space.” The magnetometer detects differences in the orientations and intensities of these iron particles from the present-day magnetic field and uses them to produce an image of what lies below ground.
E Kerkenes Dag lends itself particularly well to magnetometry because it was all burnt once in a savage fire. In places the heat was sufficient to turn sandstone to glass and to melt granite. The fire was so hot that there were strong magnetic signatures set to the Earth's magnetic field from the time — around 547 BC — resulting in extremely clear pictures. Furthermore, the city was never rebuilt. “If you have multiple layers, it can confuse pictures, because you have different walls from different periods giving signatures that all go in different directions,” says Branting. “We only have one going down about 1.5 meters, so we can get a good picture of this fairly short-lived city.”
F The other main sub-surface mapping technique, which is still being used at the site, is resistivity. This technique measures the way electrical pulses are conducted through sub-surface soil. It’s done by shooting pulses into the ground through a thin metal probe. Different materials have different electrical conductivity. For example, stone and mudbrick are poor conductors, but looser, damp soil conducts very well. By walking around the site and taking about four readings per metre, it is possible to get a detailed idea of what is where beneath the surface. The teams then build up pictures of walls, hearths and other remains. “It helps a lot if it has rained, because the electrical pulse can get through more easily,” says Branting. “Then if something is more resistant, it really shows up.” This is one of the reasons that the project has a spring season, when most of the resistivity work is done. Unfortunately, testing resistivity is a lot slower than magnetometry. “If we did resistivity over the whole site it would take about 100 years,” says Branting. Consequently, the team is concentrating on areas where they want to clarify pictures from the magnetometry.
G Remote sensing does not reveal everything about Kerkenes Dag, but it shows the most interesting sub-surface areas of the site. The archaeologists can then excavate these using traditional techniques. One surprise came when they dug out one of the fates in the defensive walls. “Our observations in early seasons led us to assume that we were looking at a stone base from a mudbrick city wall, such as would be found at most other cities in the Ancient Near East,” says Dr Summers. “When we started to excavate we were staggered to discover that the walls were made entirely from stone and that the gate would have stood at least ten metres high. After ten years of study, Pteria is gradually giving up its secrets.”
Questions
Questions 14–17 Matching Information
Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-G.
Questions 18–25 Summary Completion
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Exploring the ancient city of Pteria
Archaeologists began working ten years ago. They started by taking photographs of the site from the ground and then from a distance in a 18 . They focused on what lay below the surface using a magnetometer, which identifies variations in the magnetic field. These variations occur when the 19 in buried structures have changed direction as a result of great heat. They line up with the surrounding magnetic field just as a 20 would do.
The other remote-sensing technique employed was resistivity. This uses a 21 to fire electrical pulses into the earth. The principle is that building materials like 22 and stone do not conduct electricity well, while 23 does this much more effectively. This technique is mainly employed during the 24 when conditions are more favourable. Resistivity is mainly being used to 25 some images generated by the magnetometer.
Questions 26–26 Multiple Choice (One Answer)
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Answers & Explanations Summary
| # | Answer | Evidence | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q14 | B | Dr Summers quickly realised it would take far too long to excavate the site using traditional techniques alone. So he decided to use modern technology as well to map the entire site, both above and beneath the surface, to locate the most interesting areas and priorities to start digging | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that the main archaeologist, Dr Summers, understood that digging up the huge city only with old methods would be very, very slow. For this reason, he chose to also use new types of technology to help find the most important places to begin digging. Answer Explanation: The answer 'B' means that paragraph B explains why the archaeologists used several different methods to study the old city. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is B because this paragraph describes the main problem the archaeologists had: the city was extremely large. The passage states that using only old ways of digging, called 'traditional techniques', would have taken too much time ('far too long'). Because of this, the head archaeologist decided to also use 'modern technology'. This combination of old and new methods is the 'variety of investigative methods' mentioned in the question. |
| Q15 | G | One surprise came when they dug out one of the fates in the defensive walls. “Our observations in early seasons led us to assume that we were looking at a stone base from a mudbrick city wall, such as would be found at most other cities in the Ancient Near East,” says Dr Summers. “When we started to excavate we were staggered to discover that the walls were made entirely from stone and that the gate would have stood at least ten metres high | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that the archaeologists had a 'surprise'. They thought the walls were made of a stone bottom with a mudbrick top, like in other old cities. But when they started digging, they were 'staggered' (very surprised) to find that the walls were made only of stone and were very tall. This was a surprising discovery. Answer Explanation: The answer is G. This means the information about a surprising discovery is in paragraph G. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is G because this paragraph describes a discovery that the archaeologists did not expect. The text uses the word 'surprise' and says the scientists were 'staggered,' which means very shocked, by what they found. They thought the city walls would be made of a stone base with mudbrick on top, which was common in other ancient cities. However, they discovered the walls were made completely of stone and were very high, which was an 'unexpected find'. |
| Q16 | C | In 1993, Dr Summers hired a special hand-held balloon with a remote-controlled camera attached. He walked over the entire site holding the balloon and taking photos. Then one afternoon, he rented a hot-air balloon and floated over the site, taking yet more pictures. By the end of the 1994 season, Dr Summers and his team had a jigsaw of aerial photographs of the whole site | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that a researcher, Dr. Summers, used a balloon that had a camera on it to take pictures of the city. He also went in a hot-air balloon to fly over the city and take more photos. This created many pictures of the whole site taken from the air. Answer Explanation: The answer is 'C', which is the paragraph that explains how the researchers looked at the city from high up in the air. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is paragraph C because the question asks how the site was 'surveyed from above'. This means looking at the ground from the sky. Paragraph C describes exactly this process, mentioning the use of a 'balloon with a remote-controlled camera' and a 'hot-air balloon' to take 'aerial photographs' of the entire area. |
| Q17 | A | Many respected archaeologists believe these are the remains of the fabled city of Pteria, the sixth-century BC stronghold of the Medes that the Greek historian Herodotus described in his famous work The Histories | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that many important experts think these ruins are from the famous old city of Pteria. This city was an important, strong place for a group of people called the Medes a long time ago. A famous Greek writer named Herodotus wrote about this city in his well-known book. Answer Explanation: The answer means that the first paragraph, paragraph A, explains why experts find the old city interesting. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is A because this paragraph explains that many experts, who are called archaeologists, are interested in this site because they think it is a famous and legendary city called Pteria. A well-known ancient writer, Herodotus, wrote about this city in his famous book, which makes the ruins very important and mysterious to study. |
| Q18 | hot-air balloon | Then one afternoon, he rented a hot-air balloon and floated over the site, taking yet more pictures | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that one afternoon, the archaeologist got a hot-air balloon to fly 'over the site', which means high above the city, to take more photographs. Answer Explanation: The answer is 'hot-air balloon'. This is a very large balloon with a basket for people, which uses hot air to fly high in the sky. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'hot-air balloon' because the summary says that after taking photos from the ground, the archaeologists took more photos from a distance. The passage explains that Dr. Summers first used a hand-held balloon while walking on the ground. Then, to get pictures from a distance, he 'rented a hot-air balloon and floated over the site'. This shows he used a hot-air balloon to take photos from high above the city. |
| Q19 | iron particles | If something containing iron oxide was heavily burnt, by natural or human actions, the iron particles in it can be permanently reoriented, like a compass needle, to align with the Earth's magnetic field present at that point in time and space | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that when something with iron is burned in a very hot fire, the small 'iron particles' inside it change their direction forever. They line up with the Earth's magnetic field, just like a compass arrow points north. Answer Explanation: The answer means very small pieces of a metal called iron. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'iron particles'. The summary asks what changes direction in buried structures because of great heat. The passage explains how magnetometry works. It states that when something with iron oxide is burned, the 'iron particles' in it get permanently 'reoriented', which means they change direction. |
| Q20 | compass / compass needle | “If something containing iron oxide was heavily burnt, by natural or human actions, the iron particles in it can be permanently reoriented, like a compass needle, to align with the Earth's magnetic field present at that point in time and space.” | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that when something with iron is burned very hot, the tiny iron parts inside it change direction permanently. They line up with the Earth's magnetic power, just like the needle of a compass always points in a certain direction. Answer Explanation: The answer is 'compass' or 'compass needle'. A compass is a tool with a small pointer, called a needle, that helps you find which direction is north by pointing to it. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'compass' or 'compass needle' because the passage explains how the magnetometer works. It describes how tiny iron particles in burnt objects change their direction to match the Earth's magnetic field. The passage directly compares this action to how a compass needle behaves. |
| Q21 | thin metal probe | It’s done by shooting pulses into the ground through a thin metal probe | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that to do this, the team sends electrical signals into the earth using a long, thin tool made of metal. Answer Explanation: The answer is a long, thin tool made of metal. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is found in the part of the text that talks about the 'resistivity' technique. The summary says this technique uses a tool to 'fire electrical pulses into the earth'. The passage explains exactly how this is done, stating that they shoot 'pulses into the ground through a thin metal probe'. This shows that the 'thin metal probe' is the tool used for this job. |
| Q22 | mudbrick | For example, stone and mudbrick are poor conductors, but looser, damp soil conducts very well | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that materials like 'stone and mudbrick' are not good at letting electricity pass through them. This means they are 'poor conductors'. Answer Explanation: The answer 'mudbrick' is a type of brick made from mud, used for building ancient houses and walls. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'mudbrick' because the passage describes a technique called resistivity. It explains that this method finds things under the ground by checking how well electricity passes through them. The passage gives 'stone and mudbrick' as examples of materials that are 'poor conductors,' meaning they don't let electricity pass through easily. The summary sentence already lists 'stone,' so the other material mentioned is 'mudbrick'. |
| Q23 | looser damp soil | For example, stone and mudbrick are poor conductors, but looser, damp soil conducts very well | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage explains that some materials, like stone, do not let electricity pass through them easily. But, soil that is wet and not hard ('looser, damp soil') lets electricity travel through it very well. Answer Explanation: The answer means 'soil that is wet and not packed tightly'. This kind of soil allows electricity to pass through it easily. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'looser damp soil' because the passage explains the 'resistivity' technique, which measures how electricity moves through the ground. The text says that stone and mudbrick are 'poor conductors,' which means electricity does not travel through them easily. In contrast, it states that 'looser, damp soil conducts very well'. The summary sentence is looking for a material that conducts electricity more 'effectively' than stone, and the passage provides 'looser damp soil' as the example. |
| Q24 | spring season | “It helps a lot if it has rained, because the electrical pulse can get through more easily,” says Branting. “Then if something is more resistant, it really shows up.” This is one of the reasons that the project has a spring season, when most of the resistivity work is done | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that the work is easier when it has rained. It then explains that this is a reason for doing most of this work during the 'spring season'. Answer Explanation: The answer is 'spring season'. This means the work is done in the spring, which is the time of year between winter and summer. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'spring season' because the summary asks when the resistivity technique is mainly used because of 'favourable conditions'. The passage explains that this technique works better when it has rained because electricity can move through wet ground more easily. The passage then clearly states that this is why 'the project has a spring season, when most of the resistivity work is done'. The phrase 'mainly employed' in the question matches the passage's 'most of the...work is done'. |
| Q25 | clarify | Consequently, the team is concentrating on areas where they want to clarify pictures from the magnetometry | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that because resistivity testing is slow, the team focuses only on using it in places where they need to make the pictures from the magnetometry machine clearer. Answer Explanation: The answer 'clarify' means to make something easier to see or understand. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'clarify' because the passage explains that the resistivity technique is very slow compared to magnetometry. Therefore, the team does not use it for the entire area. Instead, they use it only in specific places where the pictures created by the magnetometer are not clear and need to be improved or made easier to understand. The passage uses the exact word 'clarify' to describe this. |
| Q26 | B | So he decided to use modern technology as well to map the entire site, both above and beneath the surface, to locate the most interesting areas and priorities to start digging | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that the archaeologist, Dr. Summers, chose to use new technology to make a map of the whole city. He did this to find the best and most important places where he should begin digging. Answer Explanation: The answer means that the new technologies help archaeologists find the most important places on the big site that they should dig in and study more. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is B because the passage explains that the city ruins cover a very large, or 'vast', area. It would take too much time to dig everywhere. The passage states that modern technology was used 'to locate the most interesting areas and priorities to start digging'. This means the technology helps them find the best places to investigate, which is what the answer choice says. |