Cambridge 19 Reading Test 2 Passage 1 – The Industrial Revolution in Britain Answers with Explanations

I’m Chen Wei, an IELTS Reading content specialist with eight years’ experience helping learners analyse Cambridge passages strategically. My goal is to explain traps clearly so you build speed, accuracy and confidence for Band 7 and above.

Cambridge 19 Reading Test 2 Passage 1 – The Industrial Revolution in Britain traces how 18th- and 19th-century Britain shifted from rural life to industrial might. It highlights steam power, textiles, iron production, and communication breakthroughs, as well as the social impact — urban growth, factory life, and worker unrest.

Cambridge 19 Reading Test 2 Passage 1

🔹 Questions 1–7 | Notes Completion (ONE WORD ONLY)

This task follows passage order. Practise keyword-spotting with 👉 Scanning for Details.

1) piston

• Keywords: movement, gear mechanism, rotary motion
• Location: Paragraph 2 (mid)
• Locator: “forward and backward strokes of the piston … produced rotary motion”
• Explanation: The note asks what part was linked to gears; the text shows the piston created rotary movement.

2) coal

• Keywords: energy source, steam engines
• Location: Paragraph 3 (opening)
• Locator: “The demand for coal … grew rapidly … needed to run factories and transport”
• Explanation: A greater supply of coal was required to power industry.

3) workshops

• Keywords: before factories, home industry
• Location: Paragraph 4 (opening)
• Locator: “performed in small workshops or even homes”
• Explanation: Textile work occurred in workshops before large mills.

4) labour / labor

• Keywords: less work, machines, spinning jenny
• Location: Paragraph 4 (middle)
• Locator: “relatively little labour was required to produce cloth”
• Explanation: New machines reduced human labour.

5) quality

• Keywords: coke vs charcoal, better metal
• Location: Paragraph 5 (opening)
• Locator: “cheaper and produced metals … of a higher quality”
• Explanation: Smelting with coke improved metal quality.

6) railways / railway

• Keywords: demand, iron, growth
• Location: Paragraph 5 (end)
• Locator: “expansion of the railways from the 1830s”
• Explanation: Iron demand rose with the growth of the railways.

7) sanitation

• Keywords: cities, overcrowded, dirty
• Location: Paragraph 7 (end)
• Locator: “overcrowded cities suffered from pollution and inadequate sanitation”
• Explanation: Cities “lacked sufficient ___” → sanitation.

Boost accuracy on this task with 👉 Note / Table / Flowchart Completion and 👉 Summary Completion.

🔹 Questions 8–13 | True / False / Not Given

Learn this logic with our 👉 True / False / Not Given guide.

8) NOT GIVEN

• Keywords: canals, grew rapidly, transport goods
• Location: Paragraph 3 (middle)
• Locator: “steam-powered boats … used to carry goods along Britain’s canals”
• Explanation: Canals are mentioned, but growth rate is not → NOT GIVEN.

9) FALSE

• Keywords: costs, iron industry, coke
• Location: Paragraph 5 (opening)
• Locator: “coke … was cheaper and produced metals of a higher quality”
• Explanation: Cheaper = costs fell, not rose → FALSE.

10) NOT GIVEN

• Keywords: Morse system reliability
• Location: Paragraph 6 (open–mid)
• Locator: mentions both systems and railway signalling
• Explanation: No comparison of reliability → NOT GIVEN.

11) TRUE

• Keywords: economic benefits, classes
• Location: Paragraph 7 (mid)
• Locator: “improved … for middle and upper classes … poor people continued to struggle”
• Explanation: Benefits limited to some classes → TRUE.

12) TRUE

• Keywords: weavers, machines, job loss
• Location: Paragraph 8 (mid)
• Locator: “feared that unskilled machine operators were robbing them of their livelihood”
• Explanation: Shows workers’ fear → TRUE.

13) NOT GIVEN

• Keywords: sympathy, Huddersfield, arrests
• Location: Paragraph 9 (end)
• Locator: “others were arrested … dozens were hanged or transported”
• Explanation: Punishments given, but no sympathy mentioned → NOT GIVEN.

Practice & Further Resources

Great work! You’ve completed Cambridge 19 Reading Test 2 Passage 1 – Industrial Revolution.
Strengthen your skills through 👉 IELTS Reading Practice Tests and:

• Skimming for Main Ideas
• Reading for Inference
• Understanding Paraphrasing

Tips for Success

• Skim first sentences to predict topics.
• Circle names and dates to locate answers fast.
• Compare meaning, not just words, in TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN.
• Manage time with our 👉 Time Management Tips.

New Vocabulary

Piston – part of an engine that moves up and down to create power. (The steam engine’s piston turned gears to spin machinery.)

Smelting – extracting metal from ore by heating. (Coke made the smelting process cheaper and more efficient.)

Sanitation – systems for keeping areas clean and disease-free. (Poor sanitation caused health issues in industrial cities.)

Urbanisation – growth of cities as people move from rural areas. (Industrialisation accelerated urbanisation across Britain.)

Mechanised – using machines instead of manual work. (Textile production became fully mechanised in the 19th century.)

Luddite – a worker who opposed machines that threatened jobs. (Luddites destroyed machines to protect their livelihoods.)

For more academic terms, visit our 👉 IELTS Vocabulary in Context page.

FAQ

Q1. What question types appear in this passage?
Notes Completion and True/False/Not Given.

Q2. Do Notes Completion answers follow passage order?
Yes – each blank appears sequentially.

Q3. Who were the Luddites?
Skilled textile workers who destroyed machines that threatened their jobs.

Q4. How did industrialisation change British cities?
It caused rapid urbanisation and poor living conditions.

External References

For authentic IELTS information and official practice materials, visit the British Council, IDP IELTS, and IELTS.org — the three organisations that jointly manage the IELTS exam worldwide. To complement your preparation with structured online learning, explore expert-led IELTS Preparation Courses on Course Line, designed to strengthen every skill area and help you achieve your target band score.

Final Thoughts

The Cambridge 19 Reading Test 2 Passage 1 – Industrial Revolution in Britain combines history and technology, perfect for practising how to connect inventions with social change. By analysing keywords and locators, you can improve both speed and logic — essential for Band 7 and above. Next → Cambridge 19 Reading Test 2 Passage 2 – Athletes and Stress.