Here’s a new (well technically the second part of the last) GL paper. You can download the paper here.
Solutions and guidance below. For the most part, I’ve just signposted where to find the relevant evidence to support the correct option as most answers are self-evident.
37.C– ‘he taught himself, when still young, to make fine clocks.’
38. D– ‘they had no reliable way of knowing their “longitude”...As a result, countless lives and thousands, if not millions, of pounds were being lost.’
39. B–E is tempting, but the idea which is emphasised is that the board’s purpose is ‘to distribute the prize money’.
40. D–because noon is 12pm and the sun appears to travel 15 degrees every one hour as explained in point 4 of ‘Stars versus clocks’.
This is a tricky question and students may choose option E assuming the sun moves from east to west in the sky, rising in the east and setting in the west. But the earth moves around the sun, spinning from west to east 15 degrees every one hour. So time moves forward as you go east but backwards as you go west.
41. D– ‘The problem with this simple theory was that it depended on building a clock more accurate than had ever been made.’
42. C– ‘he went to London to build his first clock.’ Note, the key word in this question is ‘first’.
43. A–It didn’t require a pendulum which couldn’t be used on a moving ship but instead used a ‘system of balances’.
44. A– ‘The members of the Board of Longitude were sufficiently impressed to give Harrison £500 to work on an improved model’.
45. E– ‘The members of the board wanted an astronomer, a scientist like themselves, to win.’
46. D– You can compare the weight and size of each clock: H-1 was box shaped and weighed ‘72 pounds’, whereas H-4 ‘weighed about three pounds… and was only five inches across.’
47. E–You can work out it’s a naval ship because ‘William boarded the Royal Navy’s HMS Deptford’. You board (get on) a ship.
48. C–You can infer ‘Maskelyne’ wanted the prize money for himself because he’s a rival.
49. D– ‘Heartbroken and angry, he appealed to the King’
50. C–The H-4 was proven ‘to work almost perfectly.’’
51. B–Because the emphasis is on his legacy as an inventor.
A is tempting but Harrison appealed to the king angry for being snubbed which although understandable suggests that he was determined to receive recognition.
52. E–It's really a story of determination and resilience. The author emphasises how unfairly Harrison was treated by the Board of Longitude.
53. D– dependable makes the most sense if you replace it for ‘reliable’. Try replacing each word in turn and ask which makes most sense.
54. C–again, try out each word in turn.
55. B–occurred here means happened.
56. C–Adjectives.