The meaning and power of smell — reading answers
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 | — |
What your score on this passage actually tells you
One passage is 14 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 3. 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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