# Why pagodas don't fall down: answers and explanations

Cambridge IELTS 7, Test 2, Reading Passage 1

Source: Passage, questions and answer key from Cambridge IELTS 7, Test 2, 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 | YES | Records show that only two have collapsed during the past 1400 years. |
| 2 | NO | Yet it left the magnificent five-storey pagoda at the Toji temple in nearby Kyoto unscathed |
| 3 | NOT GIVEN | though it levelled a number of buildings in the neighbourhood. |
| 4 | YES | Japanese carpenters of the day knew a few tricks about allowing a building to sway and settle itself rather than fight nature's forces. |
| 5 | B | The Chinese built their pagodas in brick or stone, with inner staircases ... the staircase was dispensed with |
| 6 | A | not with the porcelain tiles of many Chinese pagodas but with much heavier earthenware tiles. |
| 7 | B | used them in later centuries mainly as watchtowers. |
| 8 | C | overhang the sides of the structure by fifty per cent or more of the building's overall width. ... Pagodas in China and Korea have nothing like the overhang that is found on pagodas in Japan. |
| 9 | A | As in China, they were first introduced with Buddhism and were attached to important temples. |
| 10 | C | the individual storeys of a Japanese pagoda, unlike their counterparts elsewhere, are not actually connected to each other. |
| 11 | D | constrained individual storeys from moving too far because, after moving a certain distance, they banged into it |
| 12 | C | because of his passion to understand the pagoda, has built a series of models and tested them on a 'shake-table' |
| 13 | C | They are simply stacked one on top of another like a pile of hats. |

## Why these answers are right

**1. YES.** The statement claims only two Japanese pagodas have fallen in 1400 years. The first paragraph says records show that only two have collapsed during the past 1400 years, and the others that disappeared were lost to fire. The writer gives the same figure, so YES.

**2. NO.** The statement says the 1995 Hanshin earthquake destroyed the Toji pagoda. The writer says the quake left the five-story pagoda at the Toji temple unscathed, meaning unharmed, even though it leveled nearby buildings. That contradicts destroyed, so the answer is NO.

**3. NOT GIVEN.** The statement is about when the buildings near the Toji pagoda were built. The writer only says the quake leveled a number of buildings in the neighborhood and gives no construction dates for them, so the passage cannot confirm or deny it: 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/why-pagodas-dont-fall-down/answers).

[Practice Why pagodas don't fall down](https://testmigo.com/ielts/reading/why-pagodas-dont-fall-down)