Cambridge ielts 1-15 series reading answers explained

36. Answer: E
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Key words: not essential, learning about oneself essential
The last sentence in paragraph 5 states that to Wilfred Thesiger, “exploration meant … regardless of 
any great self-discovery.” The word “regardless” here shows that “self-discovery”- which could be 
understood as “learning about oneself” – is not an essential part of exploration. Therefore, the 
statement in this question is the idea of Wilfred Thesiger, suggesting E as the answer. 
learning about oneself = self-discovery 
 
37. Answer: B

Key words: unique, of value
The first explorer mentioned in paragraph 5, Ran Fiennes, said that “An explorer is someone who has 
done something that no human has done before – and also done something scientifically useful”; there 
are two phrases we could look into here. “Something that no human has done before” is the description 
of something that is “unique”, and “something scientifically useful” is something “of value”. 
Therefore, Ran Fiennes is the one that has the definition of exploration as described in the statement, 
suggesting that B is the answer. 
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QUESTIONS 38 – 40: COMPLETE THE SUMMARY BELOW. 
CHOOSE NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS FROM THE PASSAGE 
FOR EACH ANSWER. 
38. Answer: (unique) expeditions
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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. 
a large number = a great many