IELTS Reading

Matching Paragraph Information

Matching paragraph information questions are another type of question that comes up regularly in the IELTS Reading test. The
information on this page will help you to be well prepared for exam day.
Here’s what it covers:
 Explanation of this question type
 Skills needed
 Key tips
 The strategy
 Examples from real test papers
Explanation of this question type
You will be given a set of 3 to 6 statements.
The type of information included in the statements can vary widely. You could, for example, be asked to match:
 Facts  Opinions  definitions  reasons
 Descriptions  predictions  explanations  challenges
Example with answers.
Answer questions 14-19 below
The Motor Car
A There are now over 700 million motor vehicles in the world - and the number is rising by more than 40 million each year. The
average distance driven by car users is growing too - from 8km a day per person in western Europe in 1965 to 25 km a day in
1995. This dependence on motor vehicles has given rise to major problems, including environmental pollution, depletion of oil
resources, traffic congestion and safety.
B While emissions from new cars are far less harmful than they used to be, city streets and motorways are becoming more
crowded than ever, often with older trucks, buses and taxis which emit excessive levels of smoke and fumes. This concentration of
vehicles makes air quality in urban areas unpleasant and sometimes dangerous to breathe. Even Moscow has joined the list of
capitals afflicted by congestion and traffic fumes. In Mexico City, vehicle pollution is a major health hazard.
C Until a hundred years ago, most journeys were in the 20km range, the distance conveniently accessible by horse. Heavy freight
could only be carried by water or rail. Invention of the motor vehicle brought personal mobility to the masses and made rapid
freight delivery possible over a much wider area. In the United Kingdom, about 90 per cent of inland freight is carried by road.
The world cannot revert to the horse-drawn wagon. Can it avoid being locked into congested and polluting ways of transporting
people and goods?
D In Europe most cities are still designed for the old modes of transport. Adaptation to the motor car has involved adding ring
roads, one-way systems and parking lots. In the United States, more land is assigned to car use than to housing. Urban sprawl
means that life without a car is next to impossible. Mass use of motor vehicles has also killed or injured millions of people. Other
social effects have been blamed on the car such as alienation and aggressive human behaviour.
E A 1993 study by the European Federation for Transport and Environment found that car transport is seven times as costly as rail
travel in terms of the external social costs it entails - congestion, accidents, pollution, loss of cropland and natural habitats,
depletion of oil resources, and so on. Yet cars easily surpass trains or buses as a flexible and convenient mode of personal
transport. It is unrealistic to expect people to give up private cars in favour of mass transit.
F Technical solutions can reduce the pollution problem and increase the fuelled efficiency of engines. But fuel consumption and
exhaust emissions depend on which cars are preferred by customers and how they are driven. Many people buy larger cars than
they need for daily purposes or waste fuel by driving aggressively. Besides, global car use is increasing at a faster rate than the
improvement in emissions and fuel efficiency which technology is now making possible.
G Some argue that the only long-term solution is to design cities and neighbourhoods so that car journeys are not necessary - all
essential services being located within walking distance or easily accessible by public transport. Not only would this save energy
and cut carbon dioxide emissions, it would also enhance the quality of community life, putting the emphasis on people instead of
cars. Good local government is already bringing this about in some places. But few democratic communities are blessed with the
vision – and the capital – to make such profound changes in modern lifestyles.
H A more likely scenario seems to be a combination of mass transit systems for travel into and around cities, with small ‘low
emission’ cars for urban use and larger hybrid or lean burn cars for use elsewhere. Electronically tolled highways might be used to
ensure that drivers pay charges geared to actual road use. Better integration of transport systems is also highly desirable - and
made more feasible by modern computers. But these are solutions for countries which can afford them. In most developing
countries, old cars and old technologies continue to predominate.

Questions 14 – 19 . Passage 7 has eight paragraphs labelled A-H. Which paragraphs contains the following information? Write the
correct letter A-H in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
14 a comparison of past and present transportation methods
15 how driving habits contribute to road problems
16 the relative merits of cars and public transport
17 the writer’s prediction on future solutions
18 the increasing use of motor vehicles
19 the impact of the car on city development

Answers: 14 C 15 F 16 E 17 H 18 A 19 D
 PRACTICE SESSIONS - MATCHING PARAGRAPH INFORMATION (LOCATING
INFORMATION)
PRACTICE 1
Answer questions 1- 5 which are based on the reading passage below.
Effects of population growth

A. Since Thomas Malthus's essay 'An Essay the Principle of Population,' originally published in 1798,
the world has changed tremendously. Malthus believed that by the mid-1800s, the unfettered expansion of
humanity would overrun the agricultural area available to feed humanity with food. Over 150 years have
gone by since this mythical milestone, yet mankind is still expanding and will continue to do so, albeit in a
more congested form.
B. The consequences of unchecked population growth are obvious to everybody. In their search for a
better living, more people are migrating from rural areas to large cities around the world, such as Tokyo,
Mexico City, and Mumbai. Megacities, defined as conurbations with a population of more than 10 million
people, are growing up across the globe. They are ravenous for one increasingly important resource, land,
which is now teeming with population.
C. While advances in agricultural technology assure that humanity will be able to feed the people
migrating to these enormous cities, the human race's expansion is fueling an unprecedented hunger for real
estate. As we enter the twenty-first century, space, whether for personal or public use, corporate or national,
human or flora/fauna, is in short supply. More land is needed not only for housing but also for a variety of
infrastructure needs. Roads within and between towns must be built or renovated to create highways; green
fields must be converted into airports, and virgin forests must be logged to provide food and firewood. This
newly exposed land becomes desert in impoverished locations, completing the devastation cycle.
D. Previously, the most frequent strategy for utilizing expensive space for living and working was to
build upwards; thus, the desire for ever higher buildings, both apartment, and commercial, in major cities
such as New York, Shanghai, and Singapore, all striving for the highest skyscrapers. There has also been a
tradition of building underground, not just for transportation networks, but also for garbage storage, book
depositories, and other purposes, such as in London, where the British Library, which houses millions of
books, is mostly subterranean.
E. In recent years, there have been more innovative construction projects all around the world. Many
countries, including Holland and the United Kingdom, have reclaimed marshes and floodplains from the sea
in the past. Housing complexes and even airports have now been built off-shore, with astonishing results,
similar to the city of Venice in Italy. Kansai International Airport in Japan was erected at great expense off-
shore on a man-made island, and a very inventive and expensive housing complex in the shape of a palm
tree is being developed just off the coast on land produced by a construction company in Dubai. These and
other advancements, however, are threatened by increasing sea levels as a result of global warming.

Questions 1- 5. This reading passage has five paragraphs, A–E. Which paragraph contains the following
information? Write the correct letter, A-E, as your answer to each question. Note: You may use any letter
more than once.
1. To build highways, roads within and between cities must be built or upgraded.
2. The uncontrolled expansion of mankind will occupy the agricultural area available to feed mankind.
3. Like the city of Venice in Italy, housing complexes and even airports have now been constructed off-
shore, with great results.
4. More and more people are migrating from the countryside to major cities around the world.
5. The most common strategy for using expensive space for living and working is to create upwards
PRACTICE 2
Answer questions 1- 6 which are based on the reading passage below.
The Brown hares

A. Brown hares, like many herbivores, spend a significant amount of time feeding. They prefer to do
this in the dark, but when the nights are short, they do so during the day. Hares appear to prefer fields with a
variety of flora, such as short and longer clumps of grasses, regardless of where they live. Uncultivated land
and other unploughed regions on farms, such as field margins, have been shown to help them in studies. As
a result, if farmers offered sections of woods in grazing areas as well as a variety of crops in arable areas,
hares would have year-round shelter and food, which could be the key to reversing the current population
reduction.
B. Brown hares have a variety of physical characteristics that allow them to thrive in open areas. They
have very large ears that move independently, allowing them to identify a wide variety of noises. The hares'
huge golden eyes, perched high on their heads, provide 360° vision, making it difficult to catch a hare off
guard. Hares have a much larger heart and a larger volume of blood in their body than mammals of similar
size, allowing for superior speed and stamina. Hares' legs are also longer than those of a rabbit, allowing
them to sprint faster than a dog and achieve speeds of up to 70 kilometres per hour.
C. Brown hares have extraordinary lives for their size, mating from a young age and producing a huge
number of leverets (babies). Every year, there are three litters of up to four leverets. Both males and females
can breed at the age of seven months, but they must act quickly because they rarely live more than two
years. The breeding season lasts from January to October, and most females are pregnant or giving birth to
their first litter of the year by late February. So it's remarkable that hares appear to go insane in March when
the breeding season is already underway: boxing, dancing, running and fighting. The term "crazy March
hares" was coined as a result of this.
D. Boxing happens all during the breeding season, but it's most common in March. This is because dusk
— the period when hares are most active – gets later in the months ahead when fewer people are around.
Crops and plants have also grown taller, concealing the hares. Boxing hares are usually females fighting off
males, despite popular belief that they are males fighting over females. Hares are typically alone, but when a
female is ready to mate, she battles off a series of males. This happens multiple times during the breeding
season because the female will be ready to mate again once she has given birth.
E. But how can females achieve this while also feeding themselves and caring for their children? Hares
have evolved such self-sufficient young for this reason. Leverets, unlike baby rabbits, are born hairy and
mobile. They are born weighing around 100 g and are left to their own devices by their mothers. After a few
days, the litter members disperse to build their own 'forms,' or unique resting spots.
F.Surprisingly, their mother only comes to see them once every 24 hours, and even then, she only suckles
them for five minutes at a time. This lack of family contact may appear harsh to us, yet it is a tactic for
attracting less predator attention. Leverets begin to feed themselves at the age of two weeks, while still
sipping their mother's milk. They grow quickly, being fully weaned at four weeks and reaching adult weight
at around six months.
G. Hare milk is particularly rich and fatty, according to research, so a little goes a long way. Females
require a high-quality, high-calorie diet in order to produce such nutritious milk. Hares are picky eaters at
the best of times: unlike many herbivores, they can't wait for low-quality food to digest; they need high-
energy herbs and other leaves to sprint. When faced with even minor changes in food availability and
abundance, this causes them trouble. Hares suffer from a fall in the range of food plants, as well as a
reduction in the diversity of farmland habitat

Questions 1- 6. This reading passage has seven paragraphs, A–G. Which paragraph contains the following
information? Write the correct letter, A-G, as your answer to each question.
Note: You may use any letter more than once.
1. Brown hares have several physical traits that enable them to survive in open spaces.
2. At the age of two weeks, leverets start feeding themselves while still drinking their mother's milk.
3. Hares are usually solitary creatures, but when a female is ready to mate, she must fight off a slew of
males.
4. Hares are suffering from a decline in the diversity of the farmland environment as well as a decrease in
the range of food plants.
5. Hares also have longer legs than rabbits, allowing them to sprint faster than dogs.
6. Despite popular assumptions, boxing hares are mainly females beating off males.
PRACTICE 3
Answer questions 1-6 which are based on the reading passage below.
Incredible Journeys

A. The nervous system of the desert ant Cataglyphis fortis, with around 100,000 neurons, is about 1
millionth the size of a human brain. Yet, in the featureless deserts of Tunisia, this ant can venture over 100
meters from its nest to find food without becoming lost. Imagine randomly wandering 20 kilometres in the
open desert, your tracks obliterated by the wind, then turning around and making a beeline to your starting
point - and no GPS allowed! That's the equivalent of what the desert ant accomplishes with its scant neural
resources. How does it do it?
B. Jason, a graduate student studying the development of human and animal cognition, discusses a
remarkable series of experiments on the desert ant on his blog, The Thoughtful Animal. In work spanning
more than 30 years, researchers from Rüdiger Wehner's laboratory at the University of Zurich Institute of
Zoology carefully tracked the movements of ants in the desert as the insects foraged for food. One of the
researchers' key questions was how the ants calculated the direction to their nest.
C. To check for the possibility that the ants used landmarks as visual cues, despite the relatively
featureless desert landscape, the researchers engaged in a bit of trickery. They placed a food source at a
distance from a nest, then tracked the nest's ants until the ants found the food. Once the food was found, the
ants were relocated from that point so that the way back to their nest was a different direction than it would
have been otherwise. The relocated ants walked away from the nest, in the same direction they should have
walked if they had never been moved. This suggested that the ants are not following features, but orienting
themselves relative to an internal navigation system or (as turned out to be the case) the position of the Sun
in the sky.
D. No matter how convoluted a route the ants take to find the food, they always return in a straight-line
path, heading directly home. The researchers discovered the ants navigation system isn't perfect, small errors
arise depending on how circuitous their initial route was. But the ants account for these errors as well, by
walking in a corrective zigzag pattern as they approach the nest. So how do the ants know how far to travel?
It could still be that they are visually tracking the distance they walk. The researchers tested this by painting
over the ants' eyes for their return trip, but the ants still walked the correct distance, indicating that the ants
are not using sight to measure their journeys.
E. Another possibility is that the ants simply count their steps. In a remarkable experiment published in
Science in 2006, scientists painstakingly attached 'stilts' made of pig hairs to some of the ants' legs, while
other ants had their legs clipped, once they had reached their food target. If the ants counted their steps on
the journey out, then the newly short-legged ants should stop short of the nest, while stilted ants should walk
past it. Indeed, this is what occurred! Ants count their steps to track their location. (If only you had
remembered to do this before you started on your 20-kilometre desert trek!)
F.But other creatures have different navigation puzzles to solve. In a separate post, Jason explains a study
showing how maternal gerbils find their nests. When a baby is removed from the nest, the gerbil mother
naturally tries to find and retrieve it. Researchers placed one of the babies in a cup at the centre of a
platform, shrouded in darkness. When the mother found the baby, the platform was rotated. Did she head for
the new position of her nest, with its scents and sounds of crying babies? No, she went straight to the spot
where the nest had been, ignoring all these other cues. For gerbils, relying on the internal representation of
their environment normally suffices, so the other information goes unheeded.
G. Migratory birds, on the other hand, must navigate over much larger distances, some of them
returning to the identical geographic spot year after year. How do they manage this trick? One component,
University of Auckland researcher and teacher Fabiana Kubke reports, is the ability to detect the Earth's
magnetic field. Though we've known about this avian sixth sense for some time, the location of a bird's
magnetic detector is still somewhat of a mystery. Last November, however, a team led by Manuela Zapka
published a letter in Nature that narrowed the possibilities. Migratory European Robins have magnetic
material in their beaks, but also molecules called cryptochromes in the back of their eyes that might be used
as a sort of compass. The team systematically cut the connections between these two areas and the Robins'
brains, finding that the ability to orient to compass points was only disturbed when the connection to
cryptochromes was disrupted.
H. Much remains to be learned about how birds can successfully migrate over long distances. Unlike
ants and gerbils, they can easily correct for large displacements in location and return to the correct spot.

Questions 1- 6. This reading passage has eight paragraphs, A–H. Which paragraph contains the following
information? Write the correct letter, A - H, as your answer to each question.
1. An explanation of how adjustments are made when navigating
2. Recent news about how navigation systems work
3. A comparison of tracking abilities
 4. A study showing that scent and sound are not important
5. Explaining the importance of counting
6. A description of how ants navigate
PRACTICE 4
Answer questions 1-7 which are based on the reading passage below.
The Dodo

A. The dodo, formerly known as 'Didus ineptus', has been renamed 'Raphus cuculatus’. The dodo is the
most famous extinct species in the history of planet Earth. Its fire contact with Europeans was in 1598, when
a Dutch expedition headed by Admiral Jacob Cornelius van Neck landed on an island, thick with dense
forests of bamboo and ebony, off the east coast of Africa. The island was named Mauritius by the
adventurous and artistic admiral – the first man to draw the extraordinary and unique flightless bird, now
universally known as the dodo (from the Dutch word 'dodoor' meaning sluggard) The demise of the dodo
has been attributed to hungry Dutch sailors en route to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. They would take a
dinner break on the tropical island and consume the defenceless dodo, but it was clearly an acquired taste as
the sailors named it ‘valghvogel’ - meaning disgusting bird.
B. The island of Mauritius is only 10 million years old, and until the arrival of European settlers, there
were no island predators to threaten the easy-going existence of the dodo, a bird that had evolved from the
African fruit-eating pigeons of the genus 'Treron'. This benign, predator-free paradise had allowed the dodo
to evolve into a pedestrian bird with tiny wings unable to rise even a few inches off the ground. The dodo
was no match for the cunning, domestic pets of Europe and within less than a 100 years after the first
landing of van Neck and his band of adventurers, the dodo was extinct -- the last egg devoured, no doubt, by
an overstuffed rat whose ancestors had emigrated from the sewers of Amsterdam with the original Dutch
colonists.
C. The popular image of a fat and stupid creature comes from the celebrated painting the dodo by Jan
Savery (1589–1654). On his visits to the Oxford University Museum, Lewis Carroll was inspired by this
image and the only remaining dodo skull and claw (both are still on display there) to create his own
fictionalversion for ‘Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' - "When they had been running for half an hour, or
so, the Dodo suddenly called out, 'The race is over', and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, ‘But
who has won?’”
D. That image of the weird, flightless, dim-witted dodo is now being challenged by contemporary
scientific research. Dr Andrew Kitchener has created two life-size reproductions of the dodo - one is housed
in the Royal Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, and the other is in the Oxford University Museum. They are
based on research using hundreds of actual dodo skeletons and bones unearthed by naturalists in the Mare
aux Songes swamp in South-East Mauritius.
E. The new slimmer streamline dodo is very different from the fat cuddly buffoon celebrated in the
picture of Jan Savery. Dr Kitchener's research presents us with a lithe, active, smart dodo superbly adapted
to live and survive prosperously in the forests of its native Mauritius. The popular image of a fat, immobile,
flightless dodo was drawn by Savery and his contemporaries because the live specimens that they used as
models had been shipped over to Europe on a diet of ships biscuits and weevils and then overstuffed by their
overzealous owners as they exhibited them to the general public.
F.In 1991 further credence was given to this new image of the dodo when a series of long-lost drawings by
Harmenszoon dating from 1601 was discovered in the Hague after having been lost for over 150 years.
These drawings confirm the thin streamline image first seen in van Neck's drawings of the dodo frsual,
careless extinction will continue to fascinate generations to come.

Questions 1- 7. This reading passage has eight paragraphs, A–F. Which paragraph contains the following
information? Write the correct letter, A - F, as your answer to each question.
Note: You may use any letter more than once. 
1.The reason for the dodo being a flightless bird
2.Reference to a study on which a new theory about dodo is based
3.Mention of the type of vegetation found at a place
4.Two contrasting depictions of the dodo
5.Reference to the birth of a fictional character
6.Further evidence supporting the new perception of the dodo
7.The reason for the wrong portrayal of the dodo
PRACTICE 5
Answer questions 1-6 which are based on the reading passage below.
World's oldest leather shoe found in Armenia

A. A perfectly preserved shoe, 1,000 years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt and 400 years
older than Stonehenge in the UK, has been found in a cave in Armenia. The 5,500- year-old shoe, the oldest
leather shoe in the world, was discovered by a team of international archaeologists.
B. The cow-hide shoe dates back to 3,500 BC (the Chalcolithic period) and is in perfect condition. It
was made of a single piece of leather and was shaped to fit the wearer’s foot. It contained grass; although the
archaeologists were uncertain as to whether this was to keep the foot warm or to maintain the shape of the
shoe, a precursor to the modern shoe-tree perhaps? “It is not known whether the shoe belonged to a man or
woman,” said lead author of the research, Dr Ron Pinhasi, University College Cork, Ireland “as, while small,
(European size 37; US size 7 women), the shoe could well have fitted a man from that era.” The cave is
situated in the Vayotz Dzor province of Armenia, on the Armenian, Iranian, Nakhichevanian and Turkish
borders, and was known to regional archaeologists due to its visibility from the highway below.
C. The stable, cool and dry conditions in the cave resulted in exceptional preservation of the various
objects that were found, which included large containers, many of which held well-preserved wheat and
barley, apricots and other edible plants. The preservation was also helped by the fact that the floor of the
cave was covered by a thick layer of sheep dung which acted as a solid seal over the objects, preserving
them beautifully over the millennia!
D. “We thought initially that the shoe and other objects were about 600-700 years old because they were
in such good condition,” said Dr Pinhasi. “It was only when the material was dated by the two radiocarbon
laboratories in Oxford, UK, and in California, US that we realised that the shoe was older by a few hundred
years than the shoes worn by Ötzi, the Iceman.” Three samples were taken to determine the absolute age of
the shoe and all three tests produced the same results. The archaeologists cut two small strips of leather off
the shoe, and sent one strip to the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit at the University of Oxford and
another to the University of California – Irvine Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility. A piece of grass
from the shoe was also sent to Oxford to be dated and both shoe, and grass were shown to be the same age.
E. The shoe was discovered by Armenian PhD student, Ms Diana Zardaryan, of the Institute of
Archaeology, Armenia, in a pit that also included a broken pot and wild goat horns. “I was amazed to find
that even the shoe-laces were preserved,” she recalled. “We couldn’t believe the discovery,” said Dr
Gregory Areshian, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, US, co-director who was at the site with Mr
Boris Gasparyan, co-director, Institute of Archaeology, Armenia when the shoe was found. “The crusts had
sealed the artefacts, and archaeological deposits and artefacts remained fresh dried, just like they were put in
a can,” he said.
F.The oldest known footwear in the world, to the present time, are sandals made of plant material, that were
found in a cave in the Arnold Research Cave in Missouri in the US. Other contemporaneous sandals were
found in the Cave of the Warrior, Judean Desert, Israel, but these were not directly dated so that their age is
based on various other associated artefacts found in the cave.
G. Interestingly, the shoe is very similar to the pampooties worn on the Aran Islands (in the West of
Ireland) up to the 1950s. “In fact, enormous similarities exist between the manufacturing technique and style
of this shoe and those found across Europe at later periods, suggesting that this type of shoe was worn for
thousands of years across a large and environmentally diverse region,” said Dr Pinhasi.
H. “We do not know yet what the shoe or other objects were doing in the cave or what the purpose of
the cave was,” said Dr Pinhasi. “We know that there are children’s graves at the back of the cave, but so
little is known about this period that we cannot say with any certainty why all these different objects were
found together.” The team will continue to excavate the many chambers of the cave.

Questions 1- 6. This reading passage has eight paragraphs, A–H. Which paragraph contains the following
information? Write the correct letter, A - H, as your answer to each question.
Note: You may use any letter more than once. 
1. Testing different parts of the shoe to confirm the age
2. Comparison of an artefact with ancient monuments
3. Mention of a particular footwear of relatively modern era
 4. Unanswered questions about the shoe
5. Mention of natural factors that aided conservation of the artefacts
6. A reference to limited knowledge restricting conclusion

ANSWERS

Practice 1

1. Paragraph C

Explanation: Roads within and between towns must be built or renovated to create highways; green fields
must be converted into airports, and virgin forests must be logged to provide food and firewood. 

2. Paragraph A 
Explanation: Malthus believed that by the mid-1800s, the unfettered expansion of humanity would overrun
the agricultural area available to feed humanity with food.

3. Paragraph E 

Explanation:  Housing complexes and even airports have now been built off-shore, with astonishing results,
similar to the city of Venice in Italy. 

4. Paragraph B 

Explanation: In their search for a better living, more people are migrating from rural areas to large cities
around the world, such as Tokyo, Mexico City, and Mumbai. Megacities, defined as conurbations with a
population of more than 10 million people, are growing up across the globe. 

5 Paragraph D 

Explanation: Previously, the most frequent strategy for utilizing expensive space for living and working
was to build upwards; thus, the desire for ever higher buildings, both apartment, and commercial, in major
cities such as New York, Shanghai, and Singapore, all striving for the highest skyscrapers.

Practice 2

1. Paragraph B

Explanation: Brown hares have a variety of physical characteristics that allow them to thrive in open areas. 

2. Paragraph F

Explanation: Leverets begin to feed themselves at the age of two weeks, while still sipping their mother's
milk.

3. Paragraph D

Explanation:  Hares are typically alone, but when a female is ready to mate, she battles off a series of
males. 

4. Paragraph G

Explanation: Hares suffer from a fall in the range of food plants, as well as a reduction in the diversity of
farmland habitat.
5. Paragraph B

Explanation: Hares' legs are also longer than those of a rabbit, allowing them to sprint faster than a dog and
achieve speeds of up to 70 kilometres per hour.

6. Paragraph D

Explanation: Boxing hares are usually females fighting off males, despite popular belief that they are males
fighting over females.

Answers for Skill Building Exercises 

Answer for Skill Building Exercise 1 - (Incredible Journeys) 

(Note: The text in italics is from the reading passage and shows the location from where the answer is
taken or inferred. The text in regular font explains the answer in detail.)

Paragraph D
Explanation: The researchers discovered that the ants’ navigation system isn’t perfect;... But the ants
account for these errors as well, by walking in a corrective zigzag pattern as they approach the nest.

Paragraph G 
Explanation: Last November, however, a team led by Manuela Zapka published a letter in Nature that
narrowed the possibilities. Migratory European Robins have magnetic material in their beaks, but also
molecules called cryptochromes in the back of their eyes that might be used as a sort of compass. 

Paragraph A 
Explanation: Yet, in the featureless deserts of Tunisia, this ant can venture over 100 meters from its nest to
find food without becoming lost. Imagine randomly wandering 20 kilometres in the open desert, your
tracks obliterated by the wind, then turning around and making a beeline to your starting point - and no
GPS allowed! That's the equivalent of what the desert ant accomplishes with its scant neural
resources.

Paragraph F 
Explanation: Did she head for the new position of her nest, with its scents and sounds of crying babies?
No, she went straight to the spot where the nest had been, ignoring all these other cues. For gerbils, relying
on the internal representation of their environment normally suffices, so the other information goes
unheeded.

Paragraph E 
Explanation: If the ants counted their steps on the journey out, then the newly short-legged ants should stop
short of the nest, while stilted ants should walk past it. Indeed, this is what occurred! Ants count their steps
to track their location.

Paragraph C 
Explanation:  This suggested that the ants are not following features, but orienting themselves relative to an
internal navigation system or (as turned out to be the case) the position of the Sun in the sky.

Answer for Skill Building Exercise 2 - (The Dodo) 

(Note: The text in italics is from the reading passage and shows the location from where the answer is
taken or inferred. The text in regular font explains the answer in detail.)

1.

Paragraph B 

2. Explanation: This benign, predator free paradise had allowed the dodo to evolve into a pedestrian
bird with tiny wings unable to rise even a few inches off the ground
3.

Paragraph D 

4. Explanation: That image of the weird, flightless, dim-witted dodo is now being challenged by
contemporary scientific research... They are based on research using hundreds of actual dodo skeletons and
bones unearthed by naturalists in the Mare aux Songes swamp in South East Mauritius.
5.

Paragraph А 

6. Explanation: ... when a Dutch expedition headed by Admiral Jacob Cornelius van Neck landed on an
island, thick with dense forests of bamboo and ebony, off the east coast of Africa
7.

Paragraph E 

8. Explanation: The new slimmer streamline dodo is very different from the fat cuddly buffoon
celebrated in the picture of Jan Savery.
9.

Paragraph C 

10. Explanation: On his visits to the Oxford University Museum, Lewis Carroll was inspired by this
image and the only remaining dodo skull and claw (both are still on display there) to create his own fictional
version for 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'...
11.

Paragraph F 

12. Explanation: In 1991 further credence was given to this new image of the dodo when a series of
long-lost drawings by Harmenszoon dating from 1601 was discovered in the Hague ...
13.

Paragraph E 

14. Explanation: The popular image of a fat, immobile, flightless dodo was drawn by Savery and his
contemporaries because the live specimens that they used as models had been shipped over to Europe on a
diet of ships biscuits and weevils and then overstuffed by their overzealous owners as they exhibited them to
the general public.

Answer for Skill Building Exercise 3 - (World's oldest leather shoe found in Armenia) 
(Note: The text in italics is from the reading passage and shows the location from where the answer is
taken or inferred. The text in regular font explains the answer in detail.)
1.

Paragraph D 

2. Explanation:  The archaeologists cut two small strips of leather off the shoe, and sent one strip to the
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit at the University of Oxford and another to the University of
California...A piece of grass from the shoe was also sent to Oxford to be dated and both shoe, and grass were
shown to be the same age.
3.

Paragraph A 

4. Explanation: A perfectly preserved shoe, 1,000 years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt
and 400 years older than Stonehenge in the UK, has been found in a cave in Armenia.
5.

Paragraph G 

6. Explanation: Interestingly, the shoe is very similar to the pampooties worn on the Aran Islands (in
the West of Ireland) up to the 1950s.
7.

Paragraph B 

8. Explanation: It contained grass; although the archaeologists were uncertain as to whether this was to
keep the foot warm or to maintain the shape of the shoe, a precursor to the modern shoe-tree perhaps? “It is
not known whether the shoe belonged to a man or woman,” said lead author of the research, Dr Ron
Pinhasi,...
9.

Paragraph C  

10. Explanation: The stable, cool and dry conditions in the cave resulted in exceptional preservation of
the various objects that were found,...The preservation was also helped by the fact that the floor of the cave
was covered by a thick layer of sheep dung which acted as a solid seal over the objects, preserving them
beautifully over the millennia!
11.

Paragraph H 

12. Explanation: ...so little is known about this period that we cannot say with any certainty why all these
different objects were found together.