Cambridge ielts 1-15 series reading answers explained

 
39. Answer: uncontacted / isolated
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Key words: large number, first stranger, encountered
The author states that: “I‟ve done a great many expeditions and each one was unique”. As “a great 
many” is the same as “a large number of”, the noun that we would fill in the first gap (38) should be 
“expeditions”. Moreover, the described adjective “unique” used in the passage could also be added, 
making our full answer “(unique) expeditions”. 
Moreover, the writer had also “lived for months alone with isolated groups of people all around the 
world, even two „uncontacted tribes‟”. As “uncontacted tribes” refers to those who might have never 
encountered any person outside theirs own isolated group, the writer could have been the first one to 
make contact with them, so the answer shall be is either “uncontacted” (to be specific) or “isolated” in 
general. 

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489 
a large number = a great many 
40. Answer: (land) surface
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Key words: no need, further exploration
The writer first says that “the time has long passed for the great continental voyages”, and the reason is 
that “we know how the land surface of our planet lies; exploration of it is now down to the details”, 
and that “it‟s the era of specialists”. It could therefore be inferred that the author believes there is no 
need for further exploration of the “land surface”, as the mechanism it is now known and there 
are more specialists to explore the details of it. Thus, “land surface” shall be is the answer for question 
40. 

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490 
CAMBRIDGE IELTS 15 READING 
TEST 2
 ANSWERS 
PASSAGE 1: 
COULD URBAN ENGINEERS LEARN FROM 
DANCE ? 
QUESTIONS 1- 6: READING PASSAGE 1 HAS SEVEN 
PARAGRAPHS, A-G.