The Nile delta is eroding fast. The Aswan dams were blamed for trapping sediment, but Daniel Stanley found plenty of sediment still reaching Cairo; it gets stuck in irrigation canals and lagoons instead of the coast. That sediment is now polluted, threatening Egypt's food supply, and Stanley suggests artificial floods now and desalination later.
The headings (14-17) cover B, D, E and F, since A and C are examples. The YES / NO / NOT GIVEN block (18-23) runs in order from A to D. The word-list summary (24-26) covers only E and F.
Answer key and self-check
Type what you wrote and hit mark. Hide the key first if you haven't done the passage yet. Every question number jumps to its explanation.
How to attack this block: Two headings are already used in the examples, so cross them off. Several headings pick up a detail (flooding Cairo, pollution in the Mediterranean) rather than a paragraph's main point. Read the first and last sentences of each paragraph to find its focus.
Question 14
Answer: ivParagraph B
Which heading sums up paragraph B?
the two large dams at Aswan in the south of Egypt, which hold back virtually all of the sediment that used to flow down the river
Question says → Passage says
Interruptinghold back virtually all of the sediment
a natural processThis continued for 7,000 years / Annual flooding brought in new, nutrient-rich soil
Why: iv. B describes a cycle that ran for 7,000 years, floods bringing new soil to replace what the sea took, and then the dams stopping it. That's a natural process interrupted.
The trap: ii, the danger of flooding Cairo, picks up the detail that the dams protect Cairo from floods. But that's one reason the dams were built, not the paragraph's main point.
Question 15
Answer: iParagraph D
Which heading sums up paragraph D?
The water in the irrigation canals is still or very slow-moving and thus cannot carry sediment
Question says → Passage says
irrigationirrigation canals
sedimentationThe sediment sinks to the bottom of the canals
Why: i. The whole of D explains how the irrigation canals slow the water so the sediment sinks and never reaches the coast. That's the effect of irrigation on sedimentation.
The trap: vii, Egypt's disappearing coastline, fits the last sentence, but that heading is already used for A, and D's focus is the canals, not the coast.
Question 16
Answer: vParagraph E
Which heading sums up paragraph E?
The farms on the delta plains and fishing and aquaculture in the lagoons account for much of Egypt's food supply.
Question says → Passage says
food productionmuch of Egypt's food supply
The threatThese poisons can easily enter the food chain, affecting the productivity of fishing and farming
Why: v. E opens by saying the delta farms and lagoons supply much of Egypt's food, then shows how pollution in the sediment harms fishing and farming. The threat is to food production.
The trap: iii, pollution in the Mediterranean, is the big distractor. The pollution in E builds up in the delta's fields and lagoons, not in the sea.
Question 17
Answer: viiiParagraph F
Which heading sums up paragraph F?
principally because they fear the impact this situation could have on the whole Mediterranean coastal ecosystem
Question says → Passage says
long-termin the long term an alternative process such as desalination
impactthe impact this situation could have
Why: viii. F looks ahead: international groups fear the wider impact, and Stanley proposes short-term and long-term solutions. The paragraph is about consequences and the future.
The trap: iii is tempting because F mentions the Mediterranean ecosystem. But the paragraph is about fears and possible solutions, not about pollution actually being caused there.
YES / NO / NOT GIVEN
Questions 18-23
How to attack this block: The statements follow the passage in order. Two NOT GIVENs bring in ideas the writer doesn't mention (predictions before the dams, canal flooding). Two YES answers need careful reading: erosion happened before the dams, and 'almost half' is relatively high.
Question 18
Answer: YESParagraph A, second sentence
Did the coast erode before the Aswan dams were built?
In the past, land scoured away from the coastline by the currents of the Mediterranean Sea used to be replaced by sediment
Question says → Passage says
Coastal erosion occurredland scoured away from the coastline by the currents
before the building of the Aswan damsIn the past
Why: YES. Land was 'scoured away' by currents in the past too; the difference is that the river used to replace it. Erosion happened, it was just balanced out.
The trap: People think 'before the dams there was no problem', so they write NO. The problem was the lack of replacement, not the start of erosion.
Question 19
Answer: NOT GIVENParagraph B, first sentence
Did anyone predict before the dams went up that they'd cause land loss?
Up to now, people have blamed this loss of delta land on the two large dams at Aswan
Question says → Passage says
Some peoplepeople have blamed
Why: NOT GIVEN. People blame the dams now, after the land loss. Nothing is said about warnings before the dams were built.
The trap: 'People have blamed' looks like support for TRUE, but blaming afterwards isn't predicting beforehand.
Question 20
Answer: NOParagraph B, last sentence
Were the Aswan dams built to make the delta more fertile?
when the Aswan dams were constructed in the 20th century to provide electricity and irrigation, and to protect the huge population centre of Cairo
Question says → Passage says
built towere constructed… to provide
Why: NO. The writer lists the purposes: electricity, irrigation, flood and drought protection for Cairo. Fertility isn't one of them, and in fact the dams trapped the natural fertilizer upstream.
The trap: 'Irrigation' sounds like it helps farming and fertility. But irrigation is supplying water, not making the soil fertile, and the dams actually stopped the fertile silt.
Question 21
Answer: YESParagraph C, third sentence
Did Stanley find fairly high sediment levels in the river at Cairo?
the river sometimes carries more than 850 grams of sediment per cubic metre of water - almost half of what it carried before the dams were built
Question says → Passage says
relatively highalmost half of what it carried before the dams were built
in Cairowater samples taken in Cairo
Why: YES. Almost half the pre-dam level is high for water that left the dams almost sediment-free. Stanley himself says 'a lot of sediment' is coming into the delta.
The trap: 'Almost half' sounds low, which leads some to NO. 'Relatively' means compared with what you'd expect, and you'd expect nearly none below the dams.
Question 22
Answer: NOT GIVENParagraph D, third sentence
Does sediment in the irrigation canals cause floods?
The sediment sinks to the bottom of the canals and then is added to fields by farmers or pumped with the water into the four large freshwater lagoons
Question says → Passage says
Sediment in the irrigation canalsThe sediment sinks to the bottom of the canals
Why: NOT GIVEN. The passage says what happens to the canal sediment (fields, lagoons), but never links it to flooding.
The trap: Floods are mentioned elsewhere (annual floods, artificial floods), which makes the word feel familiar. None of those are caused by canal sediment.
Question 23
Answer: YESParagraph D, third sentence
Is water pumped from the canals into the lagoons?
pumped with the water into the four large freshwater lagoons that are located near the outer edges of the delta
Question says → Passage says
Water is pumpedpumped with the water
into the lagoonsinto the four large freshwater lagoons
Why: YES. The sediment is 'pumped with the water' from the canals into the lagoons, so water is being pumped there too.
The trap: The subject of the passage sentence is the sediment, not the water, so some people say NOT GIVEN. 'With the water' means both go.
Summary completion (word list A-H)
Questions 24-26
How to attack this block: The summary covers pollution, then a short-term and a long-term solution. The list includes near misses from the same sentences (natural floods, delta waterways, nutrients), so check the exact role each word plays.
Question 24
Answer: FParagraph E
What has increased markedly in the silt on the delta?
'Pollutants are building up faster and faster,' says Stanley
Question says → Passage says
a marked increasebuilding up faster and faster / increased significantly / increased dramatically
Why: F, pollutants. E is about waste in the sediment: mercury, lead, copper and zinc all rising. Stanley's own word is 'pollutants'.
The trap: E, nutrients, is tempting because fertilizers boost plant growth in the lagoons. But that's one type of waste; the summary wants the general increase, which is pollutants. H, sediment, is wrong because the silt is the thing containing it.
Question 25
Answer: AParagraph F, third sentence
What does Stanley suggest for the short term?
In the immediate future, Stanley believes that one solution would be to make artificial floods to flush out the delta waterways
Question says → Passage says
in the short termIn the immediate future
suggests the use ofone solution would be to make
Why: A, artificial floods. 'Immediate future' is the short term, and his solution is to create floods artificially.
The trap: D, natural floods, appears in the same sentence, but only as the comparison: artificial floods would work the way natural ones did before the dams. C, delta waterways, is what gets flushed, not the method.
Question 26
Answer: BParagraph F, fourth sentence
How could more water be made available in the longer term?
in the long term an alternative process such as desalination may have to be used to increase the amount of water available
Question says → Passage says
in the longer termin the long term
increasing the amount of water availableincrease the amount of water available
Why: B, desalination. The summary copies 'increase the amount of water available' almost exactly, and the process named is desalination.
The trap: G, population control, links to the last sentence about a 'rapidly growing population', but Stanley never suggests controlling it.
v, the threat to food production. The pollution builds up in the delta's fields and lagoons, not in the Mediterranean, so iii doesn't fit.
Words from this passage worth keeping
eroded(A)
gradually worn away
scoured(A)
worn away by strong movement of water
dispensing with(B)
making something unnecessary
replenish(C)
fill up again; replace what was lost
diverted(D)
sent in a different direction
laden with(E)
carrying a lot of something
concurs(E)
agrees
desalination(F)
removing salt from seawater to make it usable
Sit this test on Langujet, then come back
The full Cambridge 5 Test 3 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 5, Test 3, Reading Passage 2. 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.
