What is exploration?: reading answers and analysis
The writer argues that exploring is a human instinct we all share, not just a quality of a special breed. There is still a vast amount to discover. Famous explorers define exploration in ways that reflect their own fields, but all share a clear goal and a wish to record findings. For the writer, a writer, exploration today means new ideas: a fresh way of seeing even well-travelled places.
Questions 27-40 · 14 marks · 3 question blocks
Where the answers sit
The multiple choice (27-32) goes through the passage paragraph by paragraph. The explorer matching (33-37) is in the third and fifth paragraphs. The summary (38-40) is the final paragraph.
Questions 27-32
Each question points to a paragraph. The New York visitor shows exploring is part of being human, and the second paragraph says we all have the enquiring instinct. Hardy explored his characters' desires and fears. The 'golden age' idea is wrong because so much is undiscovered. People define exploration by their own profession, and the writer is interested in casting new light on familiar places.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 27 | A | — |
| 28 | C | — |
| 29 | C | — |
| 30 | D | — |
| 31 | A | — |
| 32 | B | — |
Questions 33-37
Thesiger answers twice: going by camel instead of car, and exploration meaning information brought back rather than self-discovery. Fleming describes returning home, Hanbury-Tenison campaigned for tribal peoples, and Fiennes wants something new that is also scientifically useful. Bonington isn't used.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 33 | E | — |
| 34 | A | — |
| 35 | D | — |
| 36 | E | — |
| 37 | B | — |
Questions 38-40
The final paragraph gives all three answers: what the writer has done a great many of, the kind of tribes he lived with, and the part of the planet that is already known. Shorter and longer versions are accepted for each.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 38 | expeditions | unique expeditions |
| 39 | uncontacted | isolated |
| 40 | surface | land surface |
The questions most people get wrong
C. Hardy used the heath's landscape to suggest his characters' desires and fears, which is exploring emotional states, not physical travel.
E (Thesiger). To him, exploration meant bringing back information 'regardless of any great self-discovery'. He's also the answer to question 33.
D. The writer calls the golden-age view mistaken, pointing to millions of unnamed species, unmapped ocean floors and our barely understood brains.
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Cambridge IELTS 15, Test 1, Reading Passage 3. 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.