How to attack this block: Six paragraphs, numbered headings, and a list longer than the number of gaps. The safest order is to read the paragraph, name its function in your own words, then find the heading that names that function rather than the one that repeats its vocabulary.
Question 27
Answer: 8Paragraph A, last sentence
Which heading fits paragraph A?
The perception of smell, therefore, consists not only of the sensation of the odours themselves, but of the experiences and emotions associated with them.
Question says → Passage says
smell and feelingssmell can evoke strong emotional responses / emotional associations
Why: Paragraph A is about Synott's survey, which found smells trigger joy or disgust depending on our memories. Its last sentence sums it up: smell is tied to emotions. Heading 8, 'The relationship between smell and feelings'.
The trap: Heading 2, 'personal relationships', is tempting because emotions and memories feel personal. But A is about feelings in general. Relationships with other people start in paragraph B.
Question 28
Answer: 2Paragraph B, first sentence
Which heading fits paragraph B?
Odours are also essential cues in social bonding.
Question says → Passage says
personal relationshipssocial bonding / their mothers / their children or spouses / their marriage partners
Why: The topic sentence says smell matters in social bonding, and the examples are all close relationships: mothers and babies, parents and children, husbands and wives. Heading 2.
The trap: Heading 8 (feelings) still seems to fit because of 'emotional bonding'. But B's examples are about recognising the people we're close to, so relationships is the better fit, and 8 belongs to A.
Question 29
Answer: 6Paragraph C, first two sentences
Which heading fits paragraph C?
smell is probably the most undervalued sense in many cultures. The reason often given for the low regard in which smell is held is that
Question says → Passage says
not appreciatedthe most undervalued sense / the low regard in which smell is held
whyThe reason often given
Why: 'Undervalued' is 'not appreciated', and the paragraph gives the reason: people think human smell is weak compared with animals'. Heading 6.
The trap: Heading 7, 'Smell is our superior sense', picks up the end of C, where our noses are 'remarkably acute'. But the writer only says smell is better than people think, not that it's better than our other senses.
Question 30
Answer: 1Paragraph D, second and third sentences
Which heading fits paragraph D?
Odours, unlike colours, for instance, cannot be named in many languages because the specific vocabulary simply doesn't exist.
Question says → Passage says
the difficultiesa highly elusive phenomenon / struggling to express
talking about smellscannot be named / when describing an odour
Why: Paragraph D says we can't name smells because many languages lack the words, so we fall back on 'It smells like…'. That's the difficulty of talking about smells, heading 1.
The trap: Heading 3, 'Future studies into smell', is tempting because D ends by saying this 'has implications for olfactory research'. That last line leads into E. It isn't the main idea of D.
Question 31
Answer: 3Paragraph E, last sentence
Which heading fits paragraph E?
Questions like these mean that interest in the psychology of smell is inevitably set to play an increasingly important role for researchers.
Question says → Passage says
futureis inevitably set to play an increasingly important role
studies into smellresearch on smell / for researchers
Why: Paragraph E lists questions research hasn't answered yet and ends by predicting where research is going. Unanswered questions plus a forecast for researchers is heading 3, 'Future studies into smell'.
The trap: Heading 4, 'The relationship between the brain and the nose', looks possible because E asks whether the nose is the only part of the body affected. But the brain is never mentioned, and that question is just one item in the list.
Question 32
Answer: 5Paragraph F, second and sixth sentences
Which heading fits paragraph F?
Smell is cultural, hence it is a social and historical phenomenon… Importantly, our commonly held feelings about smells can help distinguish us from other cultures.
Question says → Passage says
the interpretation of smellsOdours are invested with cultural values / our commonly held feelings about smells
a factor in defining groupscan help distinguish us from other cultures
Why: Paragraph F says how a culture judges smells is part of what makes it different from other cultures. Interpreting smells helps define groups, heading 5.
The trap: Heading 8 (feelings) appears again because F mentions 'emotionally charged experiences'. The paragraph's focus is culture and groups, not individual feelings.
Multiple choice
Questions 33-36
How to attack this block: Four options each, and the questions run in passage order, so each answer sits below the previous one. Where two options look defensible, the wrong one usually overstates; watch for absolutes the passage never commits to.
Question 33
Answer: CIntroduction, last sentence
According to the introduction, when do we notice how important smell is?
It is only when the faculty of smell is impaired for some reason that we begin to realise the essential role the sense of smell plays
Question says → Passage says
our ability to smellthe faculty of smell
is damagedis impaired
we become aware of the importancewe begin to realise the essential role
Why: 'Impaired' means damaged or weakened, and 'begin to realise' is 'become aware of'. 'It is only when' tells you this is the moment we notice. C.
The trap: D picks up the sentence before ('the aromas which surround us'), but that sentence says we breathe them in without noticing their importance. B and A are never mentioned.
Question 34
Answer: AParagraph B, last two sentences
What does the experiment in paragraph B show?
Most of the subjects would probably never have given much thought to odour as a cue for identifying family members… even when not consciously considered, smells register.
Question says → Passage says
without realising iteven when not consciously considered / never have given much thought to
we make use of smellsmells register / distinguish by smell alone
Why: People could pick out their partner's clothes by smell even though they'd never thought of smell as a way to identify family. So we use smell without realising. A.
The trap: B is tempting because the test is about family members, but it shows people can recognise a partner's smell, not that family members smell alike. D fails because women and men took part together and weren't compared.
Question 35
Answer: CParagraph C, second and third sentences
What is the writer doing in paragraph C?
The reason often given for the low regard in which smell is held is that… the human sense of smell is feeble and undeveloped. While it is true that the olfactory powers of humans are nothing like as fine
Question says → Passage says
a common beliefThe reason often given / feeble and undeveloped
limitationsnothing like as fine as those possessed by certain animals
Why: The writer reports the common view that human smell is 'feeble and undeveloped', admits the limitation that it's 'nothing like as fine' as some animals', then argues back: our noses are 'still remarkably acute' and can recognise thousands of smells. The paragraph's direction is to push back against that common view. That's C: rejecting a common belief.
The trap: Don't stop at 'While it is true…'. That clause concedes a limitation, which is why D (describing limitations) tempts people, but the sentence turns on 'they are still remarkably acute', the writer's real point. A and B don't fit: no other research is cited and nothing is proposed.
Question 36
Answer: DParagraph E, second and third sentences
What does paragraph E suggest about the study of smell?
many fundamental questions have yet to be answered. Researchers have still to decide whether smell is one sense or two
Question says → Passage says
yet to behave yet to be answered / have still to decide
definedwhether smell is one sense or two
Why: Researchers can't yet say whether smell is one sense or two, and they don't know if the nose is the only part of the body involved. Those are basic questions about what smell actually is, so the paragraph's point is that smell hasn't been fully defined. That's D.
The trap: C (most smells are inoffensive) is the classic wrong pick, but E never says that. The option about measurement becoming more accurate twists E: the passage asks 'how smells can be measured objectively', which means nobody knows yet.
Text completion
Questions 37-40
How to attack this block: All four answers are single plural nouns taken directly from the passage. If the word you want needs an article or an adjective to make sense in the gap, you have taken too much; trim it back to the noun.
Question 37
Answer: clothingParagraph B, fourth sentence
What could people recognise as their partner's by smell?
women and men were able to distinguish by smell alone clothing worn by their marriage partners from similar clothing worn by other people
Question says → Passage says
tests have shownIn one well-known test
recognisedistinguish
belonging to their husbands and wivesworn by their marriage partners
Why: 'Husbands and wives' are 'marriage partners', and what people recognised was the clothing they'd worn. 'Clothing' is uncountable, so no plural 's'.
The trap: 'Scent' or 'odours' might seem right, but the sentence says odours help people recognise something, so the gap is the object recognised, not the smell itself.
Question 38
Answer: vocabularyParagraph D, second sentence
What do some language groups lack for describing smell?
Odours, unlike colours, for instance, cannot be named in many languages because the specific vocabulary simply doesn't exist.
Question says → Passage says
certain linguistic groupsmany languages
have difficulty describing smellcannot be named
lack the appropriatethe specific… simply doesn't exist
Why: 'Lack' matches 'doesn't exist', and 'appropriate' matches 'specific'. The missing thing is vocabulary.
The trap: 'Languages' is nearby, but the groups already have languages; they lack the words within them. 'Words' isn't in the passage, so stick to 'vocabulary'.
Question 39
Answer: chemicalsParagraph E, third sentence
Besides real odours, what might the sense of smell respond to?
one responding to odours proper and the other registering odourless chemicals in the air
Question says → Passage says
response to ___ which do not smellregistering odourless chemicals
obvious odoursodours proper
Why: 'Odourless' means they don't smell, and the noun it describes is 'chemicals'. The gap comes before 'which do not smell', so you need a plural noun.
The trap: Writing 'odourless chemicals' breaks the one-word limit, and 'odourless' would repeat 'which do not smell'. 'Air' is in the same phrase, but the air is only where the chemicals are. The chemicals are what the sense registers.
Question 40
Answer: culturesParagraph F, third sentence
Where can a smell be offensive in one place but fine in another?
smells that are considered to be offensive in some cultures may be perfectly acceptable in others
Question says → Passage says
regarded as unpleasantconsidered to be offensive
are not regarded as unpleasant in othersmay be perfectly acceptable in others
Why: The sentence is a close paraphrase: 'offensive' becomes 'unpleasant', and 'some cultures' becomes 'certain ___'. The gap needs the plural noun 'cultures'.
The trap: 'Societies' or 'groups' make sense, but they aren't the passage's word here. With ONE WORD ONLY from the passage, copy 'cultures' exactly.
Words from this passage worth keeping
impaired(Introduction)
damaged or not working as well as it should
evoke(A)
bring a feeling or memory into your mind
grimace(A)
twist your face to show pain or disgust
cue(B)
a signal that tells you something
acute(C)
(of a sense) very sharp and sensitive
elusive(D)
difficult to describe, catch or pin down
make do with(D)
manage with something that isn't ideal
interiorise(F)
absorb an idea or value so it becomes part of you
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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 3. 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.
