Why Do Clocks go Clockwise Reading Answers

Sep 26, 2025

Why Do Clocks Go Clockwise Reading Answers contains 12 questions and belongs to the assessment system of the IELTS General Reading test. Why Do Clocks go Clockwise Reading Answers must be answered within 20 minutes. In this IELTS reading section, question types include: Complete the summary below using words from the box, and Do the following statements agree with the information given.

Why Do Clocks go Clockwise Reading Answers offers a comprehensive overview of Clocks go clockwise by historical coincidence, standardized during the 19th century after earlier varied designs. To practice similar reading tests, candidates can refer to the IELTS Reading Practice Test section.

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Topic:

The simple answer is that clocks always go clockwise! If the clock’s hands moved in the opposite direction (to what we are used to), it would still be called ‘clockwise’, of course. But, seriously, why do the hands move from left to right at the top? Generally, the answer given is that clocks were invented in the northern hemisphere where the sun rises in the east, travels round to the south, and sets to the west. The shadow on a typical domestic sundial in olden times would move from left to right. So, the answer is completely logical. Or is it?

If we go back to early clocks, because of their sheer size and cost, there was generally only one turret clock in a town, usually placed high on a tower for all to see and frequently accompanied by a bell that could be heard when the clock face was not visible. If we go back in time to before mechanical clocks, even if people had a sundial at home, they needed a large public sundial that could be read from a distance when they were out. Sundials were therefore placed high on a wall in the town. This is where the explanation about clockwise movement no longer rings true: for sundials on vertical walls have to have their hours arranged in an anti-clockwise progression. As vertical sundials would have been the predecessors of clock towers, one wonders why a right to left movement didn’t become the standard. An old vertical sundial can still be seen in Queen’s College, Cambridge, England. Not only does it go ‘anticlockwise’ but strangely (for us) the number ‘I’ is at the bottom rather than the top.

Surely the hands on clocks have always moved in the same direction, though? Surprisingly, the answer is no. There is a clock painted in fresco in a Cathedral in Florence that is peculiar in several ways. We are used to clocks with twelve hours on the dial but this one has twenty-four and the twenty-fourth does not signify midnight but the hour of sunset (a system that survived until the eighteenth century apparently); furthermore, the layout of the numbers has ‘I’ at the bottom, although of course XII is at the top, and it goes anticlockwise! Thus a clock is not unique, however.

There were other clocks around in the 15th and 16th centuries with Roman numerals going anti-clockwise. Some of them had a hand that went around once in 24 hours, others once every twelve hours, and still others went around four times in 24 hours with the digits I to VI painted on the clock face. Then again, some went around once in 12 hours but the digits were marked I to VI and then I to VI again. Some of the ‘once every 24 hours’ ones were marked I to XII and I to XII again. There were probably even more variations than that. To find out why our clocks go clockwise and are numbered I to XII (or 1 to 12) today, we have to consider the phenomenon described in 1890 in Principles of Economics by Alfred Marshall.

Early clocks were massive and extremely heavy (not to mention very expensive) objects but improvement in technology has reduced these to small timepieces that can sit on a shelf, be carried (often in a waistcoat pocket), or worn on the wrist. When it comes to new technologies, there are often competing designs in competition with one another. Occasionally, one design is obviously pre-eminent and the others soon become obsolete. In the case of the clocks, there would not seem to be one design that is outstandingly more advantageous. We can assume this is where Marshall’s theory fits in: ‘whatever firm [design or technology] gets a good start’ eventually dominates. In other words, once one type of clock face – although it may not have had any technological advantage over others – became widespread, it then became more common; and, once one technology secures a larger share of the market, rivals are in economic decline. It becomes more cost-efficient to produce thereby giving it even greater advantage, so one technology can completely eclipse the others.

Why do clocks go clockwise? Pure coincidence seems the best answer. Clockwise may have been more widespread and got off to a good start. After the invention of the first mechanical clock, for a century and a half, there was no consistency in the direction, the position of the numbers, or even the number of hours shown. All this changed with the mass production of clocks and watches in the nineteenth century. For nearly five hundred years now, they have been consistent–a clockwise dial with twelve hours rotations in a 24-hour period.

Questions 29-34

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text? In boxes 29-34 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

29. 'Clockwise' has always described the left-to-right movement of a clock's hands.

Answer: FALSE

Supporting statement: "Surely the hands on clocks have always moved in the same direction, though? Surprisingly, the answer is no."

Keywords: not always, anticlockwise clocks existed

Keyword Location: Paragraph 3, line 1

Explanation: The text clearly says that not all clocks always went clockwise, so the statement is false.

30. The shadow on a domestic sundial in the southern hemisphere moves from right to left.

Answer: NOT GIVEN

Explanation: Since there is no information about sundials in the southern hemisphere, the correct answer is Not Given.

31. Before the invention of mechanical clocks, people used sundials to tell the time.

Answer: TRUE

Supporting statement: "…even if people had a sundial at home, they needed a large public sundial…"

Keywords: before mechanical clocks, sundials used

Keyword Location: Paragraph 2, line 2

Explanation: The passage clearly states sundials were used before mechanical clocks.

32. The shadow on a vertical sundial moves in a different direction from the domestic equivalent.

Answer: TRUE

Supporting statement: "…for sundials on vertical walls have to have their hours arranged in an anti-clockwise progression."

Keywords: vertical sundials, anti-clockwise, domestic different

Keyword Location: Paragraph 2, line 4

Explanation: The passage confirms vertical sundials moved differently from domestic ones.

33. The sundial at Queen's College and the clock in the Florentine Cathedral move in the same direction.

Answer: TRUE

Supporting statement: "An old vertical sundial… goes anticlockwise… There is a clock… in Florence… and it goes anticlockwise!"

Keywords: anticlockwise, both examples

Keyword Location: Paragraph 2, last line + Paragraph 3, last line

Explanation: Both the Queen’s College sundial and the Florence clock moved anticlockwise.

34. On the old 24-hour clocks, number XII (12) stood for midday and XXIV (24) denoted midnight.

Answer: FALSE

Supporting statement: "…this one has twenty-four and the twenty-fourth does not signify midnight but the hour of sunset…"

Keywords: 24th = sunset, not midnight

Keyword Location: Paragraph 3, line 3

Explanation: Since 24 did not denote midnight, the statement contradicts the passage.

Questions 35-40

Complete the summary below using words from the box.

Improvement in technology has seen clocks develop from large, 35 ……………………

Answer: massive

Supporting statement: "Early clocks were massive and extremely heavy…"

Keywords: large, heavy, massive

Keyword Location: Paragraph 5, line 1

Explanation: Clocks started as massive mechanisms.

mechanisms to very small gadgets. When new technologies arise, designs compete with one another. Sometimes, because one design is so 36……………..

Answer: outstanding

Supporting statement: "Occasionally, one design is obviously pre-eminent…"

Keywords: outstanding, pre-eminent design

Keyword Location: Paragraph 5, line 3

Explanation: A design that is outstanding replaces others.

, it will replace all the others. However, it is not always the best design that wins. There is a theory that asserts the most 37……………..

Answer: popular

Supporting statement: "…‘whatever firm [design or technology] gets a good start’ eventually dominates."

Keywords: popular, gets a good start

Keyword Location: Paragraph 5, Alfred Marshall’s theory

Explanation: The theory argues the popular design wins, even without advantage.

design wins even if it has no obvious advantage over the others. Once this design starts being 38……………

Answer: mass-produced

Supporting statement: "…once one type of clock face… became widespread… All this changed with the mass production of clocks…"

Keywords: mass production, widespread

Keyword Location: Paragraph 6, line 3

Explanation: Once a design was mass-produced, it spread quickly.

, its position in the market is 39…………….

Answer: consistent

Supporting statement: "For nearly five hundred years now, they have been consistent–a clockwise dial…"

Keywords: consistent, stable position

Keyword Location: Last paragraph, line 2

Explanation: The position of this design became consistent in the market.

That is why there seems to be no 40…………

Answer: logical

Supporting statement: "Why do clocks go clockwise? Pure coincidence seems the best answer."

Keywords: coincidence, not logical

Keyword Location: Last paragraph, line 1

Explanation: There is no logical explanation for why clocks go clockwise.

explanation for some of the accepted designs that are commonplace today.

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