Migratory Beekeeping: reading answers and analysis
About half of America's commercial beekeepers follow the bloom: pollinating Californian almonds in February, moving hives at night to orange groves for honey, and then heading north for summer. The passage covers how hives are moved and calmed, how extra 'supers' collect honey, how a centrifuge extracts it, and how weak hives are split and re-queened.
Questions 13-27 · 15 marks · 3 question blocks
Where the answers sit
The flow chart (13-19) follows the passage from the move in March to re-queening. The hive diagram (20-23) is the paragraph on supers and the brood chamber. YES / NO / NOT GIVEN (24-27) covers the history and the extraction steps.
Questions 13-19
Follow the sequence. Beekeepers prepare hives at night when they're full and quiet, and smoke settles lively bees. Farmers charge beekeepers for access to orange groves. Machines uncap and spin the honey out of the combs, and strong double hives are split and re-queened. 'Pay' is the trap, because it's the beekeeper who pays.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | O | — |
| 14 | P | — |
| 15 | A | — |
| 16 | F | — |
| 17 | K | — |
| 18 | M | — |
| 19 | I | — |
Questions 20-23
The diagram shows a hive from the inside. Comb cells hold honey in frames inside the supers, a screen stops the queen climbing up, and the brood chamber sits at the bottom. The key accepts comb or combs for cells, and 'frames of comb' for frames.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | cells | hexagonal cells / comb / combs |
| 21 | frames | frames of comb |
| 22 | screen | — |
| 23 | brood chamber | — |
Questions 24-27
Early American attempts by barge, rail and wagon failed (YES). Bees store honey to eat later in the brood chamber below (YES). The honey is spun to throw it out of the comb, not to make it liquid (NO). The ancient Egyptians moved hives along the Nile, which says nothing about beekeeping there today.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 24 | NOT GIVEN | — |
| 25 | YES | — |
| 26 | YES | — |
| 27 | NO | — |
The questions most people get wrong
F (charge). The beekeeper pays the farmer to put bees in the orange groves, so farmers charge beekeepers. 'Pay' reverses who pays.
NO. Centrifugal force throws the honey out of the combs. Spinning is for extraction, not for making the honey liquid.
NOT GIVEN. The Egyptians' clay hives on rafts are history. The statement is about the present, which the passage doesn't cover.
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The full Cambridge 1 Test 2 reading paper: all three passages, 60 minutes, marked the second you finish with a review of every answer. Already done it? Take it again and see if the same traps still get you.
Cambridge IELTS 1, Test 2, Reading Passage 2. The passage name belongs to Cambridge University Press. No passage text or question wording is reproduced on this page. The answers are published for self-marking, and the analysis is our own.