Answer Keys reading test 3

IELTS Reading Section 1

1. X. The paragraph gives a short record of human-water interaction.

Note that title XI doesn’t fit — even though it tells us about destructive
force of water in the past, Present Perfect tense is used. This means
that this keeps on going. See note on tenses for clarification
2. I. The paragraph talks about changes to the environment and how said
changes affected our lives. The phrase “are not exactly new” is
a paraphrase of “always”.
3. V. The last sentence best describes the general idea of the paragraph.
Heading IX doesn’t fit as it is not the topical idea, even though it is
mentioned.
4. III. Both seas and rivers are mentioned as causing serious damage.
Even though it sounds simplistic, this heading is the most
appropriate. XI doesn’t fit because the phrase “former times” has a
meaning of times long gone. The events described in the paragraph
took place fairly recently.
5. VIII. This paragraph suggests several ways of solving the current
problem of floods.
6. II. The main idea is lack of water rather that flooding, even though it is
mentioned briefly so we can’t use XII. You should also not be confused
by the first sentence. The paragraph talks about both the future and
the present situation, so XIII doesn’t fit.
7. XIII. The paragraph is about “doom-laden estimates” — pessimistic
forecasts. This title fits the paragraph perfectly.
8. IV. This paragraph reasons whether we should we hopeful about the
future.
9. D. Last sentence of first paragraph. It is going to have even greater
importance. Don’t forget that relevant information goes in a certain
order, see IELTS Reading tips for clarification.
10. A. The key to this questions is the word “ambiguous” which
means that it could be seen in more than one way. Down the
 paragraph the idea is expanded, bringing up examples of good and
bad relationship with water. The suffix ambi- is a Latin prefix meaning
“both, around” (e.g. ambivalence, ambient)
11. D. Second sentence of paragraph “D” says that the catastrophes
are instant news, meaning that this comes as a surprise, as something
new to us. Other paragraphs state the contrary of what is in the text —
learning about the destruction makes us feel better, not frightened.
12. C. Sentence three in paragraph “F”. Tree-planting is described as
being more affordable and therefore a better decision. “A” talks about
international approach to the problem, which is mentioned in the text.
However, there is nothing about coordinating their efforts.
13. C. Second sentence of paragraph “G”. It states that two-thirds of
people will have no access to drinking water. This means that only one-
third of population will have such access.
14. C. First sentence of paragraph “H”. It clearly states the probability
of lowlands submerging underwater.
15. B. Last sentence of paragraph “I”. “Accustomed” is a synonym of
“get used to”. Answer “D” is wrong because it is the opinion of “some”
people, not the author’s.

IELTS Reading Section 2

16. Shortage. Note that the word is in singular, even though it is

plural in the original text. We should use singular form because of the
indefinite article “a” before the gap.
17. Teacher-training. This compound word is counted as one,
because there is a hyphen (“-“ symbol) between them. Note that if you
spell them without that symbol it will be seen as a mistake because the
tasks states one word limit for answers.
18. Profession. Ten years in English is a decade. Finding the word in
the original text makes it easy to guess the right word for the gap.
19. Obvious. Sentence one of the second paragraph has the word
“contempt” which is has the same meaning as “lack of respect”.
20. Increasing. First sentence of paragraph three. Note how the
original text and task texts have this word as different parts of speech
(adjective in the text, continuous verb in the task)
21. Recent. Sentence one of fourth paragraph mentions a series of
“recent bashing”, which is another word for assaults or attacks.
22. Competent. Last sentence of the same paragraph four. As can be
seen from the sentence structure there should be an adjective in the
gap. Experienced is one adjective to describe the teachers, it is used as
a noun in the task. It means we have to use the other adjective.
23. False. The opposite is stated in first paragraph, sentence five.
24. False. Last sentence of paragraph one states that the
government is surprised. However irony can be easily seen because
the previous sentences named the reasons for such poor state of
affairs with teacher’s profession popularity. Government has no right
to be surprised, the situation is natural.
25. Not given. Beginning of paragraph three. The author makes an
assumption, a guess that the teachers have no time to complain
because of the administrative hurdles. It doesn’t mean that this is so in
reality. Don’t be misled by the similar wording of the question and the
sentence in the text.
26. Not given. Paragraph three, sentences two and three. The author
is again using irony — he doesn’t mean that other teachers and cynical.
However he doesn’t state that they aren’t, so we can’t answer FALSE in
this case. We have no actual information whether teacher are cynical
or not.
27. True. Paragraph five, sentence starting with “Initiatives in …”. The
question statement means that theorists are more dangerous than
politicians. This is true, as stated in the sentence: “they know even less,
but are more dangerous”. This refers to the educational theorists.
28. True. Last paragraph, last sentence. It is clearly stated that the
forced government initiatives do not work. Word “foist” is used which
can confuse you.
29. Not given. No such information is present in the text, nothing
even remotely related.
30. B. The main notion throughout the text is how teachers are
underappreciated. “A” is simplistic and is too general. “C” and “D”
mention some of the issues in the text, not all of them, so they cannot
be used as title.
IELTS Reading Section 3

31. No. Paragraph one, second part. The work has “resounding” or a
very strong effect on the visitors. The opposite is true, so the answer is
“No”.
32. Not given. No relevant information on this statement can be
found in the text.
33. Not given. Even though it is stated that the materials are “cheap
and disposable” it is meant to describe the first work. Not to mention
that it doesn’t mean that the artistic value of this piece is lower because
of its materials.
34. Not given. Some design faults are mentioned in paragraphs five
and six. However there is not information on whether they attract any
additional attention.
35. Yes. Paragraph two states that the first work gives a sense of
“order”. The last sentence of paragraph seven states that the third
work gives a sensation of “violence and discomfort”. These emotions
are different; the answer is “Yes”.
36. Not given. The author does not state their preference in the
listed works. Nothing is mentioned about which of the three works is
author’s “favourite”.
37. A. Paragraph nine, first sentence. The author states that the
“visual language is unfamiliar, as is the author”. The comparison makes
it clear that the author is fairly unknown to the public.
38. B. Paragraph nine, the last sentence. As the author states, her
work had been largely ignored “until recently” — it is no longer seen
within the context of its time. It is also natural to put conclusions in the
end of a paragraph.
39. D. Paragraph 11, first sentence. It states that Hesse’s work is
more than the obvious “readings”, or interpretations, make us think.
Therefore it is not easy to read, or to understand it’s meaning.
40. A. Paragraph 10, both sentences. The information there suggests
the importance of her life being greater than her work because of
“influence of feminism … since that period”. Note how this question
defies the paradigm of answers in the text following one another — we
had to return to the previous paragraph to answer it.
Vocabulary
Section 1
n. scarcity – state of being scarce (very rare, hard to find)
adj. despondent – pessimistic
n. flood – a disaster involving water
adj. far-flung — distant, far-away
adj. frightening — scary
n. awe — strong fear of something.
n. pl. defences — protection against something.
adj. habitable — populated by people, animals or other living beings
adj. ill-founded — without reason, false, groundless
adj. ambiguous — dubious, having double meaning, two-sided
v. hamper — to constrain, to prevent somebody from doing something
ph. v. teem with — to be swarmed, to have something in abundance.
adj. doom-laden — catastrophic, grim

Section 2
n. shortage — lack of something.
adj. relentless — having no mercy
v. testify — to give description of events you witnessed (legal term)
adj. crucial — very important
v. encourage — to promote
adj. relevant — having relation to something.
n. sabbatical – a period of leave given to teachers every seventh year of
service.
lat. prima facie — at first sight, as it seems as first
adj. undervalued — underappreciated, given too little importance to
v. foist — to sell or to give by force.

Section 3
adj. inherent — having relation to, intrinsic
adj. resounding — here: having strong effect on somebody.
adj. deliberate — something with a purpose