How to attack this block: Five of the seven are FALSE or NOT GIVEN, which is the usual trap: candidates who half-recognise a name or a date mark TRUE. Treat NOT GIVEN as the default until you can point at the sentence that settles the claim, and remember that a statement contradicted only in degree (most versus some) is still FALSE.
Question 1
Answer: FALSEParagraph 1, last sentence
Did people expect Murray to be world number one for years before he got there?
Yet five years previously, he had been regarded as a talented outsider who entered but never won the major tournaments.
Question says → Passage says
at least five years before 2016five years previously
expected… to become the world's top playerregarded as a talented outsider
Why: Five years before 2016, Murray was seen as an outsider who never won the big events. Nobody calls the expected future number one an 'outsider', so the statement is contradicted. Notice the 'Yet': the writer is stressing how surprising his rise was.
The trap: 'Talented' can make you think people saw his potential, so you might go for NOT GIVEN. But 'outsider who… never won' directly clashes with being the expected top player, which makes it FALSE.
Question 2
Answer: FALSEParagraph 2, middle
Did Murray's racket change get a lot of attention?
Another change was so subtle as to pass more or less unnoticed.
Question says → Passage says
attracted a lot of attentionpass more or less unnoticed
the change… made to his racketsAnother change… he switched to a synthetic string for the mains
Why: The paragraph sets up two changes. The coaching change (Lendl) was 'visible and widely publicised'; the string change was 'so subtle as to pass more or less unnoticed'. Unnoticed is the opposite of attracting attention.
The trap: The words 'widely publicised' are in the same paragraph, but they describe hiring Ivan Lendl, not the racket. Check which change each description belongs to.
Question 3
Answer: NOT GIVENParagraph 3, beginning
Do most top players travel with their own professional stringer?
'Touring professionals have their rackets customised to their specific needs,' says Colin Triplow, a UK-based professional racket stringer.
Question says → Passage says
the world's top playersTouring professionals
a professional racket stringera UK-based professional racket stringer
Why: A stringer is quoted, and we're told top players get their rackets customised. But nothing says who does the work or whether a stringer travels with the player. The Bryans' rackets are sent to Florida, which says nothing about players in general. The idea of taking a stringer on tour isn't there.
The trap: 'Touring' and 'professional racket stringer' both appear in one sentence, so it feels like TRUE. Matching words is not matching information: Triplow is UK-based and talks about customising, not travelling.
Question 4
Answer: FALSEParagraph 3, last sentence
Are the Bryan brothers' rackets lighter than most?
The rackets they use now weigh more than the average model and also have a denser string pattern
Question says → Passage says
light in comparison toweigh more than
the majority of racketsthe average model
Why: The passage says their rackets weigh more than the average model. The statement says they are lighter. That's a direct contradiction.
The trap: Don't let the 'denser string pattern' detail distract you. The comparison that matters is weight, and it goes the other way.
Question 5
Answer: NOT GIVENParagraph 5, first sentence
Did Werner Fischer design the spaghetti-strung racket himself?
when the amateur German tennis player Werner Fischer started playing with the so-called spaghetti-strung racket
Question says → Passage says
played with a spaghetti-strung racketstarted playing with the so-called spaghetti-strung racket
Why: We know Fischer played with the racket and that it was banned. We're never told who invented it. The 'designed himself' part has nothing in the passage to check it against.
The trap: Because his name is the only one linked to the racket, it's easy to assume he created it. The passage only says he 'started playing with' it, which fits an inventor and a user equally well.
Question 6
Answer: TRUEParagraph 6
Can the weather influence how players set up their strings?
They will continually change it depending on various factors including the court surface, climatic conditions, and game styles.
Question says → Passage says
the weatherclimatic conditions
adjust the stringsThe choice of the strings and the tension… They will continually change it
Why: 'It' refers back to the choice of strings and their tension. One of the factors behind changing it is 'climatic conditions', which is a formal way of saying the weather.
The trap: If you don't know that 'climatic' relates to weather, you might choose NOT GIVEN. This is a vocabulary paraphrase, not a gap in the information.
Question 7
Answer: TRUEParagraph 9
Did people think Sampras's racket change helped his powerful serve?
much of the serving power of US professional player Pete Sampras was attributed to the addition of four to five lead weights onto his rackets
Question says → Passage says
It was believed that… contributed towas attributed to
his strong serveserving power
the change… made to his racketsthe addition of four to five lead weights
Why: 'Attributed to' means people saw one thing as the cause of another. Much of his serving power was put down to the lead weights, which is exactly 'it was believed the change contributed to his serve'.
The trap: 'Much of' might make you hesitate, but the statement only says 'contributed to', not 'caused all of'. The two fit.
Note completion (ONE WORD ONLY)
Questions 8-13
How to attack this block: Every answer is a single common noun lifted straight from the passage, so no paraphrasing is allowed. Question 11 is the only one with two accepted forms, which means if your word is a synonym of anything else in this block it is wrong by definition. Check the spelling too: a correct idea spelled wrong scores zero.
Question 8
Answer: paintParagraph 3
Apart from length, what did the Bryans try different types of on their frames?
They explain how they have adjusted not only racket length, but even experimented with different kinds of paint.
Question says → Passage says
made changes to the types ofexperimented with different kinds of
Why: 'Types of' matches 'kinds of', and the noun after it is 'paint'. Paint goes on a frame, which fits 'used on their racket frames'.
The trap: 'Length' and 'string pattern' are nearby, but you can't have 'types of length', and the string pattern is about the strings, not the frame. One word only, so just 'paint'.
Question 9
Answer: topspinParagraph 5
What did the spaghetti-strung racket produce so much of that it got banned?
It created a string bed that generated so much topspin that it was quickly banned by the International Tennis Federation.
Question says → Passage says
not allowed to usebanned
the amount ofso much
it createdgenerated
Why: 'So much ___ that it was banned' gives you cause and effect. The thing it generated too much of was topspin, which is your gap.
The trap: 'String bed' is also something the racket 'created', but it isn't an amount. The gap needs the thing measured by 'the amount of'. Write 'topspin' as one word, as the passage does.
Question 10
Answer: trainingParagraph 5, last sentence
Racket changes are as important as diet and what other thing players do?
Today it is, in many ways, an aspect of the game that is equal in significance to nutrition or training.
Question says → Passage says
as important asequal in significance to
players' dietsnutrition
Why: 'Diets' paraphrases 'nutrition', so the other item in the pair, 'training', fills the gap. It also fits 'the ___ they do'.
The trap: Don't write 'nutrition': the notes have already used it as 'diets'. The gap is the second item.
Question 11
Answer: intestinesParagraph 7, first sentence
Also accepted: gut
Which part of animals were natural strings made from?
At one time, all tennis rackets were strung with natural gut made from the outer layer of sheep or cow intestines.
Question says → Passage says
All rackets used to haveAt one time, all tennis rackets were strung with
of animalssheep or cow
Why: The passage names the material as natural gut taken from sheep or cow intestines. The note says 'made from the ___ of animals', so the body part goes in: 'intestines'. The key also accepts 'gut'.
The trap: 'Layer' is grammatically possible ('the layer of animals') but it's only part of the phrase and makes no sense alone. Watch the spelling of 'intestines' and keep it plural.
Question 12
Answer: weightsParagraph 9
What metal objects did Sampras have added to his rackets?
the addition of four to five lead weights onto his rackets
Question says → Passage says
metallead
put into the framesthe addition of… onto his rackets
Why: The note already says 'metal', which replaces 'lead'. What's left is the noun: 'weights'. It must be plural because he had four to five of them.
The trap: Writing 'lead weights' breaks the one-word limit, and 'lead' alone repeats 'metal'. 'Weight' without the s loses the mark.
Question 13
Answer: gripsParagraph 10, last sentence
What did Oliveira change on his racket handles?
replaced the original grips of his rackets with something thinner because they had previously felt uncomfortable to hold
Question says → Passage says
changedreplaced
on his racket handlesOther changes to the frame involve the handle
Why: Oliveira swapped the original grips for thinner ones because they felt uncomfortable. The thing that changed is the grips, plural, since he did it on all his rackets.
The trap: 'Handle' and 'shape' come up earlier in the same paragraph, but they belong to other players who had handles moulded onto different frames. Oliveira's change was the grips.
Words from this passage worth keeping
tweak(Paragraph 3)
make small adjustments to improve something
customised(Paragraph 3)
made or changed to suit one particular person
specifications(Paragraph 3)
the exact details of how something is made
competitive advantage(Paragraph 4)
something that puts you ahead of rivals
durable(Paragraph 7)
lasting a long time without breaking
attributed to(Paragraph 9)
said to be caused by
moulded(Paragraph 10)
shaped and fixed onto something
anticipated(Paragraph 11)
expected or predicted
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The full Cambridge 19 Test 1 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 1, 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.
