How to attack this block: 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 14
Answer: 2Paragraph B, fourth and fifth sentences
Which heading fits paragraph B?
The climatic events of the Little Ice Age did more than help shape the modern world. They are the deeply important context for the current unprecedented global warming.
Question says → Passage says
the relevancethe deeply important context
todaythe current unprecedented global warming / help shape the modern world
Why: Paragraph B introduces the Little Ice Age and then says why it matters now: it shaped the modern world and is the context for today's warming. That's heading 2, 'The relevance of the Little Ice Age today'.
The trap: Most of B describes the weather: cold winters, glaciers, rapid shifts. That detail is what the summary in questions 18-22 uses, but the paragraph's point is why this period matters to us now.
Question 15
Answer: 7Paragraph D, first sentence
Which heading fits paragraph D?
This book is a narrative history of climatic shifts during the past ten centuries
Question says → Passage says
a studyThis book is a narrative history
covering a thousand yearsduring the past ten centuries
Why: Ten centuries is a thousand years, and the book is the study. Paragraph D tells you what the book covers, starting with Part One on the Medieval Warm Period. Heading 7.
The trap: Heading 8, 'People have always responded to climate change', fits the phrase 'the ways in which people in Europe adapted', but that's already the example heading for paragraph A, and D is about the scope of the book.
Question 16
Answer: 9Paragraph E, last three sentences
Which heading fits paragraph E?
The increased productivity from farmland made some countries self-sufficient in grain and livestock and offered effective protection against famine.
Question says → Passage says
enough foodself-sufficient in grain and livestock
at lastoffered effective protection against famine
Why: Paragraph E moves from famine (1315 to 1319) and worries about food supplies to an agricultural revolution that finally made countries self-sufficient and protected against famine. The story ends with food security, which is heading 9, 'Enough food at last'.
The trap: Heading 4, 'Human impact on the climate', can look possible because people change how they fish and farm in E. But here people react to the climate; they don't change it. That's paragraph F.
Question 17
Answer: 4Paragraph F, fourth sentence
Which heading fits paragraph F?
The unprecedented land clearance released vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, triggering for the first time humanly caused global warming.
Question says → Passage says
human impacthumanly caused / land clearance / the use of fossil fuels
on the climateglobal warming / greenhouse gas levels continued to soar
Why: Paragraph F explains how people started to warm the planet: forest clearance released carbon dioxide, then fossil fuels pushed greenhouse gases higher. Heading 4.
The trap: Heading 3, 'How cities contribute to climate change', is the decoy. F is about farmers clearing forests and the use of fossil fuels, and it never mentions cities.
Summary completion (list of words A-I)
Questions 18-22
How to attack this block: 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 18
Answer: CParagraph C, third sentence
What is one of our main sources for climate before records began?
For the time before records began, we have only 'proxy records' reconstructed largely from tree rings and ice cores, supplemented by a few incomplete written accounts.
Question says → Passage says
documentation is limitedsystematic weather observations began only a few centuries ago
our main sourcesreconstructed largely from
the distant pastthe time before records began
Why: 'Largely from' tells you the main sources: tree rings and ice cores. Questions 18 and 19 can go in either order, so C (tree rings) and B (ice cores) fill the pair.
The trap: I, 'written accounts', is in the same sentence, but they only 'supplement' the main sources, and they're 'few' and 'incomplete'. F, 'weather observations', only began a few centuries ago, so they don't cover the distant past.
Question 19
Answer: BParagraph C, third and fourth sentences
What is the other main source for climate before records began?
we have only 'proxy records' reconstructed largely from tree rings and ice cores… a growing body of temperature data from ice cores drilled in Antarctica, Greenland
Question says → Passage says
our main sources of knowledgereconstructed largely from tree rings and ice cores
Why: The second main source is ice cores (B), and the next sentence backs this up with ice cores drilled in Antarctica, Greenland and the Andes. Either order is fine with question 18.
The trap: D, 'glaciers', is ice too, and Swiss glaciers appear in paragraph B, but they describe what the cold looked like, not how we measure past climate.
Question 20
Answer: AParagraph B, sixth sentence
What was the Little Ice Age instead of a steady freeze?
The Little Ice Age was far from a deep freeze, however; rather an irregular seesaw of rapid climatic shifts
Question says → Passage says
rather than of consistent freezingfar from a deep freeze
a time of climatic shiftsan irregular seesaw of rapid climatic shifts
Why: The summary keeps the 'rather' contrast: not a deep freeze, but a seesaw of climatic shifts. A.
The trap: E, 'interactions', appears in the same sentence ('interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean'), but those interactions are what drove the shifts, not what the period was.
Question 21
Answer: HParagraph B, last sentence
What came with heavy rain in some periods?
then switched abruptly to years of heavy spring and early summer rains, mild winters, and frequent Atlantic storms
Question says → Passage says
others of ___ and heavy rainyears of heavy spring and early summer rains… frequent Atlantic storms
Why: The passage lists three kinds of period. The second has heavy rains and frequent Atlantic storms, so the summary's 'others of ___ and heavy rain' is storms (H).
The trap: G, 'heat waves', is also in this sentence, but heat waves come with drought in the third kind of period, not with rain.
Question 22
Answer: GParagraph B, last sentence
What happened in the periods with no rain?
or to periods of droughts, light northeasterly winds, and summer heat waves
Question says → Passage says
with no rain at allperiods of droughts
saw ___summer heat waves
Why: Drought means no rain, and the same group of conditions includes summer heat waves. G.
The trap: H, 'storms', has just been used for the rainy periods. 'Glaciers' (D) don't fit a drought either.
Matching features
Questions 23-26
How to attack this block: 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 23
Answer: CParagraph F, first two sentences
When did many Europeans start farming in other countries?
There was a vast migration from Europe by land-hungry farmers and others… to North America, Australia, New Zealand, and southern Africa.
Question says → Passage says
many Europeansa vast migration from Europe
started farming abroadland-hungry farmers… to North America, Australia / intensive European farming methods expanded across the world
Why: This migration comes right after 'the beginning of the Modern Warm Period' after 1850, and the farmers went to other continents. Modern Warm Period, C.
The trap: The Norse settled Greenland in the Medieval Warm Period (A), which is also Europeans abroad. But nothing is said about them farming there, and 'land-hungry farmers' are in F.
Question 24
Answer: CParagraph F, third and fourth sentences
When did cutting down trees start to change the climate?
Millions of hectares of forest and woodland fell before the newcomers' axes between 1850 and 1890… triggering for the first time humanly caused global warming
Question says → Passage says
the cutting down of treesforest and woodland fell before the newcomers' axes / The unprecedented land clearance
began to affect the climatetriggering for the first time humanly caused global warming
Why: Forest clearance between 1850 and 1890 released carbon dioxide and set off human-caused warming 'for the first time'. That's after 1850, so the Modern Warm Period, C. The letter repeats, which is allowed.
The trap: Some people avoid using C twice. Classification questions often reuse a letter, so don't let the previous answer push you to B.
Question 25
Answer: AParagraph D, second and third sentences
When did Europeans find new lands?
Part One describes the Medieval Warm Period, roughly 900 to 1200. During these three centuries, Norse voyagers from Northern Europe explored northern seas, settled Greenland, and visited North America.
Question says → Passage says
EuropeansNorse voyagers from Northern Europe
discovered other landsexplored northern seas, settled Greenland, and visited North America
Why: 'During these three centuries' points back to the Medieval Warm Period, when the Norse explored, settled Greenland and reached North America. A.
The trap: Paragraph E says Norse voyages were rerouted and then 'ended altogether' as the Little Ice Age cooling began. That's when exploring stopped, not when it happened.
Question 26
Answer: BParagraph E, middle
When did fishing patterns change?
changes in water temperatures forced fishing fleets to work further offshore. The Basques, Dutch, and English developed the first offshore fishing boats adapted to a colder and stormier Atlantic.
Question says → Passage says
changes took place in fishing patternsforced fishing fleets to work further offshore
Why: Paragraph E covers the Little Ice Age cooling from about 1200. Colder water pushed fleets further out to sea, and new offshore boats were built for 'a colder and stormier Atlantic'. B.
The trap: 'Dried cod and herring were already the staples' could suggest fishing patterns were settled earlier. The change itself, moving offshore, happens in the cold period.
Words from this passage worth keeping
at the mercy of(A)
unable to protect yourself from something
opportunism(A)
taking advantage of chances as they come
unprecedented(B)
never having happened before
seesaw(B)
a repeated movement back and forth between two states
supplement(C)
add to something to make it more complete
commodity(E)
a product that is bought and sold
self-sufficient(E)
able to produce everything you need without help
proliferate(F)
increase quickly in number
Sit this test on Langujet, then come back
The full Cambridge 8 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 8, 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.
