The Little Ice Age — reading answers
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 | — |
What your score on this passage actually tells you
One passage is 13 of the 40 marks in the paper, so it is a sample, not a band score. What it is good for is diagnosis: look at which of the question types above you lost marks in and whether the same type has hurt you before.
If your errors cluster in one question type, that is a technique problem and it is fixable in a week. If they are spread evenly, it is usually speed — you are running out of time and guessing the last few, which shows up as scattered wrong answers rather than a bad block.
Cambridge IELTS 8, Test 2, Reading Passage 2. The passage or section name belongs to Cambridge University Press; no passage text, audio, or question wording is reproduced on this page. The answers are published for self-marking, and the commentary is our own.
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