Deep-sea mining: reading answers and analysis
A microbe from a deep-sea sponge may yield a new antibiotic, and scientists fear such finds will be lost in the rush to mine the seabed for nickel, cobalt and rare earths. Mining firms promise better ore with little waste. Lawyers and ecologists warn that the deep sea is barely mapped, rules don't exist yet, and hydrothermal vents in particular must be left alone.
Questions 14-26 · 13 marks · 3 question blocks
Where the answers sit
Paragraph matching (14-17) uses C, D, E and F once each. The people matching (18-23) needs the whole passage, with the Blue Ocean Law paper (B) used twice. The summary (24-26) sits in C and the first line of D.
Questions 14-17
Each item is a single detail. Cobalt for electric car batteries is C. The 'around 70%' of the planet covered by ocean is F. Vents formed where seawater meets magma is E. The missing global rulebook is D.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | C | — |
| 15 | F | — |
| 16 | E | — |
| 17 | D | — |
Questions 18-23
B appears twice, because the paper both accuses miners of ignoring local communities and says Moon, Mars and Venus are better mapped than the deep sea. Johnston is the only pro-mining voice, so the 'move away from land reserves' view is his. Tunnicliffe's 'greatest assault' and Copley's 'no mining on vents' are easy to swap, so check the wording.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | D | — |
| 19 | B | — |
| 20 | A | — |
| 21 | E | — |
| 22 | B | — |
| 23 | C | — |
Questions 24-26
The first two gaps come from C: what mining supposedly produces little of, and what gets converted from land mining. The last gap is the first thing environmental and legal groups call for at the start of D.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 24 | waste | — |
| 25 | machinery | — |
| 26 | caution | — |
The questions most people get wrong
A (Upton). He argues that looking for medicines is a better use of the deep sea than mining, which is 'more worthwhile things to extract than minerals'.
C (Copley). Tunnicliffe also wants vents off-limits, but only Copley says scientists are clear, meaning experts agree.
Write 'machinery', not 'machines'. The passage talks about converted machinery previously used in land mining.
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The full Cambridge 19 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 19, Test 4, 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.