Cambridge IELTS 1 · Academic · Test 4 · Passage 1
Glass Capturing the Dance of Light — IELTS Reading Answers
All 13 answers for Glass Capturing the Dance of Light, Cambridge IELTS 1 Academic Reading Test 4 Passage 1, with the passage evidence and an explanation for each.
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Glass Capturing the Dance of Light answer key at a glance
Questions 1–13. Tap an answer to see the evidence.
What this passage tests
This passage is tested with Matching Headings (Q1–5), Diagram Labeling (Q6–8), Matching Features (Q9–13). Each section below gives the strategy for that question type, the answers, and the sentence that proves them.
Questions 1–5: Matching Headings
Strategy: Read the paragraph first and summarise its main idea in five words. Choose the heading that matches the whole paragraph, not a repeated keyword.
Paragraph B
“On the horizon are optical computers. These could store programs and process information by means of light - pulses from tiny lasers - rather than electrons. And the pulses would travel over glass fibres, not copper wire.”
Paragraph B describes optical computers and new optical instruments imaging cells, so the heading about future computing and imaging uses fits.
Paragraph C
“The use of glass as art, a tradition that spins back at least to Roman times, is also booming. Nearly everywhere, it seems, men and women are blowing glass and creating works of art.”
Paragraph C says the use of glass as art is booming, with men and women blowing glass and creating works of art.
Paragraph D
“But not all the glass technology that touches our lives is ultra-modern. Consider the simple light bulb; at the turn of the century most light bulbs were hand blown, and the cost of one was equivalent to half a day’s pay for the average worker.”
Paragraph D shows even the simple light bulb relied on glass technology, noting the ribbon machine in effect lighted a nation.
Paragraph E
“The secret of the versatility of glass lies in its interior structure This looseness in molecular structure gives the material what engineers call tremendous “formability” which allows technicians to tailor glass to whatever they need”
Paragraph E explains that glass's versatility lies in its loose interior molecular structure, giving tremendous formability.
Paragraph F
“Today, scientists continue to experiment with new glass mixtures and building designers test their imaginations with applications of special types of glass. A London architect, Mike Davies, sees even more dramatic buildings using molecular chemistry.”
Paragraph F reports scientists and building designers experimenting with new glass mixtures and calling glass the building material of the future.
Questions 6–8: Diagram Labeling
Strategy: Locate the labelled part on the diagram, then find the matching description in the passage. Answers are usually concrete nouns.
“Yet it is very simple: a narrow ribbon of molten glass travels over a moving belt of steel in which there are holes”
The diagram label needs the material travelling over the steel belt; the text says a narrow ribbon of molten glass does so.
“Yet it is very simple: a narrow ribbon of molten glass travels over a moving belt of steel in which there are holes”
The label needs what the molten glass travels over; the text says a moving belt of steel in which there are holes.
“The glass sags through the holes and into waiting moulds”
The label needs what the glass sags into through the holes; the text says it sags into waiting moulds.
Questions 9–13: Matching Features
Strategy: Match the statement to the named person or thing. Names can repeat, so check each option against what that person actually says.
Options for Questions 9–13
- Aif the uses exist today
- Bif the uses will exist in the future
- Cif the uses are not mentioned by the writer
dental fittings
“glass ceramics serving as the nose cones of missiles and as crowns for teeth”
Crowns for teeth are cited among glass ceramics, so dental fittings are an existing use, option A.
optical computers
“On the horizon are optical computers”
The text says optical computers are on the horizon, i.e. a use that will exist in the future, option B.
sculptures
“He now has a new commission - a glass sculpture for the headquarters building of a pizza company - for which his fee is half a million dollars”
Chihuly's glass sculpture commission for a pizza company headquarters shows sculptures as an existing use, option A.
fashions
“even a new type of glass fashioned of nuclear waste in order to dispose of that unwanted material the atoms are arranged in a random disordered fashion, characteristic of a liquid”
Fashions appears only as the random disordered fashion in which atoms are arranged, so glass fashions are not mentioned as a use.
curtains
“Glass as instant curtains is available now, but the cost is exorbitant”
The text says glass as instant curtains is available now, but the cost is exorbitant, so the use exists today.
Learn the question types in this passage
Frequently asked questions
Where does the Glass Capturing the Dance of Light passage come from?
It is Passage 1 of Cambridge IELTS 1 Academic Reading Test 4, and it covers Questions 1–13.
What question types appear in Glass Capturing the Dance of Light?
The passage is tested with Matching Headings, Diagram Labeling, Matching Features. Each type is explained on this page, alongside the answers.
Are these reading answers reliable?
Every answer is paired with the sentence that proves it, so you can check each one against the passage yourself. Use the page after a timed attempt, not instead of one.
Cambridge IELTS is published by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Band9Prep is not affiliated with Cambridge. This page is an independent study aid: it gives the answer key, the passage evidence and an explanation so you can review an attempt you have already made.