# Homer's Literary Legacy: answers and explanations

The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS, Test 4, Reading Passage 3

Source: Passage, questions and answer key from The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS, Test 4, Reading Passage 3. © Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Used for educational practice. Explanations and evidence notes are written by Testmigo.

## Answer key

| Q | Answer | Proof |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 27 | E | They were, rather, a loose collection of songs transmitted by generations of Greek bards |
| 28 | D | Homer might not have been an author in the contemporary sense of a single person |
| 29 | C | There were no historical records of Homer, and no trustworthy biography of the man exists |
| 30 | E | were actually like thumbprints left by a potter |
| 31 | A | In India, an entire class of priests was charged with memorizing the Vedas with perfect fidelity. |
| 32 | B | Sometimes the epithets seemed completely off-key. |
| 33 | C, D | The same narrative units - gathering armies, heroic shields, challenges between rivals - pop up again and again |
| 34 | C, D | had long been held up as literary archetypes ... they were celebrated as the models to which all literature should aspire |
| 35 | B, C | not only were Homer's works not written down by Homer, but they weren't even by Homer |
| 36 | B, C | composed wholly without the aid of writing |
| 37 | generation | from one generation to the next |
| 38 | citizen | which the effective citizen was required to learn as the core of his educational equipment |
| 39 | abstract | concrete nouns are easier to remember than abstract ones |
| 40 | music | putting words to music and rhyme is a way of adding extra levels of pattern and structure to language |

## Why these answers are right

**27. E.** You need the paragraph claiming the two works did not begin as poems. Paragraph E reports Wolf's 1795 argument that they were originally "a loose collection of songs transmitted by generations of Greek bards," only edited into their present form later. So the answer is E.

**28. D.** This item asks where the meaning of "author" is reconsidered. Paragraph D says Rousseau suggested Homer "might not have been an author in the contemporary sense of a single person" who wrote and published a story. Questioning what author means here fits D.

**29. C.** The statement is about how little we know of Homer's life. Paragraph C says "There were no historical records of Homer, and no trustworthy biography of the man exists" beyond a few hints in the poems. No biography means little is known about his life, so C.

The why and the trap for questions 30 onwards are free with an account on the [answers page](https://testmigo.com/ielts/reading/homers-literary-legacy/answers).

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