Cambridge ielts 1-15 series reading answers explained

CAMBRIDGE IELTS 7 – TEST 2 – PASSAGE 3
MAKETE INTEGRATED RURAL TRANSPORT PROJECT 

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CAMBRIDGE IELTS 7 READING – TEST 3 – 
ANSWERS 
ANT INTELLIGENCE 
QUESTIONS 1-6 TRUE, FALSE, NOT GIVEN 
1. ANTS USE THE SAME CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION AS 
HUMANS DO 
Keywords: same channels of communication, humans 
In the second paragraph, the writer says: “Ants store food, repel attackers and use chemical signals to 
contact one another in case of attack. Such chemical communication can be compared to the human 
use of visual and auditory channels (as in religious chants, advertising images and jingles, political 
slogans and martial music) ….” This means that ants use chemical signals to communicate and humans 
use visual and auditory channels. These two channels of communication can be compared to each 
other, but they are not the same. 
=> ANSWER: FALSE 
2. CITY LIFE IS ONE FACTOR THAT ENCOURAGES THE DEVELOPMENT 
OF INTELLIGENCE. 
Keywords: city life, encourages, intelligence 
In paragraph 7, the writer states: “Whereas prehistoric man had no exposure to urban lifestyles- the 
forcing house of intelligence- the evidence suggests that ants have lived in urban settings for close on a 
hundred million years…” This means that city life is what encourages the growth of intelligence, so it 
is one factor encouraging the development of intelligence. 
+ city life = urban lifestyles 
+ the forcing house= factor that encourages the development of intelligence 
=> ANSWER: TRUE 
3. ANTS CAN BUILD LARGE CITIES MORE QUICKLY THAN HUMANS 
DO. 
Keywords: large cities, more quickly 
Information relating to the building of ants and humans can be found in paragraphs 7 and 8, where the 
writer says: ” Yet Hoelldobler and Wilson‟s magnificient work for ant lovers, The Ants, describes a 
super colony of the ant Formica yessens is on the Ishikari Coast of Hokkaido. This “megalopolis” was 
reported to be composed of 360 million workers and a million queens living in 4,500 interconnected 
nests across a territory of 2.7 square kilometres.Such enduring and intricately meshed levels of 
technical achievement outstrip by far anything achieved by our distant ancestors.” This means that ants 
are compared to humans in terms of technical achievement (specifically “large cities”in this case) , but 
there is no mention of the speed of building. 
+ large city = megalopolis 
+ humans = ancestors 
=> ANSWER: NOT GIVEN 

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4. SOME ANTS CAN FIND THEIR WAY BY MAKING CALCULATIONS 
BASED ON DISTANCE AND POSITION 
Keywords: find their way, distance, position 
In paragraph 10, the writer reports:”Research conducted at Oxford, Sussex and Zurich Universities has 
shown that when desert ants return from a foraging trip, they navigate by integrating bearings and 
distances…….” 
+ find their way = navigate 
+ position = bearing = direction 
+ integrate = combine two or more things so that they work together. In this context, integrating can 
be understood as making calculations as ants combine “bearings and distances”. 
=> ANSWER: TRUE 
5. IN ONE EXPERIMENT, FORAGING TEAMS WERE ABLE TO USE 
THEIR SENSE OF SMELL TO FIND FOOD. 
Keywords: experiment, foraging, smell 
In paragraph 11, where the experiment is described, the writer says: “Elaborate precautions were taken 
to prevent the foraging team using odour clues.”. 
This means that foraging teams in the experiment cannot rely on smell to find food. 
+ odour = smell 
=> ANSWER: FALSE 
6. THE ESSAY, ” IN THE COMPANY OF ANTS”, EXPLORES ANT 
COMMUNICATION. 
Keywords: In the company of ants, communication 
In the last paragraph, the writer says: “It‟s no surprise that Edward Wilson, in his essay, “In the 
company of ants”, advises readers who ask what to do with the ants in their kitchen to “Watch where 
you step. Be careful of little lives”. The writer just states that the essay advises people to take notice of 
ants. There is no information about whether the essay does or does not explore ant communication. 
=> ANSWER: NOT GIVEN 
QUESTIONS 7-13 COMPLETE THE SUMMARY 
7. THE ANTS CULTIVATE A LARGE NUMBER OF DIFFERENT SPECIES 
OF EDIBLE FUNGI WHICH CONVERT… INTO A FORM WHICH THEY 
CAN DIGEST. 
Keywords: fungi, convert, digest 
In paragraph 5, the writer says: ” Ants can‟tdigest the cellulose in leaves- but some fungi can. The ants 
therefore cultivate these fungi in their nests, bringing them leaves to feed on, and then use them as a 
source of food.” So it can be inferred that ants cultivate fungi because these fungi can digest cellulose, 
which ants cannot digest. After the fungi have eaten the leaves, the cellulose in the leaves is converted 
by the fungi into a form of food that ants can then digest. Here we need a noun- something that fungi 
can digest,and something that they convert into a different form for ants to eat.=> 
ANSWER: C.cellulose 
8-9. THEY USE THEIR OWN NATURAL… AS WEED-KILLERS AND ALSO 
USE UNWANTED MATERIAL AS… 

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Keywords: own natural, weed-killers, unwanted 
In the next sentence, the writer continues : ” Farmer ants secrete antibiotics to control other fungi that 
might act as “weeds”, and spread waste to fertilise the crop.” This means that ants secrete (produce 
from their own bodies) antibiotics to kill weeds. Therefore the most suitable words to be filled here 
should be: 
=> ANSWER: M. secretions 
Also, it can be seen that ants use waste to fertilise their crop. So unwanted material is used as 
fertilizers. 
+ unwanted material = waste 
The answer is: 
=> ANSWER: F. fertilizers 
10. GENETIC ANALYSIS SHOWS THEY CONSTANTLY UPGRADE THESE 
FUNGI BY DEVELOPING NEW SPECIES AND BY… SPECIES WITH 
THEIR NEIGHBOURING ANT COLONIES. 
Keywords: upgrade, species, neighbouring ant colonies 
In paragraph 6, the writer states: “These turned out to be highly diverse: it seems that ants are 
continually domesticating new species. Even more impressively, DNA analysis of the fungi suggests 
that the ants improve or modify the fungi by regularly swapping and sharing strains with neighbouring 
ant colonies” 
+ upgrade = improve or modify 
+ exchange= swap and share 
Here we need a verb-ing which has the same meaning as swapping and sharing. The most suitable 
answer is: 
=> ANSWER: D. Exchanging 
11-13. IN FACT,THE FARMING METHODS OF ANTS COULD BE SAID TO 
BE MORE ADVANCED THAN HUMAN AGRIBUSINESS, SINCE THEY 
USE …METHODS, THEY DO NOT AFFECT THE… AND DO NOT 
WASTE… 
Keywords: farming methods, affect, waste 
Here we have a comparison in farming methods between ants and humans, in which ants is more 
advanced. Human agribusiness is referred to at the end of paragraph 3. The information therefore 
could be navigated to be in paragraph 4, where the author notes the contrast between human 
agribusiness at the end of the previous paragraph and ants: ” The farming methods of ants are at least 
sustainable. They do not ruin environments or use enormous amounts of energy.” Number 11, we need 
an adjective to describe the farming methods of ants. The answer is: 
=> ANSWER: N.sustainable 
Number 12, we need a noun-something that they do not affect 
=> ANSWER: the environment 
Number 13, we need a noun-something they do not waste 
=> ANSWER: energy 
+ affect the enviroment= ruin the environment 
+ waste energy = use enormous amounts of energy 
=> ANSWER: 11. N. sustainable 
=> ANSWER: 12. O. environment 
=> ANSWER: 13 E. Energy 

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