Cambridge ielts 1-15 series reading answers explained

28. Answer: NOT GIVEN 
Explain 
– Key words: creatures, danger, ocean, trash, seabirds 
– Paragraph 3 only mentions that “certain seabirds eat plastic bags” but we do not find any information 
about them being the most in danger. Scientists have only „speculated‟ about wider effects: „There 
wasn‟t a lot of information‟. 
– Thus it is NOT GIVEN. 
29. Answer: FALSE 
Explain 
– Key words: studies, Rochman, reviewed, proved, some birds, extinct 
– Rochman gave an imaginary example in paragraph 3 of a study which might show certain birds 
eating plastic, and then warn that those birds are “at risk of dying out”. But this, as well as many other 
perceived threats, had not yet been tested, according to Rochman. In other words, there is no proof that 
the birds will soon become extinct. 
– The statement is therefore FALSE. 
30. Answer: TRUE 
Explain 
– Key words: Rochman, analysed, papers, danger, ocean trash 
– Paragraph 4 states that “Rochman and her colleagues examined more than a hundred papers on the 
impacts of marine debris” and found 366 perceived threats. It can be understood that these papers 
focused on various kinds of danger (threat) caused by ocean trash (marine debris). 
31. Answer: FALSE 
Explain 
– Key words: most, research, analysed, Rochman, badly, designed 
– In paragraph 5, the author states that “In 83 percent of cases, the perceived dangers of ocean trash 
were proven true”. So, there is obviously no reason to think that this research was badly designed if the 
findings were proven true, “In the remaining cases, the working group found the studies had 
weaknesses in design”. Therefore, only 17 percent of the cases analysed were badly designed. So, most 
of the cases were well designed. 
– The statement is FALSE. 
32. Answer: TRUE 
Explain 
– Key words: one, study, expecting, mussels, harmed, eating, plastic 
– The information about mussels (a type of shellfish) can be found in paragraph 6 The study examined 
mussels that eat plastic, “but it didn‟t seem to stress out the shellfish”. This means that the plastic 
didn‟t seem to have any harmful effect on the mussels. Rochman said this study “failed to find the 
effect it was looking for”, so clearly it was looking for some effect of the plastic on the mussels. 

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