# Pulling strings to build pyramids: answers and explanations

Cambridge IELTS 7, Test 4, Reading Passage 1

Source: Passage, questions and answer key from Cambridge IELTS 7, Test 4, Reading Passage 1. © Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Used for educational practice. Explanations and evidence notes are written by Testmigo.

## Answer key

| Q | Answer | Proof |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | TRUE | The conventional picture is that tens of thousands of slaves dragged stones on sledges. |
| 2 | FALSE | While perusing a book on the monuments of Egypt, she noticed a hieroglyph |
| 3 | NOT GIVEN | The object in the sky apparently had wings far too short and wide for a bird. |
| 4 | TRUE | Their initial calculations and scale-model wind-tunnel experiments convinced them they wouldn't need a strong wind |
| 5 | FALSE | The wind was blowing at a gentle 16 to 20 kilometres an hour, little more than half what they thought would be needed. |
| 6 | NOT GIVEN | There was a huge initial force - five times larger than the steady state force |
| 7 | TRUE | So Clemmons was right: the pyramid builders could have used kites to lift massive stones into place. |
| 8 | pulleys | And they are known to have used wooden pulleys |
| 9 | stone | which could have been made strong enough to bear the weight of massive blocks of stone. |
| 10 | sailors | Harnessing the wind would not have been a problem for accomplished sailors like the Egyptians. |
| 11 | glider | A wooden artefact found on the step pyramid at Saqqara looks uncannily like a modern glider. |
| 12 | flight | its sophistication suggests that the Egyptians might have been developing ideas of flight for a long time. |
| 13 | messages | the Chinese were using them to deliver messages and dump flaming debris on their foes. |

## Why these answers are right

**1. TRUE.** The statement says people generally think many workers built the pyramids. Paragraph B says the conventional picture is that tens of thousands of slaves dragged stones on sledges. Conventional matches generally believed, and tens of thousands matches large numbers, so it is true.

**2. FALSE.** The statement places Clemmons in front of an Egyptian monument wall. Paragraph B says she noticed the hieroglyph while perusing a book on the monuments of Egypt, so she saw it in a book, not on a wall. That contradicts the statement, making it false.

**3. NOT GIVEN.** The statement claims Gharib had earlier done bird-flight experiments. Paragraph C calls him an aeronautics professor interested in Middle Eastern science and says the object's wings looked wrong for a bird, but it never mentions any earlier research on birds, so this is not given.

The why and the trap for questions 4 onwards are free with an account on the [answers page](https://testmigo.com/ielts/reading/pulling-strings-to-build-pyramids/answers).

[Practice Pulling strings to build pyramids](https://testmigo.com/ielts/reading/pulling-strings-to-build-pyramids)