Test 2 answer key with extra explanations

Reading
Reading Passage 1
Questions 1–13

1 The correct answer is ‘rock’: The text says that three teenagers were tending their goats and
sheep and ‘one of these young shepherds tossed (threw) a rock into an opening … and was
surprised to hear a shattering (breaking) sound’.

2 The correct answer is ‘cave’: The text says that ‘He and his companions later entered the
cave’. ‘Opening’ is incorrect here as they went through the opening into the cave.

3 The correct answer is ‘clay’: The text says that the teenagers found ‘a collection of large clay
jars’. ‘Jars’ is incorrect as the jars were the containers, not the material that the containers
were made of.

4 The correct answer is ‘Essenes’: The text says, ‘the people [who wrote the scrolls] are
thought to have belonged to a group called the Essenes’. ‘Romans’ is incorrect as they did
not write the scrolls. (In questions like this where the answer is an unusual word, be careful to
copy it correctly from the text.)

5 The correct answer is ‘Hebrew’: The text says, ‘The majority of the texts on the Dead Sea
Scrolls are in Hebrew’. ‘Aramaic’ and ‘Greek’ are both incorrect as neither Aramaic nor
Greek were the main language used on the scrolls.

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6 The correct answer is NOT GIVEN: The first paragraph of the text says that the scrolls found
by the teenagers ‘were sold for a small sum’, but there is no information about whether or not
the teenagers were disappointed by this.

7 The correct answer is FALSE: According to the second paragraph, the origin of the Dead
Sea Scrolls is ‘still the subject of scholarly debate even today’. This means that academics still
don’t agree about their origin.

8 The correct answer is TRUE: The fourth paragraph of the text says, ‘The only entire book of
the Hebrew Bible preserved among the manuscripts … is Isaiah’. The other manuscripts are all
‘fragments’ of books – incomplete parts.

9 The correct answer is TRUE: The fifth paragraph of the text says that the Copper Scroll is a
‘curious document’ which has ‘letters chiselled (cut) onto metal’, unlike the other scrolls which
are written in ink on ‘parchment … or … papyrus’.

10 The correct answer is FALSE: According to the sixth paragraph of the text, Mar Samuel
bought some of the scrolls in Jerusalem, ‘paying less than $100 for them’.

11 The correct answer is FALSE: The text says that Mar Samuel ‘travelled to the United
States and unsuccessfully offered [the scrolls] to a number of universities’. The universities
(educational establishments) were therefore not keen to acquire the scrolls.

12 The correct answer is TRUE: The last paragraph says that the scroll that was reassembled
(pieced or put together) gives details of ‘two yearly (annual) religious events’. The second
paragraph explains that the Dead Sea Scrolls ‘were written around 2,000 years ago’.

13 The correct answer is NOT GIVEN: The text says that ‘Only one more … scroll’ still has to
be translated but does not mention any research being done on this.

IELTS 17 Academic, Test 2 answer key with extra explanations, Reading 2

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Reading Passage 2
Questions 14–26

14 The correct answer is C: The final paragraph in this section describes how a team in China
have managed to create a type of tomato which can resist a ‘disease called bacterial spot
race, which can devastate yields’, meaning a disease that can infect large numbers of plants,
and so be dangerous.

15 The correct answer is B: The second paragraph in Section B says that when ‘a single [wild
tomato] plant with a mutation’ is used for breeding, this can result in ‘less desirable traits
(features)’ such as loss of ‘much of their flavour’.

16 The correct answer is E: The second paragraph in this section mentions three plants
(‘foxtail, oat-grass and cowpea’) that could become staple crops and might cope well with
global warming.

17 The correct answer is A: The first paragraph mentions the first domestication of the wild
tomato, which took ‘at least 3,000 years’, and then says that two teams have now ‘done it
[domesticated the tomato] all over again in less than three years’.

18 The correct answer is C: Jorg Kudla says that a newly domesticated tomato (one that has
been genetically edited) is ‘quite tasty … A little bit strong. And very aromatic (pleasant
smelling)’.

19 T
 he correct answer is B: Caixa Gao says, ‘By choosing wild plants that are drought or heat
tolerant … we could create crops that will thrive even as the planet warms.’ (Section E)

20 T
 he correct answer is D: Jonathan Jones thinks, ‘it will be hard for new foods to grow so
popular with farmers and consumers that they become new staple crops’. Here, ‘staple
crops’ means crops that would be grown on a large scale. (Section E)

21 T
 he correct answer is A: Jorg Kudla didn’t want to ‘reveal which species were in his team’s
sights (which types of food his research team were considering domesticating)’ because the
technology is now easy to use and enables ‘Any one with the right skills’ to achieve the same
results. (Section E)

22 T
 he correct answer is C: Joyce Van Eck says that her team has improved one wild fruit, the
groundcherry, but further work ‘would be expensive because of the need to pay for a
licence … and get … approval’ for the use of CRISPR technology. (Section D)

23 T
 he correct answer is A: Jorg Kudla says that CRISPR technology could ‘transform what
we eat’ because ‘There are 50,000 edible plants in the world, but 90 percent of our energy
comes from just 15 crops.’ (Section A)

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24 The correct answer is ‘flavour’ or ‘flavor’: Section B says, ‘sometimes desirable mutations
come with less desirable traits (features)’ and gives the example of tomato plants which have
lost their flavour.

25 The correct answer is ‘size’: Section C says that Kudla’s team ‘tripled the size of fruit’
(referring to tomatoes) by editing one gene.

26 The correct answer is ‘disease’: Section C explains that a team in China have created
a strain of tomato which is ‘resistant to a common disease’ and another strain which ‘has
higher levels of (is rich in) vitamin C’.

IELTS 17 Academic, Test 2 answer key with extra explanations, Reading 4

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Reading Passage 3
Questions 27–40

27 The correct answer is D: In the first paragraph, the writers summarise a popular belief or
assumption about scientific discovery – that it involves personal genius and sudden inspiration.

A is incorrect: The writers are not defending these ideas but suggesting they may not be
well founded.
B is incorrect: The writers present two aspects of common beliefs about scientific discovery
but do not compare them.
C is incorrect: The writers present two widely held views but do not attempt to disprove
either of them at this stage, although they do question the first view.

28 The correct answer is A: In the second paragraph, the writers say that if there is any truth in
the popular belief described in the preceding paragraph, it is ‘limited’, and go on to make a
strong general statement criticising the view: ‘we believe that it largely misrepresents the real
nature of scientific discovery’.

B is incorrect: The writers present a standpoint, but do not justify it at this stage in the text.
C is incorrect: The writers present an opinion but do not explain any approach to the
analysis of scientific discovery.
D is incorrect: The writers are arguing against a common view, but do not present any
support for their argument here.

29 T
 he correct answer is A: The phrase ‘Setting aside such greats as Darwin and Einstein’
suggests that these two scientists are an exception to the general point being made in this
article about innovation.

B is incorrect: The writers say that the contributions of these scientists are ‘duly celebrated’,
meaning that they are appreciated, not misunderstood.
C is incorrect: The writers are setting aside these two scientists and suggesting that they are
extremely unusual, so they would not be a useful model for others to try to copy.
D is incorrect: Since the achievements of these scientists are ‘duly celebrated’, they are
already fully recognised.

IELTS 17 Academic, Test 2 answer key with extra explanations, Reading 5

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30 The correct answer is C: John Nicholson ‘proposed a novel theory about the structure of
atoms’ which was later used by Niels Bohr ‘to conceive his now-famous model of the atom’.

A is incorrect: The writers say Nicholson was ‘unheralded’ meaning that he was not praised
for his work.
B is incorrect: Although Bohr later developed his ideas, it did not lead to any fuller
understanding of Nicholson or his work.
D is incorrect: There is no mention of the response of the whole scientific community to
Nicholson’s idea, only that Niels Bohr used it.

31 The correct answer is A: The writers suggest two possible scientific reasons why Westrope
could have invented the stirrup placement, and then say that neither of these reasons are
true, and that the real reason was just that ‘He suffered a leg injury’.

B is incorrect: The writers do describe the enthusiasm which resulted from the invention, but
the story of the invention is being told to illustrate how inventions happen, not their results.
C is incorrect as no research went into this invention.
D is incorrect: Although the writers suggest that an invention might be the result of ‘a
shrewd plan’, the point of this example is that Westrope did not foresee that the change to
the stirrup would increase his speed.

32 T
 he correct answer is NO: In the eighth paragraph, the writers mention individuals such as
Plato and Leonardo da Vinci to make the point that notions (ideas) such as ‘insight, creativity
and genius’ are too vague to explain how the varied types of innovation were created by
these individuals. The writers say, ‘We need another approach’.

33 T
 he correct answer is NOT GIVEN: The ninth paragraph says that the Law of Effect was put
forward by a psychologist, but does not say that this happened when scientists were looking
for a reason why creativity occurs.

34 T
 he correct answer is YES: The writers say that the Law of Effect, which is concerned with
how ‘organisms tend to repeat successful behaviors’, does not have ‘any end objective’,
meaning that no planning is involved.

35 T
 he correct answer is NO: The tenth paragraph says that ‘the provenance of the raw
material (the source of ideas and behaviours) on which the Law of Effect operates (which it
deals with) are ‘not … clearly known’.

36 T
 he correct answer is NOT GIVEN: In the final paragraph, the writers say that it is a good
time to abandon ‘the naive notions of intelligent design and genius’ but do not say that
scientists are actually turning away from these ideas yet.

IELTS 17 Academic, Test 2 answer key with extra explanations, Reading 6

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37 The correct answer is F ‘inspiration’: In the first paragraph, the writers describe the popular
belief that breakthrough scientific achievements occur when a genius ‘spontaneously’
(suddenly) has an idea which is ‘fully formed and functional’ – that is, an inspiration.

38 The correct answer is D ‘mistakes’: In the fourth paragraph, the writers describe the work
of John Nicholson to describe how scientists may also need to work for long periods and
may make mistakes during this process, as when Nicholson put forward the idea of ‘proto-
elements’, which do not actually exist.

39 The correct answer is E ‘luck’: In the seventh paragraph, the writers say, ‘fresh advances
can arise from error, misadventure, and also pure serendipity – a happy accident (luck)’ and
then illustrate how serendipity – a colleague having a product on hand to solve the problem
of temporarily sticking bookmarks in a hymn book – led to the invention of the Post-It note.

40 The correct answer is B ‘goals’: In the ninth paragraph, the writers say, ‘Just like Darwin’s
Law of Natural Selection, the Law of Effect involves an entirely mechanical process of variation
and selection, without any end objective in sight’ meaning that there are no clear goals.

IELTS 17 Academic, Test 2 answer key with extra explanations, Reading 7

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