The meaning and power of smell: reading answers and analysis
The complete answer key for Cambridge IELTS 8 Test 2 Passage 3, with question types and notes on the matching-headings and completion blocks.
Questions 27-40 · 14 marks · 3 question blocks
Questions 27-32
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 | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 27 | 8 | — |
| 28 | 2 | — |
| 29 | 6 | — |
| 30 | 1 | — |
| 31 | 3 | — |
| 32 | 5 | — |
Questions 33-36
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 | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 33 | C | — |
| 34 | A | — |
| 35 | D | — |
| 36 | C | — |
Questions 37-40
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 | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 37 | clothing | — |
| 38 | vocabulary | — |
| 39 | chemicals | — |
| 40 | cultures | — |
Cambridge IELTS 8, Test 2, Reading Passage 3. 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.