APIEReading: The Trojan Room Coffee Pot
Vlogging and making videos
Answers and an explanation for each question appear once you add this activity to your own library.
The Trojan Room Coffee Pot
Explore the fascinating story of the world's very first webcam at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory.
💡 How to use this lesson
👨🏫 For Teachers
Use this 15-minute module by allowing students 5 minutes to read the 4 paragraphs and 8 minutes to complete the exercises.
Afterward, review the difficult answers together using the feedback shown after each question.
🎓 For Learners
First, skim paragraphs A to D quickly to understand the main story of the Trojan Room coffee pot.
Next, complete the 8 IELTS-style questions from easy to hard and read the feedback after each answer to see why it is correct.
Reading Passage
Topic: Early Webcams & Tech HistoryAIn 1991, about fifteen researchers at the Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge were working on related research. During their long work hours, they often walked down the corridor to get coffee and found the pot completely empty. To solve this problem, they fixed a camera to a stand and pointed it directly at the coffee machine.
BA camera and a server took the pictures, and users could see a small picture of the pot right on their desktop screens. The picture updated about three times a minute, and that was fine because the pot filled slowly. The lab mentions that the whole system took only a day or so to build.
CThe first published record of the coffee pot camera was a short text by Bob Metcalfe in the magazine Comm Week on 27 January 1992. Later, in late November 1993, Daniel Gordon put the camera on the World Wide Web, so that anyone on the internet could see live pictures of the pot.
DThe lab's own page says that on 11 November 1994 a reporter from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire visited the lab to see the famous setup. Guinness World Records notes that the lab finally switched the camera off on 22 August 2001.
Language Pattern in Context
"I had to redo the first scene, because I misjudged how dark the room was."
Why this works: Notice how we explain the reason for doing something again. We use "because" to connect what happened with why it happened.
IELTS Practice Questions (1–8)
1. The researchers set up the camera because they were tired of walking to an empty coffee pot.
2. It took the Cambridge researchers several weeks to build the coffee pot camera system.
3. The researchers preferred drinking dark roast coffee while working late in the computer lab.
4. How often did the computer screen image of the coffee pot update?
5. What happened when Daniel Gordon connected the camera to the World Wide Web in late November 1993?
6. Which paragraph contains the specific date on which the camera was permanently turned off?
7. On 11 November 1994, a ____ from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire visited the laboratory.
Type ONE word only from the passage.
8. Updating the picture three times a minute was acceptable to users because the coffee pot filled ____ .
Type ONE word only from the passage.
Related lessons
Prefixes: re-, over-, under-, mis-
Vlogging and making videos
Grammar · 12 min
IELTS Speaking: Vlogging and Making Videos
Vlogging and making videos
Speaking · 25 min
Vocabulary & Pronunciation: Vlogging and Making Videos
Vlogging and making videos
Vocabulary · 20 min
Writing Task 2: Vlogging and Making Videos
Vlogging and making videos
Writing · 50 min
Reading: Learning with Mobile Apps
Technology
Reading · 15 min
Reading: Street Food Markets
Food & drink
Reading · 15 min