Should we try to bring extinct species back to life?: reading answers and analysis
'De-extinction' aims to revive species like the passenger pigeon, the thylacine and the woolly mammoth using cloning and gene editing. Supporters point to ecological gains: thylacines could have stopped the devils' facial cancer, pigeon-like birds could renew stagnant forests, and cold-adapted elephants could cool the tundra. Beth Shapiro doubts exact revival is possible and prefers 'genetic rescue' of living species.
Questions 14-26 · 13 marks · 3 question blocks
Where the answers sit
Paragraph matching (14-17) uses A twice. The mammoth summary (18-22) is all in E. The people matching (23-26) needs B, D and F, and Shapiro is the answer twice.
Questions 14-17
A answers two items: the exact date the last passenger pigeon died, and cloning an extinct animal's own DNA into an embryo. D describes the eastern US forests left stagnant. F is about using the technology to prevent future mass extinctions.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | F | — |
| 15 | A | — |
| 16 | D | — |
| 17 | A | — |
Questions 18-22
E gives the details in order: what Church is pinpointing (two words), what the adaptations are meant to reduce (two words), and the features to add besides thicker hair. The last gap is what grass growth would reduce, and the shorter answers are accepted for two of these.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | genetic traits | — |
| 19 | heat loss | — |
| 20 | ears | — |
| 21 | fat | insulating fat |
| 22 | emissions | carbon emissions |
Questions 23-26
Archer says thylacines would protect the Tasmanian devils' health. Novak's hybrid pigeon would disturb and renew forests, which is the vegetation benefit. Shapiro makes two points: study why species went extinct, and admit that what we do now is not enough.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 23 | B | — |
| 24 | C | — |
| 25 | A | — |
| 26 | C | — |
The questions most people get wrong
A, not C. A describes cloning the extinct animal's DNA itself into an embryo, while C describes inserting extinct DNA into a living species to make a hybrid.
B (Archer). Thylacines would kill enough Tasmanian devils to stop the contagious cancer spreading, which improves the health of the devils as a species.
Write 'ears'. The summary already says 'of a reduced size', so 'smaller ears' would repeat the idea and break the grammar.
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Cambridge IELTS 15, 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.