The Context, Meaning and Scope of Tourism: reading answers and analysis
A textbook overview of tourism: travel through history, the birth of mass tourism, and its huge economic and social importance today. Because the industry is so varied and fragmented, its economic impact is hard to see and hard to measure, even though it leads many countries' economies.
The headings (1-4) take B to E in order. The TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN statements (5-10) run from C to E. The sentence completions (11-13) are all in E.
Answer key and self-check
Type what you wrote and hit mark. Hide the key first if you haven't done the passage yet. Every question number jumps to its explanation.
How to attack this block: Several headings each match one sentence of B (air travel, foreign exchange), but only one covers the whole paragraph's story. C and E both use big figures, so separate them: C is about economic and social importance, and E about how many countries depend on tourism.
Question 1
Answer: iiParagraph B, first two sentences
Which heading fits Paragraph B?
Tourism in the mass form as we know it today is a distinctly twentieth-century phenomenon. Historians suggest that the advent of mass tourism began in England during the industrial revolution
Question says → Passage says
mass tourismTourism in the mass form / the advent of mass tourism
the developmentbegan in England… signalled the rapid growth and expansion
Why: B follows mass tourism from its start in industrial England, through airlines after the war and jets in the 1950s, to a major industry. A story of growth over time is heading ii.
The trap: Heading vi (air travel) and heading iv (foreign exchange) each match one sentence of B. They're stages in the development, not the paragraph's main idea.
Question 2
Answer: iParagraph C, first and last sentences
Which heading fits Paragraph C?
Tourism today has grown significantly in both economic and social importance.
Question says → Passage says
economic and social significanceboth economic and social importance
significance (economy and society)a profound impact both on the world economy and… on society itself
Why: C opens and closes with tourism's importance to the economy and to society, and the figures in between prove it. 'Importance' is 'significance': heading i.
The trap: Heading vii (world impact) is close, because C quotes world figures. But C's frame is economic plus social importance, and vii fits E, where tourism's ranking across many nations is the point.
Question 3
Answer: vParagraph D, first sentence
Which heading fits Paragraph D?
the major problems of the travel and tourism industry that have hidden, or obscured, its economic impact are the diversity and fragmentation of the industry itself
Question says → Passage says
difficulty in recognisinghave hidden, or obscured
the economic effects of tourismits economic impact
Why: D explains why tourism's economic impact is hard to see: the industry is spread across hotels, restaurants, transport and shops, many of which also serve locals. That's heading v.
The trap: The last sentence of D turns positive (diversity makes tourism good for development), but that's a closing twist. Most of the paragraph is about the problem.
Question 4
Answer: viiParagraph E
Which heading fits Paragraph E?
tourism has become the largest commodity in international trade for many nations and, for a significant number of other countries, it ranks second or third
Question says → Passage says
the world impactthe largest commodity in international trade for many nations
world (many countries)the number one ranked employer in the Bahamas, Brazil, Canada
Why: E piles up country after country where tourism is the top industry or top employer. That spread across the globe is tourism's world impact: heading vii.
The trap: Heading iii (travel for the wealthy) catches people who read only the first sentence, 'Once the exclusive province of the wealthy'. That's the starting point; the paragraph is about how far tourism now reaches.
TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN
Questions 5-10
How to attack this block: Three NOT GIVENs borrow real details and attach something new: Australia, recreation, and visitors outspending residents. The single FALSE is about statistics, which E says can't be produced with any certainty.
Question 5
Answer: TRUEParagraph C, middle
Does travel and tourism employ more people than any other industry?
The travel and tourism industry is the world's largest employer with almost 130 million jobs, or almost 7 per cent of all employees.
Question says → Passage says
the largest employment figures in the worldthe world's largest employer
Why: 'The world's largest employer' means no industry has more jobs. That's what the statement says: TRUE.
The trap: Some people stop at '7 per cent' and think that's too small to be the largest. Seven per cent of all workers in one industry is still the biggest share.
Question 6
Answer: NOT GIVENParagraph C, near the end
Does tourism make up over 6% of Australia's GNP?
producing over 6 per cent of the world's gross national product
Question says → Passage says
over six per centover 6 per cent
gross national productgross national product
Why: The 6% figure is for the world's GNP. Australia isn't mentioned anywhere, so we can't tell what tourism contributes there. NOT GIVEN.
The trap: Because the number matches exactly, it's tempting to say FALSE (wrong country) or TRUE. The passage doesn't contradict an Australian figure; it just never gives one.
Question 7
Answer: NOT GIVENParagraph C, last sentence
Does tourism affect society because it encourages recreation?
because of the educative effect of travel and the effects on employment, on society itself
Question says → Passage says
a social impacta profound impact… on society itself
Why: The passage gives two reasons for tourism's effect on society: education and employment. Recreation isn't one of them, and the passage never links recreation to a social impact. NOT GIVEN.
The trap: 'Leisure facilities' appear in D, which makes recreation feel present. They're listed as businesses in the industry, not as a reason for its social impact.
Question 8
Answer: TRUEParagraph D, first sentence
Do two features of the industry make its economic importance hard to measure?
the major problems of the travel and tourism industry that have hidden, or obscured, its economic impact are the diversity and fragmentation of the industry itself
Question says → Passage says
two main featuresthe diversity and fragmentation
difficult to ascertainhave hidden, or obscured
economic significanceits economic impact
Why: The two features are diversity and fragmentation, and they hide the industry's economic impact. 'Ascertain' means find out for sure, which is what 'hidden' prevents. TRUE.
Question 9
Answer: NOT GIVENParagraph D, third sentence
Do visitors always spend more than local residents in tourist areas?
Since many of these businesses also serve local residents, the impact of spending by visitors can easily be overlooked or underestimated.
Question says → Passage says
visitor spendingspending by visitors
residents in tourist areaslocal residents
Why: The passage says visitor spending gets lost among residents' spending, but never compares the two amounts. NOT GIVEN.
The trap: 'Underestimated' can suggest visitors really spend a lot, even more than locals. The passage only says their impact is hard to see, not that it's bigger.
Question 10
Answer: FALSEParagraph E, second to last sentence
Is it easy to show with statistics how tourism affects economies?
it is not possible with any degree of certainty to provide precise, valid or reliable data about the extent of world-wide tourism participation or its economic impact
Question says → Passage says
easy to show statisticallynot possible with any degree of certainty to provide precise, valid or reliable data
how tourism affectsits economic impact
Why: The writer says reliable data on tourism's economic impact can't be produced, because of problems of definition. 'Not possible' contradicts 'easy': FALSE.
The trap: Paragraph C is full of confident statistics, which can make the statement seem TRUE. E then explains that such figures can't be measured with certainty.
Sentence completion (NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS)
Questions 11-13
How to attack this block: E has two country lists, one for income and one for employment. Find which list each named country is in before you write anything. The last gap is the other kind of tourism that has the same measurement problem.
Question 11
Answer: source of incomeParagraph E, third sentence
Also accepted: industry
What is tourism in Greece the most important one of?
tourism is the major source of income in Bermuda, Greece, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and most Caribbean countries
Question says → Passage says
the most importantthe major
In GreeceBermuda, Greece, Italy
Why: Greece is in the list for 'major source of income'. 'Most important' replaces 'major', so the gap takes the next three words: source of income. 'Industry' is also accepted.
The trap: 'Employer' belongs to the next list (the American Express data), and Greece isn't in that one. Check which list each country is in.
Question 12
Answer: employerParagraph E, fourth sentence
What is the travel and tourism industry in Jamaica the major one of?
the travel and tourism industry is the number one ranked employer in the Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, France, (the former) West Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Jamaica
Question says → Passage says
the majorthe number one ranked
in JamaicaHong Kong, Italy, Jamaica
Why: Jamaica is in the second list, where tourism is the number one ranked employer. 'Major' replaces 'number one ranked', so the gap is 'employer'.
The trap: 'Source of income' is the answer for Greece, and 'most Caribbean countries' are in that list too. But Jamaica is named specifically in the employer list.
Question 13
Answer: domestic tourismParagraph E, last sentence
Where else do the problems of measuring international tourism show up?
In many cases, similar difficulties arise when attempts are made to measure domestic tourism.
Question says → Passage says
often reflected inIn many cases, similar difficulties arise
the measurement ofattempts are made to measure
Why: 'Similar difficulties' are the same problems, and they arise when measuring domestic tourism. Two words, well within the limit.
The trap: 'World-wide tourism participation' is in the sentence before, but that's the international measurement problem itself, not where it's reflected.
vii for E. The first line about the wealthy is a set-up. The paragraph lists country after country that depends on tourism.
Words from this passage worth keeping
traversing(A)
travelling across
advent(B)
the arrival or start of something important
foreign exchange(B)
money from other countries earned through trade
fragmentation(D)
being broken into many separate parts
amorphous(D)
without a clear shape or definition
credible(D)
able to be believed or trusted
province(E)
an area of activity that belongs to a particular group
institutionalised(E)
established as a normal, accepted part of life
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The full Cambridge 10 Test 3 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 10, Test 3, Reading Passage 1. The passage and questions belong to Cambridge University Press and are not reproduced here. We quote short extracts only as evidence for our own commentary, and the answers are published for self-marking. Get the book for the full text, or sit the test on Langujet.
The rest of Cambridge 10 Test 3
Passage 1 · Questions 1-13 · You're hereThe Context, Meaning and Scope of Tourism
