Legend says the Chinese empress Lei Tzu discovered silk when a cocoon fell into her tea. Silk became a status symbol and even a currency, and the Silk Road carried it west. Smuggled eggs took the secret to Byzantium, the Arabs spread production across Europe, and after cheap Japanese silk and nylon, China is the top producer again.
The notes (1-9) follow the passage from the first paragraph to the last, two or so answers per paragraph. The TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN statements (10-13) start again at paragraph 3 and run to the end.
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: Dates and names (3000 BC, 168 AD, 550 AD, 20th century) are your anchors. The 'only women' and 'only royalty' lines are next to each other, so don't swap them. Read each note line fully: 'precious metals' already covers gold and silver.
Question 1
Answer: teaParagraph 1, middle
What did the cocoon fall into?
while she was sipping some tea, one of the cocoons that she had collected landed in the hot tea and started to unravel into a fine thread
Question says → Passage says
silkworm cocoon fell intoone of the cocoons… landed in
emperor's wife'sLei Tzu, wife of the Yellow Emperor
Why: 'Fell into' = 'landed in', and what it landed in was her tea. The gap follows a possessive ('wife's'), so it needs a noun.
The trap: 'Thread' is in the same sentence, but that's what came out of the cocoon, not where it fell. 'Hot tea' breaks the ONE WORD limit.
Question 2
Answer: reelParagraph 1, near the end
What did the emperor's wife invent to draw out the fibres?
She also devised a special reel to draw the fibres from the cocoon into a single thread
Question says → Passage says
inventeddevised
to pull out silk fibresto draw the fibres from the cocoon
Why: 'Invented' = 'devised' and 'pull out' = 'draw'. What she devised was a reel. 'Special reel' is two words, so write 'reel'.
The trap: 'Thread' and 'fabric' come right after it, but those are the results of using the reel.
Question 3
Answer: womenParagraph 2, first sentence
Who were the only people allowed to make silk at first?
Originally, silkworm farming was solely restricted to women, and it was they who were responsible for the growing, harvesting and weaving.
Question says → Passage says
Only… were allowed to produce silksilkworm farming was solely restricted to
Why: 'Solely restricted to' means only one group could do it: women. The gap needs a plural noun before 'were'.
The trap: 'Royalty' is in the next sentence and also starts with 'only', so people swap the two answers. Royalty could wear silk; women produced it.
Question 4
Answer: royaltyParagraph 2, second sentence
Who were the only people allowed to wear silk at first?
Silk quickly grew into a symbol of status, and originally, only royalty were entitled to have clothes made of silk.
Question says → Passage says
were allowed to wear silkwere entitled to have clothes made of silk
Why: 'Allowed' = 'entitled', and 'wear silk' = 'have clothes made of silk'. The group named is royalty.
The trap: 'Peasants' also wore silk, but only much later, in the Qing Dynasty, when the rules were relaxed. The note is about the original rule.
Question 5
Answer: currencyParagraph 2, middle
What was silk used as, shown by farmers paying taxes with it?
silk was so prized that it was also used as a unit of currency. Government officials were paid their salary in silk, and farmers paid their taxes in grain and silk.
Question says → Passage says
Silk used as a form ofit was also used as a unit of
farmers' taxes consisted partly of silkfarmers paid their taxes in grain and silk
Why: 'A form of' matches 'a unit of', and the next note line about taxes confirms the meaning: silk was money. The word is 'currency'.
The trap: 'Salary' and 'taxes' are examples of how the currency was used, not what silk was used as.
Question 6
Answer: paperParagraph 2, last sentence
What silk item from around 168 AD has been found?
The earliest indication of silk paper being used was discovered in the tomb of a noble who is estimated to have died around 168 AD.
Question says → Passage says
evidence foundThe earliest indication… was discovered
made from silksilk paper
Why: The date 168 AD points straight at this sentence. 'Evidence' = 'indication', and the thing found was silk paper. The note already says 'made from silk', so write 'paper'.
The trap: The list before it (fishing lines, bowstrings, instruments) is also silk, but none of those has a date. 'Tomb' is where the evidence was found, not what it was.
Question 7
Answer: woolParagraph 3, first sentence
Besides gold and silver, what did merchants bring back east?
taking silk westward and bringing gold, silver and wool to the East
Question says → Passage says
take silk westwardtaking silk westward
precious metalsgold, silver
Why: The note groups gold and silver as 'precious metals', so the one item left is wool.
The trap: 'Gold' is the obvious first word, but it's already covered by 'precious metals'. Read the whole note line before filling the gap.
Question 8
Answer: monksParagraph 4, third sentence
Who hid silkworm eggs in canes and took them to Constantinople?
monks working for the Byzantine emperor Justinian smuggled silkworm eggs to Constantinople (Istanbul in modern-day Turkey) in 550 AD, concealed inside hollow bamboo walking canes
Question says → Passage says
hideconcealed inside
take them to Constantinoplesmuggled silkworm eggs to Constantinople
Why: The date 550 AD takes you to this sentence. The people who smuggled the eggs were monks. Plural noun, one word.
The trap: 'Justinian' is in the same sentence, but he was the emperor the monks worked for, not the one carrying the canes.
Question 9
Answer: nylonParagraph 5, third sentence
Which manmade fibre is named as hurting silk production in the 20th century?
Then in the twentieth century, new manmade fibres, such as nylon, started to be used in what had traditionally been silk products
Question says → Passage says
20th centuryin the twentieth century
other manmade fibresnew manmade fibres, such as
Why: 'Such as' introduces the one example, nylon. The note's 'and other manmade fibres' tells you to name the specific fibre.
The trap: 'Stockings' and 'parachutes' are in the same sentence, but they're products, not fibres.
TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN
Questions 10-13
How to attack this block: One answer turns on a negative ('few merchants travelled the entire route'), so flip it carefully. Another turns on who spread silk production: the passage gives that job to someone other than the Byzantines.
Question 10
Answer: FALSEParagraph 3, second sentence
Was gold the most valuable thing carried on the Silk Road?
It was named the Silk Road after its most precious commodity, which was considered to be worth more than gold.
Question says → Passage says
the most valuable materialits most precious commodity
Goldworth more than gold
Why: The most precious thing on the road was silk, and it was worth more than gold. So gold wasn't the most valuable. FALSE.
The trap: Gold is the first thing listed as coming east, and people assume order means value. The next sentence settles it.
Question 11
Answer: TRUEParagraph 3, last sentence
Did most traders cover only parts of the Silk Road?
Few merchants travelled the entire route; goods were handled mostly by a series of middlemen.
Question says → Passage says
Most tradesmen only went along certain sectionsFew merchants travelled the entire route
Why: If few merchants did the whole journey, most did only part of it. The passage says the same thing from the opposite side. TRUE.
The trap: The negative 'few' makes some readers think the statement is being contradicted. Flip it: 'few did all' = 'most did some'.
Question 12
Answer: FALSEParagraph 4, middle
Did the Byzantines spread silk-making across the West?
The Byzantines were as secretive as the Chinese, however, and for many centuries the weaving and trading of silk fabric was a strict imperial monopoly.
Question says → Passage says
spread the practice of silk productionsecretive / a strict imperial monopoly
across the WestSilk production thus spread through Africa, Sicily and Spain as the Arabs swept through these lands
Why: The Byzantines kept silk-making secret and to themselves. It was the Arabs who spread it through Africa, Sicily and Spain. FALSE.
The trap: The paragraph says the secret 'reached the rest of the world via the Byzantine Empire', which sounds like spreading. Getting the secret is not the same as passing it on, and the next sentences say they guarded it.
Question 13
Answer: NOT GIVENParagraph 5, last two sentences
Is most of China's silk export made up of silk yarn?
China has gradually recaptured its position as the world's biggest producer and exporter of raw silk and silk yarn
Question says → Passage says
silk currently exported from Chinabiggest producer and exporter of raw silk and silk yarn
Why: The passage says China exports raw silk and silk yarn but never says how the exports split between them. NOT GIVEN.
The trap: 'Almost two thirds' in the last sentence looks like a 'majority' figure, but it's China's share of world production, not the share of yarn in its exports.
Gold and silver are the 'precious metals' already in the note, so only wool is left.
Words from this passage worth keeping
unravel(Paragraph 1)
come apart into loose threads
devised(Paragraph 1)
invented or designed
millennia(Paragraph 1)
thousands of years
entitled(Paragraph 2)
having the right to do or have something
lucrative(Paragraph 3)
making a lot of money
commodity(Paragraph 3)
a product that is bought and sold
monopoly(Paragraph 4)
complete control of a trade by one group
stifled(Paragraph 5)
held back or prevented from growing
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The full Cambridge 11 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 11, 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 11 Test 3
Passage 1 · Questions 1-13 · You're hereThe Story of Silk
