UNIT 3 Answers to Workbook exercises

1 Example answer
The keyboard layout we all use today on computers and mobile phones was invented
in 1868 by a journalist in the U.S.A. In the old alphabetical layout the typewriter
tended to jam because certain commonly used letters, like s and t, were too close
to each other. [1] As a result, the QWERTY layout led to faster typing and fewer
mistakes. [2] Furthermore / In addition, it was also intended to make life easier for
typewriter salesmen: TYPEWRITER can be tapped out using only the top line.
[3] Nevertheless / Nonetheless, the QWERTY keyboard was flawed (other layouts
are less likely to cause repetitive strain injury). [4] However / Yet it was adopted, and
now millions of words are communicated through the fingers of computer-users every
day. The layout of the keyboard means we attach more positive meaning to words with
letters located on the right-hand side of the keyboard, because for the right-handed
majority of 9 out of 10 of us, they are easier to type. [5] Thus / Therefore it may be
altering the nature of language itself.
As the history of the keyboard shows, once a new technology is adopted, it is very
hard to control, shift or delete it. [6] Consequently / In conclusion, we live in a
QWERTY world, and there is no going back.

2 Example answers
invented in 1868 by journalist in USA
key letters on previous keyboard too adjacent
improved speed and accuracy
typewriter salesmen could demonstrate product easily
possibility of RSI a disadvantage
now standard keyboard layout
letters on right-hand side generally favoured
language may be changing
new technology is here to stay

3 Example answers
a She worked hard and became tired easily.
b They had to arrive at school by 8.30.
c Sorry, but I just don’t understand it!
d ‘Let’s escape from here now,’ she shouted.
e What are you buying me for my birthday?
f If he doesn’t receive good marks this time, he is going to change his course.
g Don’t come too close. I’m suffering from a cold.
h He earns twenty dollars a week for babysitting.
i We shall catch the six pm train on Friday.
j He kept running, knowing they were out to punish him.

4 Example answers
a high-speed train – whoosh
b spinning washing machine – whizz
c siren – wail
d pigeon – coo
e helicopter – whirr
© Cambridge University Press 2014 Cambridge Checkpoint English 9: A World View 1
 UNIT 3 Answers to Workbook exercises

5 Example answers
a thumping – heavy tread on stairs, fist hitting a surface, moving furniture overhead,
machine in action
b croaking – noise made by a frog, someone speaking with a sore throat, elderly voice
c gurgling – rushing water, baby sound
d clanging – metal closing, bells ringing
e swishing – curtains being opened or closed, windscreen wipers in rain, someone
walking in voluminous silk garments, noise made by a broom

6 dolphins are the second-most intelligent creatures

dolphins have distinct personalities
they use a kind of whistle
they are ‘cultural’ animals
dolphins in captivity are able to learn a basic symbol-based language
they have a high level of emotional sophistication
they can memorise more than 100 words and respond to commands

7 Example answer
Bottlenose dolphins are so intelligent that they can think, learn skills and vocabulary,
and communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans.

8 Example answer
‘Are there any lions or tigers about here?’ she [1] enquired timidly.
‘It’s only the Red King snoring,’ [2] replied Tweedledee.
‘Come and look at him!’ the brothers [3] suggested, and they each took one of
Alice’s hands, and led her up to where the King was sleeping.
‘Isn’t he a lovely sight?’ [4] asked Tweedledum.
Alice couldn’t say honestly that he was. He had a tall red night-cap on, with a tassel,
and he was lying crumpled up into a sort of untidy heap, and snoring loud—‘fit to
snore his head off!’ as Tweedledum [5] added.
‘I’m afraid he’ll catch cold with lying on the damp grass,’ [6] ventured Alice, who
was a very thoughtful little girl.
‘He’s dreaming now,’ [7] reported Tweedledee: ‘and what do you think he’s
dreaming about?’
Alice [8] responded, ‘Nobody can guess that.’
‘Why, about you!’ Tweedledee [9] exclaimed, clapping his hands triumphantly. ‘And
if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you’d be?’
‘Where I am now, of course,’ [10] retorted Alice.
‘Not you!’ Tweedledee [11] sneered contemptuously. ‘You’d be nowhere. Why,
you’re only a sort of thing in his dream!’
‘If that there King was to wake,’ [12] opined Tweedledum, ‘you’d go out—bang!—
just like a candle!’
‘I shouldn’t!’ Alice [13] asserted indignantly. ‘Besides, if I’m only a sort of thing in
his dream, what are you, I should like to know?’
‘Ditto,’ [14] snapped Tweedledum.
‘Ditto, ditto!’ [15] repeated Tweedledee.
He [16] shouted this so loud that Alice couldn’t help saying ‘Hush! You’ll be waking
him, I’m afraid, if you make so much noise.’
‘Well, it’s no use your talking about waking him,’ [17] explained Tweedledum, ‘when
you’re only one of the things in his dream. You know very well you’re not real.’

© Cambridge University Press 2014 Cambridge Checkpoint English 9: A World View 2

 UNIT 3 Answers to Workbook exercises

‘I am real!’ [18] insisted Alice, and began to cry.

‘You won’t make yourself a bit realer by crying,’ Tweedledee [19] pointed out:
‘there’s nothing to cry about.’
‘If I wasn’t real,’ Alice [20] stated—half laughing through her tears, it all seemed so
ridiculous— ‘I shouldn’t be able to cry.’

9 ‘Have you heard the Magistrate’s question?’ said a voice at his side.
‘I do not know,’ said Titus, ‘what is meant by such a question. You might just as well
ask me what is this hand of mine?’ And he raised it in the air with the fingers spread
out like a starfish. ‘Forgive me, your Worship, I cannot understand.’
‘It is a place, your Worship,’ said the Clerk of the Court. ‘The prisoner has insisted
that it is a place.’
‘Yes, yes,’ said the Magistrate. ‘But where is it? What is the matter with you?’
‘I would tell you if I could, sir,’ he said. ‘I only know that I have lost my way. I have
lost my bearings, sir.’
‘Did you run away, young man?’
‘I rode away,’ said Titus.
‘From … Gormenghast?’
‘Yes your Worship.’
‘Leaving your mother …?’
‘Yes.’
‘And your father …?’
‘No, not my father …’
‘Ah … Is he dead, my boy?’
‘Yes, your Worship. He was eaten by owls.’
The Magistrate raised an eyebrow and began to write upon a piece of paper.

© Cambridge University Press 2014 Cambridge Checkpoint English 9: A World View 3