# Canning: The Invention That Fed Armies: answers and explanations

Testmigo Practice Test 4, Reading Passage 1

Source: Written by Testmigo.

## Answer key

| Q | Answer | Proof |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | bottles | placed in thick glass bottles with wide mouths |
| 2 | cork | Each bottle was then closed with a cork |
| 3 | wire | tied down with crossed iron wire |
| 4 | canvas | each bottle was wrapped in canvas to protect it from breaking |
| 5 | bath | lowered into a water bath, a large vessel of boiling water |
| 6 | TRUE | spent thirteen years as head chef to a German nobleman ... In 1795 he began experimenting |
| 7 | FALSE | At first he chose glass rather than metal |
| 8 | NOT GIVEN | health officials at the port of Brest examined food |
| 9 | FALSE | on condition that he publish a full and exact description of his process |
| 10 | FALSE | he never understood why it worked |
| 11 | TRUE | vessels made of glass, pottery, tin or other suitable metals |
| 12 | NOT GIVEN | took canned beef and pea soup on his voyage to the Arctic |
| 13 | TRUE | by 1813 it was producing canned food ... The first purpose-made opener did not appear until 1855 |

## Why these answers are right

**1. bottles.** Paragraph C says the food was placed in thick glass bottles with wide mouths, leaving a small space at the top. The first box rewords this as wide-mouthed glass containers, and the gap needs a plural noun, so the answer is bottles.

**2. cork.** In paragraph C each bottle was then closed with a cork, and Appert regarded this as the most important stage. The flow-chart turns closed into sealed and most important stage into the step that mattered most, so cork fills the gap.

**3. wire.** Paragraph C explains that the cork was tied down with crossed iron wire so that it could resist the heat that followed. The box rewords crossed iron as criss-crossed metal, so the single missing word is wire, which holds the seal in place.

The why and the trap for questions 4 onwards are free with an account on the [answers page](https://testmigo.com/ielts/reading/canning-the-invention-that-fed-armies/answers).

[Practice Canning: The Invention That Fed Armies](https://testmigo.com/ielts/reading/canning-the-invention-that-fed-armies)