# 'This Marvellous Invention': answers and explanations

Cambridge IELTS 11, Test 4, Reading Passage 3

Source: Passage, questions and answer key from Cambridge IELTS 11, 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 | vi | Compared to language, all other inventions pale in significance, since everything we have ever achieved depends on language and originates from it. |
| 28 | iv | Language is mankind's greatest invention - except, of course, that it was never invented. This apparent paradox |
| 29 | ii | How else could this instrument make so much out of barely three dozen measly morsels of sound? |
| 30 | vii | The language machine allows just about everybody |
| 31 | i | it is only the estrangement of foreign tongues, with their many exotic and outlandish features, that brings home the wonder of language's design |
| 32 | v | even the absence of a sound has been enlisted to express something specific |
| 33 | E | may have transformed our material existence |
| 34 | G | the advent of language is what made us human ... everything we have ever achieved depends on language and originates from it |
| 35 | B | In its own right it is a tool of extraordinary sophistication |
| 36 | F | and all apparently without the slightest exertion. Yet it is precisely this deceptive ease |
| 37 | NO | Without language, we could never have embarked on our ascent to unparalleled power over all other animals |
| 38 | YES | no one since has celebrated more eloquently the magnitude of its achievement |
| 39 | NOT GIVEN | express in one word what English takes a whole sentence to say |
| 40 | YES | by the people who invented writing and thus enabled the documentation of history |

## Why these answers are right

**27. vi.** Paragraph A ranks language above every other creation. It says other inventions such as the wheel and agriculture pale in significance beside it, because everything we have achieved depends on language. The paragraph explains why language is the most important invention of all, so the heading is vi.

**28. iv.** You need a heading for paragraph B. After praising the Port-Royal description, the writer points out a critical incongruity: language is our greatest invention, yet it was never invented, which he calls an apparent paradox. Two features that seem not to fit together match heading iv.

**29. ii.** Paragraph C describes how roughly three dozen meaningless sounds, once run through the language machine and arranged in special orders, can express anything from boredom to the order of the universe. This is about organizing a few sounds into a huge range of meaning, heading ii.

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

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