The return of the huarango: reading answers and analysis
The huarango's record-breaking roots reach deep water in Peru's coastal desert, feeding other plants, holding the soil and once getting people through droughts. Clearing it turned the Lower Ica Valley to desert. Botanist Oliver Whaley is reviving pride and profit in the tree: festivals, school planting, syrup, flour and 'coffee', and forest corridors on big farms.
Questions 1-13 · 13 marks · 3 question blocks
Where the answers sit
The notes (1-5) come from the first two paragraphs, and the table (6-8) from the third. TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN (9-13) covers the last four paragraphs.
Questions 1-5
Each note is one benefit of the tree, in passage order: what its roots reach, what it was key to in ancient times, what it helped people survive, what cutting it down causes, and what the land turns into. All five are nouns.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | water | — |
| 2 | diet | — |
| 3 | drought | — |
| 4 | erosion | — |
| 5 | desert | — |
Questions 6-8
The third paragraph lists each part of the tree with its use. Match the use in the table to the part: branches for charcoal fuel, leaves and bark for remedies, the trunk for houses. Question 7 needs both parts, so it uses the two-word allowance.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | branches | its branches / huarango branches / the branches |
| 7 | leaves and bark | bark and leaves / leaves bark / bark leaves / leaves, bark / bark, leaves / leaves & bark / bark & leaves / its leaves and bark / its bark and leaves |
| 8 | trunk | its trunk / huarango trunk / the trunk |
Questions 9-13
Benevides doesn't yet earn enough to live on (FALSE). Whaley says desert life has always lived in small corridors and islands, so the project doesn't need a huge area (FALSE). He is persuading farmers to plant corridors (TRUE). The passage doesn't say who told Whaley about traditional uses, and Africa is only an example of where the model could work.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | NOT GIVEN | — |
| 10 | FALSE | — |
| 11 | TRUE | — |
| 12 | FALSE | — |
| 13 | NOT GIVEN | — |
The questions most people get wrong
FALSE. Whaley contrasts the desert with a rainforest that needs a huge expanse. Here a few trees are enough for numbers to recover.
NOT GIVEN. Africa is mentioned as a place that could take hope from the project, not somewhere Whaley plans to go.
Write both parts: 'leaves and bark'. The key accepts them in either order.
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The full Cambridge 15 Test 4 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 15, Test 4, Reading Passage 1. 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.