The Little Ice Age: reading answers and analysis
Answer key for Cambridge IELTS 8 Test 2 Passage 2, with the matching-headings, summary and matching blocks separated and explained.
Questions 14-26 · 13 marks · 3 question blocks
Questions 14-17
Headings are numbered rather than lettered in this set, and there are more headings than paragraphs. Write a three-word summary of each paragraph before you look at the list; choosing from the list first is how candidates get pulled toward a heading that matches one sentence instead of the whole paragraph.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | 2 | — |
| 15 | 7 | — |
| 16 | 9 | — |
| 17 | 4 | — |
Questions 18-22
The summary paraphrases one stretch of the passage in order, so once you find the starting point the remaining gaps follow it. Fit the grammar first: several of the nine options are semantically plausible but grammatically impossible in the gap.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | C | — |
| 19 | B | — |
| 20 | A | — |
| 21 | H | — |
| 22 | G | — |
Questions 23-26
Letters repeat in this block, with C used twice, so do not cross an option off once you have used it. That single assumption is the most common way candidates lose two marks here rather than one.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 23 | C | — |
| 24 | C | — |
| 25 | A | — |
| 26 | B | — |
Cambridge IELTS 8, Test 2, Reading Passage 2. 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.