Cambridge ielts 1-15 series reading answers explained

SILBO GOMERO – THE WHISTLE 
‗LANGUAGE‘ OF
THE CANARY ISLANDS
QUESTIONS 14-19: DO THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS AGREE 
WITH THE INFORMATION GIVEN IN READING PASSAGE 1? 
14. Answer: NOT GIVEN
Key words: La Gomera, mountainous, Canary Islands
It is stated in paragraph 1 that La Gomera is one of the Canary Islands and that it is mountainous. 
However, there is no information regarding whether La Gomera is the most mountainous or not. Thus, 
the answer is NOT GIVEN. 
15. Answer: FALSE
Key words: Silbo, appropriate, short, simple, messages
In paragraph 5, Carreiras contends that “‟In daily life they use whistles to communicate short 
commands, but any Spanish sentence could be whistled”. In fact, “…silbadores are able to pass a 
surprising amount of information via their whistles”. So silbo, or whistles, can be used to communicate 
any messages, not just short ones. It‟s just that short messages are more common in daily life. Thus, 
the statement „Silbo is only appropriate for short and simple messages‟ is FALSE. 
16. Answer: TRUE
Key words: brain-activity, silbadores, non-whistlers, different, results
Paragraph 6 mentions the results of the brain-activity study. Regarding silbadores, the left temporal 
lobe and other key regions in the brain‟s frontal lobe responded. However, in non-whistlers, 
“activation was observed in all areas of the brain”. In paragraph 7, this finding is explained 
further: “The non-Silbo speakers were not recognising Silbo as a language. They had nothing to grab 
onto, so multiple areas of their brains were activated”. Thus, these can be seen as „different results‟. 
17. Answer: FALSE
Key words: Spanish, introduced, Silbo, 15th century
It is stated in paragraph 8 that “indigenous Canary Islanders […] already had a whistled language 
when Spain conquered the volcanic islands in the 15th century”. Thus, the Spanish could not have 
introduced Silbo to the islands as Silbo was present even before their arrival.