Alexander Henderson Reading Answers

The Academic passage ‘Alexander Henderson’ is a reading passage that appeared in an IELTS Test. Try to find the answers to get an idea of the difficulty level of the passages in the actual reading test. If you want more passages to solve, try taking one of our IELTS reading practice tests.

The question types found in this passage are:

True/False/Not Given: In these types of questions, you are required to respond concerning the correctness of the sentence asked. You will answer either ‘True’ or ‘False’ for a given sentence in relation to the context of the passage. And, in case there is no particular reference of a statement, you will have to respond with ‘Not Given” as there is no mention of the information transcended by the sentence that is asked.

Note Completion: In the note completion type of questions, you will need to fill in the blanks with a suitable word. In order to find an answer to the question, you will have to thoroughly go through the passage and understand the inference of it. Then, look for the relevant keywords given in the question, find them in the passage, and fill the blank given for a particular note with an apt word.

Alexander Henderson (1831-1913)

Answers

1 Answer: False

Question Type: True/False/Not given

Answer location: Paragraph 2, Lines 4-8

Answer explanation: “The family had extensive landholding in Scotland. Besides its residence in Edinburgh, it owned Press Estate, 650 acres of farmland about 35 miles southeast of the city. The family often stayed at Press Castle, the large mansion on the northern edge of the property, and Alexander spent much of his childhood in the area…” As Henderson along with his family often (opposite of rarely) spent his childhood around the Press Castle area, it is a wrong statement.

2 Answer: True

Question Type:  True/False/Not given

Answer location: Paragraph 3, Lines 2-5

Answer explanation: “In 1849 he began a three-year apprenticeship to become an accountant. Although he never liked the prospect of a business career, he stayed with it to please his family.” This explains that Henderson didn’t want to pursue his career in business and he did so only because his family wanted it.

3 Answer: Not Given

Question Type:  True/False/Not given

Answer location: No reference

Answer explanation: There is no reference where we can find Henderson and Notman being surprised by the experiment in 1865.

4 Answer: False

Question Type:  True/False/Not given

Answer location: Paragraph 5, Lines 1-4

Answer explanation: “In spite of their friendship, their styles of photography were quite different. While Notman’s landscapes were noted for their bold realism, Henderson for the first 20 years of his career produced romantic images, showing the strong influence of the British landscape tradition.” This shows that Henderson and Notman were notably different in their styles of photography and hence, this statement is wrong.

5 Answer: Not given

Question Type:  True/False/Not given

Answer location: N.A.

Answer explanation: Although there is a reference of Henderson opening a photographic studio in 1866, the location of the studio is not mentioned in the entire passage.

6 Answer: True

Question Type:  True/False/Not given

Answer location: Paragraph 6, Lines 2-4

Answer explanation: “From about 1870 he dropped portraiture to specialize in landscape photography and other views.” This statement indicates that Henderson gave up (‘dropped’) portraiture to gain expertise in landscape photography.

7 Answer: False

Question Type:  True/False/Not given

Answer location: Paragraph 8, Lines 7-11

Answer explanation:  “That same year, while in the lower St Lawrence River region, he took some photographs of the construction of the Intercolonial Railway. This undertaking led in 1875 to a commission from the railway to record the principal structures along the almost-completed line connecting Montreal to Halifax.” From the phrase ‘almost-completed’, we can mention that the Montreal to Halifax line wasn’t finished at the time when Henderson began to work for Intercolonial Railway.

8 Answer: True

Question Type:  True/False/Not given

Answer location: Paragraph 9, Complete Paragraph

Answer explanation: “In 1892 Henderson accepted a full-time position with the CPR as manager of a photographic department which he was to set up and administer. … He continued in this post until 1897, when he retired completely from photography.” This explains that Henderson’s last role relevant to photography was with CPR where he worked as a manager of the photography department and then retired from photography entirely.

9 Answer: merchant

Question Type: Note Completion

Answer location:  Paragraph 2, Lines 1-2

Answer explanation: “Alexander Henderson was born in Scotland in 1831 and was the son of a successful merchant.” This line makes it clear that Henderson’s father was a merchant.

10 Answer: equipment

Question Type: Note Completion

Answer location: Paragraph 6, Lines 8-12

Answer explanation: “There was sufficient demand for these types of scenes and others he took … There was little competing hobby or amateur photography before the late 1880s because of the time-consuming techniques involved and the weight of equipment.” Hence, these sentences tell us that Henderson’s photographs were in demand as there was limited competition due to amount of time they took to be clicked and the equipment that were used to click them were heavy.

11 Answer: gifts

Question Type: Note Completion

Answer location: Paragraph 6, Lines 12-15

Answer explanation: “People wanted to buy photographs as souvenirs of a trip or as gifts, and catering to this market, Henderson had stock photographs on display at his studio for mounting, framing, or inclusion in albums.” So, we can infer that people used to buy Henderson’s photographs as a souvenir of a trip or as gifts.

12 Answer: canoe

Question Type: Note Completion

Answer location: Paragraph 8, Lines 3-5

Answer explanation: “He was especially fond of the wilderness and often travelled by canoe on the Blanche, du Lièvre, and other noted eastern rivers.” This suggests that Henderson used to travel along the eastern rivers like the Blanche, du Lièvre in his canoe.

13 Answer: mountains

Question Type: Note Completion

Answer location: Paragraph 8, Last lines

Answer explanation: “In 1885 he went west along the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) as far as Rogers Pass in British Columbia, where he took photographs of the mountains and the progress of construction.” This tells us that Hendorson took the photographs of mountains and the railways that was under construction when he used to work with the CPR.

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