The career of the American painter Georgia O'Keeffe: teaching, then charcoal abstractions that reached Alfred Stieglitz, New York skyscrapers and giant close-up flowers, then decades in New Mexico painting bones, landscapes and her Abiquiu patio. Air travel late in life led to huge paintings of rivers and clouds seen from above.
The notes (1-7) run through her life in order, from teaching to the late aerial series. The TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN statements (8-13) start again in the first paragraph and also run in order.
Note completion (ONE WORD ONLY)
Questions 1-7
How to attack this block: The notes are a timeline, so each gap is the next stage of her career. The answers are concrete nouns: her job, her drawing material, and then each subject in turn (city buildings, plants, desert finds, the wider scenery, and what she saw from planes besides clouds).
Question 1
Answer: teacherParagraph 2, last sentence
What job did O'Keeffe do after studying art?
she became an art teacher and taught in elementary schools, high schools, and colleges in Virginia, Texas, and South Carolina
Question says → Passage says
worked as abecame an art
in various places in the USAin Virginia, Texas, and South Carolina
Why: After her studies she became a 'teacher' and worked in three different states. The gap follows 'a', so it needs a singular noun, and only one word: don't write 'art teacher'.
The trap: 'Artist' is tempting because she'd decided to be one, but that comes later (paragraph 5). The job she actually 'worked as' in these years was teaching.
Question 2
Answer: charcoalParagraph 3
What material did she use for the drawings shown in New York?
O'Keeffe began to experiment with creating abstract compositions in charcoal, and produced a series of innovative drawings
Question says → Passage says
created drawings usingcreating abstract compositions in
exhibited in New York Cityexhibited the drawings later that year at his gallery on Fifth Avenue, New York City
Why: The drawings were made 'in charcoal', and paragraph 4 confirms Stieglitz exhibited them in New York. One word: 'charcoal'.
The trap: 'Paintbrush' appears in paragraph 1, but it's about her skill in general. These early works were drawings, and the material named is charcoal.
Question 3
Answer: skyscrapersParagraph 6, first sentence
Which feature of New York did her famous paintings show?
widely known for the architectural pictures that dramatically depict the soaring skyscrapers of New York
Question says → Passage says
became famous forwidely known for
her paintings of the city'sthe architectural pictures that dramatically depict the… of New York
Why: 'Widely known for' = 'became famous for', and the pictures show New York's 'skyscrapers'. Plural, one word.
The trap: 'Architecture' or 'buildings' are near-synonyms, but you must use a word from the passage. 'Architectural' is an adjective and doesn't fit after 'the city's'.
Question 4
Answer: flowersParagraph 6, last sentence, to paragraph 7
What did she paint in her innovative close-up series?
In her magnified images depicting flowers, begun in 1924, O'Keeffe brings the viewer right into the picture.
Question says → Passage says
close-up paintingsmagnified images / Enlarging the tiniest details
innovativean innovative modernist
Why: 'Magnified images' is the passage's way of saying close-ups, and their subject is 'flowers'. The next paragraph says these daring pictures made her name as an innovator.
The trap: 'Botanical subjects' is in the sentence before, but it's two words and an adjective plus noun. The gap needs the one-word subject: flowers.
Question 5
Answer: bonesParagraph 9, first sentence
What first inspired her painting in New Mexico?
at first, it was the numerous sun-bleached bones she came across in the state's rugged terrain that sparked her imagination
Question says → Passage says
initially inspiredat first… sparked her imagination
the many… that could be found therethe numerous… she came across in the state's rugged terrain
Why: 'Initially' = 'at first', and 'many' = 'numerous'. The thing she found was 'bones'. Keep the plural.
The trap: 'Skull' is the subject of her best-known early New Mexico paintings, but there was just one cow skull per picture, and the note wants the 'many' things she found.
Question 6
Answer: landscapeParagraph 10, first sentence
What did the features she painted for over forty years make up together?
it was the region's spectacular landscape, with its unusual geological formations, vivid colours, clarity of light, and exotic vegetation, that held the artist's imagination for more than four decades
Question says → Passage says
the dramaticthe region's spectacular
for over forty yearsfor more than four decades
various featuresunusual geological formations, vivid colours, clarity of light, and exotic vegetation / the rocks, cliffs, and mountains
Why: 'Four decades' points you to this sentence. The rocks, cliffs and mountains are features, and together they form the 'landscape'.
The trap: 'Rocks', 'cliffs' or 'mountains' are the features themselves. The note says the features 'together formed' the gap, so you need the whole: landscape.
Question 7
Answer: riversParagraph 12, second sentence
Besides clouds, what did she paint seen from planes?
Flying in planes inspired her last two major series - aerial views of rivers and expansive paintings of the sky viewed from just above clouds.
Question says → Passage says
travelled widely by planetravelled widely… Flying in planes
seen from aboveaerial views
Why: The two series are 'rivers' and the sky above the clouds. The note already has clouds, so the gap is 'rivers'.
The trap: 'Sky' is the other noun in the sentence, but it belongs to the clouds series, which the note already covers.
TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN
Questions 8-13
How to attack this block: The two FALSEs contradict specific details. The first line says she stayed independent of changing trends. A friend, not O'Keeffe, showed the drawings to Stieglitz. The two NOT GIVENs ask about her favourite works and her most productive period, and the passage offers no ranking of either.
Question 8
Answer: FALSEParagraph 1, second sentence
Did changing art fashions strongly shape her style?
Remarkably, she remained independent from shifting art trends and her work stayed true to her own vision
Question says → Passage says
changing fashions in artshifting art trends
greatly influenced byremained independent from
Why: 'Independent from shifting art trends' is the direct opposite of being 'greatly influenced' by them. FALSE.
The trap: Later she's called 'an innovative modernist', which can make you think she followed a modern trend. Being a modernist innovator isn't the same as following fashions.
Question 9
Answer: TRUEParagraph 2, second sentence
Had she already chosen her career when she left high school?
By the time she graduated from high school in 1905, she had determined to make her way as an artist.
Question says → Passage says
When O'Keeffe finished high schoolBy the time she graduated from high school
had already made her mind uphad determined
the career that she wantedto make her way as an artist
Why: 'Had determined' = 'had made up her mind', and 'by the time she graduated' means it happened before or at that point. TRUE.
The trap: She became a teacher first, which might make you doubt it. The statement is about what she'd decided, not what she did straight away.
Question 10
Answer: FALSEParagraph 3, last sentence
Did Stieglitz find her work because she sent drawings to his gallery?
She sent some of these drawings to a friend in New York, who showed them to art collector and photographer Alfred Stieglitz
Question says → Passage says
sent some abstract drawingsShe sent some of these drawings
to his galleryto a friend in New York, who showed them to
Why: She sent the drawings to a friend, and the friend showed them to Stieglitz. She didn't send them to his gallery, so FALSE.
The trap: The drawings did end up at his gallery, in the next paragraph. That's where he exhibited them later, not how he discovered them.
Question 11
Answer: TRUEParagraph 5, last sentence
Did Stieglitz photograph O'Keeffe over a long period?
Stieglitz's celebrated black-and-white portraits of O'Keeffe, taken over the course of twenty years (1917-37)
Question says → Passage says
the subject of Stieglitz's photographic workStieglitz's celebrated black-and-white portraits of O'Keeffe
for many yearsover the course of twenty years
Why: Stieglitz was a photographer (paragraph 3), and his portraits of her span twenty years. Twenty years is 'many years'. TRUE.
The trap: The word 'photograph' isn't used here, so some people hesitate. 'Black-and-white portraits' by a photographer are photographs.
Question 12
Answer: NOT GIVENParagraph 11, last two sentences
Were the Abiquiu patio paintings some of her own favourites?
the large walled patio with its black door - was particularly inspirational. In more than thirty pictures between 1946 and 1960
Question says → Passage says
O'Keeffe's paintings of the patioIn more than thirty pictures… she reinvented the patio
her house in Abiquiuone feature of the Abiquiu house
Why: The patio inspired over thirty pictures, but the passage never says how she felt about the finished paintings. Being inspired by a subject isn't the same as liking the results best. NOT GIVEN.
The trap: 'Particularly inspirational' and 'more than thirty' sound like a favourite, which tempts TRUE. Inspiration describes the subject, not her opinion of the paintings.
Question 13
Answer: NOT GIVENParagraph 12
Did she produce more work in the 1950s to 1970s than in any other period?
From the 1950s into the 1970s, O'Keeffe travelled widely… In both series, O'Keeffe increased the size of her canvases
Question says → Passage says
during the 1950s to 1970sFrom the 1950s into the 1970s
a greater quantity of workincreased the size of her canvases
Why: The passage says her canvases got bigger in this period, not that there were more of them. No period is compared for the number of works produced. NOT GIVEN.
The trap: 'Increased the size' tempts TRUE if you read it as more work. Size isn't quantity. The 'relatively unproductive' last two decades may tempt FALSE, but that describes her final years, not a comparison with the 1950s to 1970s.
The scenery she painted for over forty years is the region's landscape. Don't write 'rocks' or 'cliffs', which are the features that make it up.
Words from this passage worth keeping
finesse(Paragraph 1)
great skill and delicacy
nuances(Paragraph 1)
very small differences
avant-garde(Paragraph 4)
new and experimental in art
vigorously(Paragraph 5)
with a lot of energy and effort
solitude(Paragraph 8)
being alone, usually by choice
rugged terrain(Paragraph 9)
rough, rocky land
feat(Paragraph 12)
an impressive achievement
hinder(Paragraph 13)
make it difficult to do something
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The full Cambridge 20 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 20, Test 4, 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.
