The coconut palm is useful from top to bottom: timber, leaf brushes, sap for drinks and sugar, coir rope, charcoal and bowls from the shell, and water, oil, milk and glycerine from the inside. Its fruit floats and survives on bare beaches, and scientists still argue over whether it came from Asia, America or Pacific coral islands.
The table (1-8) follows the palm from the trunk to the flesh, Paragraphs 2 to 4 in order. The TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN statements (9-13) start with germination in Paragraph 5 and finish with the origin debate in Paragraph 6.
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: The table is organised by plant part, just like the passage, so scan for trunk, flowers, coir, shell, water and flesh. Each gap is a product or use, and the passage often puts a related word next to it (hardwoods, cooking, fuel, nitroglycerine) to tempt you.
Question 1
Answer: furnitureParagraph 2, fourth sentence
Besides houses, what is coconut timber increasingly used to make?
This is an important source of timber for building houses, and is increasingly being used as a replacement for endangered hardwoods in the furniture construction industry.
Question says → Passage says
timber for housestimber for building houses
the making ofconstruction industry
Why: The table says 'the making of', which matches 'construction'. What's being constructed is 'furniture'.
The trap: 'Hardwoods' is the thing the timber replaces, not what it's used to make. 'Construction' is already in the table as 'making'.
Question 2
Answer: sugarParagraph 2, last sentence
Apart from a drink, what can the flower sap be turned into?
The flower stems may be tapped for their sap to produce a drink, and the sap can also be reduced by boiling to produce a type of sugar used for cooking.
Question says → Passage says
stems provide sapThe flower stems may be tapped for their sap
a source ofto produce a type of
Why: The sap gives a drink, and when it's boiled down it produces 'a type of sugar'. So the sap is a source of 'sugar'.
The trap: 'Cooking' is where the sugar is used. The gap wants what the sap is a source of.
Question 3
Answer: ropesParagraph 3, third sentence
What is coir especially used to make?
The thick fibrous middle layer produces coconut fibre, 'coir', which has numerous uses and is particularly important in manufacturing ropes.
Why: The table's 'etc.' covers the 'numerous uses', and the one named is 'ropes'. Keep the plural.
The trap: 'Fibre' is what coir is, not what it's used for.
Question 4
Answer: charcoalParagraph 3, fifth sentence
What useful product comes from the shell?
An important product obtained from the shell is charcoal, which is widely used in various industries as well as in the home as a cooking fuel.
Question says → Passage says
inner layer (shell): a source ofAn important product obtained from the shell is
Why: 'A source of' matches 'a product obtained from', and the product is 'charcoal'.
The trap: 'Fuel' describes how charcoal is used, so it's one step too far. The product itself is charcoal.
Question 5
Answer: bowlsParagraph 3, last sentence
What are halved shells used as?
When broken in half, the shells are also used as bowls in many parts of Asia.
Question says → Passage says
when halvedWhen broken in half
Why: 'Halved' is 'broken in half', and the halves are 'used as bowls'. Plural.
Question 6
Answer: hormonesParagraph 4, second sentence
What does coconut water provide that helps other plants?
but also provides the hormones which encourage other plants to grow more rapidly and produce higher yields
Question says → Passage says
a source ofprovides the
for other plantswhich encourage other plants to grow
Why: Coconut water 'provides the hormones' that make other plants grow faster. The noun is 'hormones'.
The trap: 'Nutrients' is the word at the start of the paragraph, but those feed the coconut's own seed. The thing that helps other plants is the hormones.
Question 7
Answer: cosmeticsParagraph 4, fourth sentence
Besides cooking, what are coconut oil and milk used in?
which are widely used in cooking in different parts of the world, as well as in cosmetics
Question says → Passage says
oil and milk for cookingcoconut oil and coconut milk, which are widely used in cooking
andas well as in
Why: The table already has 'cooking', and 'as well as' adds the second use: 'cosmetics'.
Question 8
Answer: dynamiteParagraph 4, last sentence
Which product is glycerine an ingredient in?
A derivative of coconut fat, glycerine, acquired strategic importance in a quite different sphere, as Alfred Nobel introduced the world to his nitroglycerine-based invention: dynamite.
Question says → Passage says
an ingredient innitroglycerine-based invention
Why: Nobel's invention was based on nitroglycerine, which comes from glycerine, and the invention is named after the colon: 'dynamite'.
The trap: 'Nitroglycerine' is the tempting word, but it's the chemical, not the product the table means, and it's easy to misspell. The invention is dynamite.
TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN
Questions 9-13
How to attack this block: The FALSE answers reverse something: seeds that grow in full sun don't need shade, and coconuts went from Asia to America, not the other way. The two NOT GIVEN answers compare things the passage keeps separate: east and west coast coconuts, and farming in America and the Pacific.
Question 9
Answer: FALSEParagraph 5, third sentence
Do coconut seeds need shade to germinate?
exposed to the full glare of the tropical sun, coconut seeds are able to germinate and root
Question says → Passage says
need shadeexposed to the full glare of the tropical sun
germinateare able to germinate
Why: FALSE. The seeds germinate in the full glare of the tropical sun. If they can grow in full sun, they don't need shade.
The trap: Some go for NOT GIVEN because 'shade' is never mentioned. But full sun with nothing but sand is the direct opposite of needing shade.
Question 10
Answer: FALSEParagraph 6, third sentence
Did coconuts probably travel from America to Asia in the 1500s?
Arab traders and European sailors are likely to have moved coconuts from South and Southeast Asia to Africa and then across the Atlantic to the east coast of America
Question says → Passage says
probably transportedare likely to have moved
to Asia from Americafrom South and Southeast Asia to… America
Why: FALSE. The movement went the other way: from Asia, via Africa, to America. The statement reverses the direction.
The trap: The 'native to America' theory later in the paragraph makes the reverse sound possible, but that's about where coconuts came from, not about 16th-century transport to Asia.
Question 11
Answer: NOT GIVENParagraph 6, fourth sentence
Were west-coast American coconuts a different type from east-coast ones?
But the origin of coconuts discovered along the west coast of America by 16th century sailors has been the subject of centuries of discussion.
Question says → Passage says
Coconuts found on the west coast of Americacoconuts discovered along the west coast of America
Why: NOT GIVEN. The passage says how the east-coast coconuts probably arrived and that the west-coast ones' origin is debated. It never compares the two types.
The trap: Different origins can make you think 'different type', but where they came from isn't what kind they were.
Question 12
Answer: TRUEParagraph 6, near the end
Are all Asian coconuts cultivated rather than wild?
In Asia, there is a large degree of coconut diversity and evidence of millennia of human use
Question says → Passage says
All the coconuts found in Asia are cultivatedevidence of millennia of human use… but there are no relatives growing in the wild
Why: TRUE. Asian coconuts have been used by people for thousands of years and there are 'no relatives growing in the wild'. If none grow wild, all of them are cultivated.
The trap: 'Diversity' can make you think of lots of wild varieties, but variety doesn't mean wild. The key line is 'no relatives growing in the wild'.
Question 13
Answer: NOT GIVENParagraph 6, last sentence
Are coconuts grown differently in America and the Pacific?
These problems have led to the intriguing suggestion that coconuts originated on coral islands in the Pacific and were dispersed from there.
Question says → Passage says
America and the PacificIn America… coral islands in the Pacific
Why: NOT GIVEN. The Pacific appears only as a possible origin. Farming methods in either place are never discussed.
The trap: Both places are in the last few sentences, so it feels as if they're being compared. They're compared as origins, not as ways of growing coconuts.
'Hormones'. Coconut water helps other plants grow faster. 'Nutrients' at the start of the paragraph is for the coconut's own seed.
Words from this passage worth keeping
clichés(Paragraph 1)
images or ideas used so often they've lost their impact
envisage(Paragraph 2)
picture in your mind
surmounted(Paragraph 2)
topped by
derivative(Paragraph 4)
something made from another substance
viable(Paragraph 5)
able to grow or survive
germinate(Paragraph 5)
start to grow from a seed
diametrically opposed(Paragraph 6)
completely opposite
indigenous(Paragraph 6)
naturally native to a place
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The full Cambridge 13 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 13, 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.
