The kakapō: reading answers and analysis
New Zealand's kakapō is a heavy, flightless, very long-lived parrot. Polynesian settlers, their dogs and rats, and later European forest clearance and introduced predators nearly wiped it out. After failed rescues and a near-extinct population of 51 in 1995, a funded Recovery Plan with predator-free islands and hand-rearing brought it back to 210 birds by 2020.
Questions 1-13 · 13 marks · 2 question blocks
Where the answers sit
Both blocks follow the passage from A to E. The TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN statements (1-6) move through A, B, D and D again. The notes (7-13) restart in A and finish with the Recovery Plan goals in E.
Questions 1-6
The first three are all FALSE, which unsettles people, but each contradicts one clear detail in A: the only flightless parrot, breeding only when food is plentiful, and males taking no part in rearing. The NOT GIVEN compares two threats (rats vs settlers) that the passage lists without ranking.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | FALSE | — |
| 2 | FALSE | — |
| 3 | FALSE | — |
| 4 | NOT GIVEN | — |
| 5 | TRUE | — |
| 6 | TRUE | — |
Questions 7-13
The note headings mirror the passage's history, so each heading tells you which paragraph to read. The diet list in A gives the first answer once you remove the items the note already mentions. Question 11 needs the year the females were confirmed, not the year the males were first seen.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | bulbs | Bulbs |
| 8 | soil | Soil |
| 9 | feathers | — |
| 10 | deer | Deer |
| 11 | 1980 | — |
| 12 | funding | Funding |
| 13 | stakeholders | — |
The questions most people get wrong
The large male population was spotted in 1977, but the note asks for a definite sighting of females, confirmed in 1980.
NOT GIVEN. Both the settlers and the Polynesian rat hunted kakapō, but the passage never says which did more damage.
Leaves, roots and bark are the 'various parts of a tree' already in the note, and fern fronds are named too. What's left from the list is 'bulbs'.
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The full Cambridge 20 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 20, 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.