The True Cost of Food: reading answers and analysis
Food has become cheaper at the till, but intensive farming carries hidden costs: polluted water, worn-out soil, lost wildlife and health risks. Professor Jules Pretty put a figure on these costs for British farming and argues we pay for food three times. He proposes a Greener Food Standard as a realistic step short of full organic farming.
The paragraph matching (14-17) uses B twice and moves between B, C and E. The YES / NO / NOT GIVEN statements (18-21) run from B to E. The summary (22-26) covers E to G in order.
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.
Q
Your answer
Answer
Questions 14-17 · Matching information (paragraphs A-G)
farmers and consumersAlso accepted: consumers and farmers / farmers, consumers
Matching information (paragraphs A-G)
Questions 14-17
How to attack this block: B answers twice: once for the list of farming stages at its start and once for the algae caused by fertiliser run-off at its end. E is the list of costs, where water companies clean drinking water. C is where economists' term for hidden costs appears.
Question 14
Answer: EParagraph E, first sentence
Which paragraph mentions paying to clean household water?
£23m for the removal of the bug cryptosporidium from drinking water by water companies
Question says → Passage says
a cost£23m
purifying domestic waterthe removal of the bug cryptosporidium from drinking water
Why: E is the list of costs, and one item is money spent removing a bug from drinking water. 'Purifying' = removing something harmful, 'domestic water' = drinking water.
The trap: B mentions polluted lakes and rivers, but it doesn't give any cost of cleaning water. D gives only the overall total.
Question 15
Answer: BParagraph B, first sentence
Which paragraph sets out how farming developed step by step?
First mechanisation, then mass use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, then monocultures, then battery rearing of livestock, and now genetic engineering
Question says → Passage says
the stagesFirst… then… then… then… and now
the development of the farming industrythe onward march of intensive farming
Why: 'First… then… then… and now' is a sequence of stages, and each one is a step in intensive farming. B.
The trap: A mentions 'modern industrial agriculture' and the year 1960, which sounds historical, but it doesn't describe stages.
Question 16
Answer: CParagraph C, second sentence
Which paragraph gives the name for these hidden costs?
the costs of all this damage are what economists refer to as externalities
Question says → Passage says
the term used to describewhat economists refer to as
hidden coststhey are outside the main transaction
Why: 'Refer to as' introduces a term, and 'externalities' is it. C explains they are hidden because they sit outside the deal between farmer and shopper.
The trap: D uses 'externalities' again when Pretty calculates them, but the term is first defined in C.
Question 17
Answer: BParagraph B, last sentence
Which paragraph describes chemicals harming water?
the growth of algae is increasing in lakes because of the fertiliser run-off
Question says → Passage says
one effectthe growth of algae is increasing
chemicalsfertiliser run-off
water sourceslakes
Why: Fertiliser washes into lakes and makes algae grow. That's an effect of chemicals on water, and it's the last line of B, so B is used twice.
The trap: E lists money spent removing pesticides, nitrates and phosphates, which are chemicals in water. But E gives costs, not the effect on lakes. Don't avoid B just because you've used it.
YES / NO / NOT GIVEN
Questions 18-21
How to attack this block: Two are YES and are easy to confirm: the vanishing birds in B and the food poisoning figure in E. The taste of food is never discussed, so that one is NOT GIVEN. The statement about costs being widely recognised clashes with C, where consumers rarely make the connection.
Question 18
Answer: YESParagraph B, third sentence
Is the writer saying some British countryside wildlife is disappearing?
many of our best-loved farmland birds, such as the skylark, the grey partridge, the lapwing and the corn bunting, have vanished from huge stretches of countryside
Question says → Passage says
Several species of wildlifemany of our best-loved farmland birds… wild flowers and insects
are declininghave vanished from huge stretches of countryside
Why: Birds, flowers and insects have vanished from large areas. That's a decline in several species, so YES.
The trap: 'Vanished' might sound like extinct rather than declining. But they've gone from 'huge stretches', not everywhere, which is a decline.
Question 19
Answer: NOT GIVENParagraph A
Does the writer say food tastes worse now?
most food is now far cheaper to buy in relative terms than it was in 1960
Question says → Passage says
in recent yearsthan it was in 1960
Why: The passage compares food's price with the past and lists its damage, but says nothing about taste. NOT GIVEN.
The trap: The threat to human health in A might suggest food has got worse in general. Taste is never discussed.
Question 20
Answer: NOParagraph C
Does the writer say people generally recognise the money cost of environmental damage?
consumers rarely make the connection at the dinner table… To many, the costs may not even appear to be financial at all, but merely aesthetic
Question says → Passage says
widely recognisedconsumers rarely make the connection
The financial costsmay not even appear to be financial at all
Why: Most people don't link the damage to their food, and many don't see it as costing money at all. That contradicts 'widely recognised', so NO.
The trap: Paragraph A says 'a growing number of people' think the cost is too high, which seems to support the statement. C makes clear the general public doesn't see it in money terms.
Question 21
Answer: YESParagraph E, first sentence
Did Professor Pretty include illness from food in his costs?
£169m from food poisoning
Question says → Passage says
illness caused by foodfood poisoning
One of the costs calculatedThe costs included
Why: Food poisoning is illness caused by food, and it's in Pretty's list at £169m. YES.
The trap: Cattle disease (£607m) is next to it, but that's illness in animals. Food poisoning is the one that matches.
Summary completion (NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS)
Questions 22-26
How to attack this block: The summary follows Pretty's argument from E to G. Each gap takes a phrase copied from the text: what we pay three times, the farming Britain should move away from, the step most farmers couldn't take, the name of his proposal and the two groups it would change. The last gap must be two words joined by 'and'.
Question 22
Answer: food billsParagraph E, second and third sentences
Also accepted: food costs
What does Pretty say are higher than people think, because we pay three times?
our food bills are actually threefold. We are paying for our supposedly cheaper food in three separate ways
Question says → Passage says
three different types of paymentthree separate ways / threefold
higher than most people realisesupposedly cheaper food
Why: The gap needs a plural noun after 'our', and the passage gives 'food bills' right before 'threefold'. 'Food costs' is also accepted.
The trap: 'Taxes' is one of the three payments, not the thing that is threefold. Writing 'food' alone misses the plural noun the sentence needs.
Question 23
Answer: intensive farmingParagraph F, second sentence
Also accepted: modern intensive farming
What kind of farming should Britain depend on less?
where the immediate need to supply food is less urgent, and the costs and the damage of intensive farming have been clearly seen, it may be more feasible
Question says → Passage says
realisticmore feasible
reduce its reliance onBreaking away from
Why: F says breaking away is 'more feasible' in Britain, where the damage of intensive farming is clear. The key's answer is 'intensive farming' ('modern intensive farming' also accepted), the phrase the passage uses for the system causing the costs.
The trap: 'Industrial agriculture' sits in the same sentence and means the same thing. The published key lists 'intensive farming', so that's the safe answer. 'Organic farming' is the opposite: it's the alternative, not what to move away from.
Question 24
Answer: organic farmingParagraph G, second sentence
What would most farmers find too hard to switch to?
Professor Pretty feels that organic farming would be too big a jump in thinking and in practices for many farmers
Question says → Passage says
most farmers would be unable to adapt towould be too big a jump in thinking and in practices for many farmers
Why: 'Too big a jump' means farmers couldn't make the change. The thing they couldn't move to is organic farming.
The trap: 'Greener Food Standard' is the next gap. Pretty proposes it precisely because it's easier than full organic production.
What does Pretty call the standard he wants the government to set up?
He is recommending the immediate introduction of a 'Greener Food Standard'
Question says → Passage says
initiate change by establishingthe immediate introduction of
what he refers to asa 'Greener Food Standard'
Why: 'What he refers to as' tells you a name is coming, and the passage puts it in quotation marks. Three words, within the limit. Copy the spelling exactly.
The trap: 'Sustainable system' appears at the end of G, but it's what the standard aims for, not its name.
Question 26
Answer: farmers and consumersParagraph G, last sentence
Also accepted: consumers and farmers / farmers, consumers
Whose attitudes would the standard help to change?
It could go a long way, he says, to shifting consumers as well as farmers towards a more sustainable system of agriculture.
Question says → Passage says
help to change the attitudesgo a long way… to shifting
bothconsumers as well as farmers
Why: 'Consumers as well as farmers' is the 'both' in the summary. The instructions say to join them with 'and', so write 'farmers and consumers' (either order is accepted).
The trap: Copying 'consumers as well as farmers' breaks the three-word limit. Use 'and' as the instructions tell you.
The key wants 'intensive farming', taken from the same sentence in F that talks about its costs and damage. Write the phrase the key gives.
Words from this passage worth keeping
collateral damage(A)
harm caused as a side effect
enervation(A)
weakening, loss of strength
colossal(B)
extremely large
externalities(C)
costs that fall on society rather than on buyer or seller
quantified(D)
measured as a number or amount
subsidies(E)
government money given to support an industry
feasible(F)
possible and practical
viable(G)
able to work successfully
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The full Cambridge 7 Test 2 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 7, Test 2, 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.
