Reading answers with explanations

IELTS · Part 2 · Volume 9 Test 7

The History of the Celtic Language: Reading answers

Answers to questions 14–26 (13 in all), each with why it is right.

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A In November 1897, in a field near the village of Coligny in eastern France, a local inhabitantunearthed two strange objects. One was an imposing statue of Mars, the Roman god of war. The other was an ancient bronze tablet, 1.5 metres wide and 1 metre high. It bore numerals in Roman but the words were in Gaulish, a version of the Celtic language spoken by the inhabitants of France before the Roman conquest in the first century BC. The tablet turned out to be one of the most important sources of words from this extinct language. B Two researchers, geneticist Dr Peter Forster and linguist Dr Alfred Toth, have now used the calendarand other Celtic inscriptions to reconstruct the history of…

Answers 14–26

  1. 14

    a difference of opinion about where a group of languages originated

    E Matching information

  2. 15

    a reference to a mythological figure

    A Matching information

  3. 16

    an expression of one person's doubt about a particular method of analysing scientific data

    G Matching information

  4. 17

    an explanation of how one particular Celtic language spread due to the movement of people

    B Matching information

  5. 18

    the reason why some language experts distrust language trees

    C Matching information

  6. 19

    An approach commonly used in language research has too narrow a focus. .

    A: Dr Peter Forster & Dr Alfred Toth Matching features

  7. 20

    The number of people who use a language has an effect on the modifications the languageundergoes.

    D: Dr April McMahon Matching features

  8. 21

    The Celtic language has been a distinct language for longer than experts previously thought.

    A: Dr Peter Forster & Dr Alfred Toth Matching features

  9. 22

    The use of one family of languages may have become more extensive due to farming practices

    C: Dr Colin Renfrew Matching features

  10. 23

    Gaulish Note completion

  11. 24

    Latin Note completion

  12. 25

    divergence Note completion

  13. 26

    irregular Note completion

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