Airports on Water: reading answers and analysis
Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok and Osaka's Kansai airports were both built on reclaimed islands, but Kansai sits on deep soft mud and is sinking, so its terminal stands on jackable pillars. Chek Lap Kok's builders dredged the mud away, used blasted granite and dredged sand, and added sea walls and geotextile so the island won't settle.
Questions 1-13 · 13 marks · 3 question blocks
Where the answers sit
The classification (1-5) needs the first half of the passage. The diagram (6-9) is the paragraph on granite and sand. The summary (10-13) is the last two paragraphs.
Questions 1-5
Only Chek Lap Kok is over 1,000 hectares (1,248 against Kansai's 520) and in a river delta. Kansai was moved out into open sea. Both are reclaimed land, but only Kansai used the usual method of piling fill on the seabed. Chek Lap Kok 'engineered the problem out'.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | — |
| 2 | A | — |
| 3 | B | — |
| 4 | C | — |
| 5 | B | — |
Questions 6-9
Build the cross-section from the text: granite boulders become the base for runways and taxiways, terminals sit over the original island, a sand layer caps the granite for easy trenching, and sand was piled onto stiff clay exposed by dredging. Mud and water were removed, so they're not labels.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | runways and taxiways | — |
| 7 | terminal building site | — |
| 8 | sand | — |
| 9 | stiff clay | — |
Questions 10-13
Typhoons are blunted by the neighbouring island and the sea walls. Monsoon downpours (rainfall) could wash sand into the rock voids, so geotextile separates the layers. 'Typhoons' and 'rock voids' are traps that name the problem, not the protection.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | E | — |
| 11 | J | — |
| 12 | G | — |
| 13 | D | — |
The questions most people get wrong
B (Kansai only). The 'usual way' is piling fill on the seabed and living with settlement, which Kansai did. Chek Lap Kok dredged the mud out first.
G (rainfall). The monsoon downpours could wash sand into the rock voids and cause more settlement. The voids are where the damage happens, not the cause.
B. Kansai was pushed a further five kilometres offshore into 20-metre-deep water after fishermen protested. Chek Lap Kok is in the Pearl River delta.
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The full Cambridge 2 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 2, Test 1, 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.