Reading Reading Passage 1 Questions 1–13 1 The correct answer is FALSE: The text says, ‘The Romans were not traditionally sailors but
mostly land-based people, who learned to build ships from the people that they conquered,
namely the Greeks and the Egyptians.’ In other words, the Romans picked up their shipbuilding
skills
from the Greeks and the Egyptians: they did not pass these skills on to these people.
2 The correct answer is NOT GIVEN: The text mentions the change to the ‘mortise and tenon’
method of fixing planks but does not say whether skilled craftsmen were needed for this.
3 The correct answer is FALSE: The text says, ‘Mediterranean shipbuilders shifted to another
shipbuilding method, still in use today, which consisted of building the frame first and then
proceeding with the hull and the other components of the ship.’ In other words, their practice
involved building the frame before the hull.
4 The correct answer is TRUE: The text says, ‘Rome’s navy became the largest and most
powerful in the Mediterranean, and the Romans had control over what they therefore called
Mare Nostrum, meaning “our sea”’. This means that Romans gave the Mediterranean this name
because they dominated its use.
5 The correct answer is TRUE: The text says that rowers were ‘mostly Roman citizens enrolled
in the military’.
6 The correct answer is ‘lightweight’: In the third paragraph, the text says, ‘Warships were
built to be lightweight and very speedy’. ‘
Speedy’ is incorrect: The summary already says that
warships were designed so that they moved quickly; ‘speedy’ has the same meaning as this.
7 The correct answer is ‘bronze’: In the third paragraph, the text says, ‘They had a bronze
battering ram’.
