Cambridge IELTS Academic 17 Reading Test 2 Answers with Explanation / IELTS Academic Reading: The Dead Sea Scrolls , A second attempt at domesticating the tomato , Insight or evolution?

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Q	Answer	Keywords	Keyword Location	Text
1	rock	shepherds, tossed, rock, shattering sound	Paragraph 1, Lines 3-4	One of these young shepherds tossed a rock into an opening on the side of a cliff and was surprised to hear a shattering sound.
2	cave	He, companions, entered, cave	Paragraph 1, Lines 4-5	He and his companions later entered the cave.
3	clay	stumbled, collection, large, clay jars	Paragraph 1, Line 5	stumbled across a collection of large clay jars.
4	essenes	people, belonged, group, Essenes	Paragraph 2, Lines 4-5	the people are thought to have belonged to a group called the Essenes, a devout Jewish sect.
5	hebrew	majority, texts, Dead Sea Scrolls, Hebrew	Paragraph 3, Line 1	The majority of the texts on the Dead Sea Scrolls are in Hebrew.
6	NOT GIVEN	-	-	-
7	FALSE	origin, Dead Sea Scrolls, 2,000, 150 BCE and 70 CE	Paragraph 2, Lines 1-2	The origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were written around 2,000 years ago between 150 BCE and 70 CE, is still a source of academic controversy today.
8	TRUE	Dead Sea Scrolls, fragments, Bible, Book of Esther	Paragraph 4, Lines 1-2	The Dead Sea Scrolls include fragments from every book of the Old Testament of the Bible except for the Book of Esther.
9	TRUE	Known, Copper Scroll, chiseled, metal	Paragraph 5, Lines 4-5	Known as the Copper Scroll, this curious document features letters chiseled onto metal.
10	FALSE	Mar Samuel, acquired, four, seven scrolls	Paragraph 6, Lines 1-2	In 1948, a Syrian Orthodox archbishop known as Mar Samuel acquired four of the original seven scrolls.
11	FALSE	ideal, gift, religious, individual or group	Paragraph 6, Lines 7-8	This would be an ideal gift to an educational or religious institution by an individual or group.
12	TRUE	2017, researchers, deciphered, untranslated scrolls	Paragraph 8, Lines 1-2	In 2017, researchers from the University of Haifa restored and deciphered one of the last untranslated scrolls.
13	NOT GIVEN	-	-	-

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 .

A second attempt at domesticating the tomato

Question	Answer	Keywords	Location (Paragraph:Line)	Text
Q14	C	tomato resistant to infection	D: 3	"The team in China re-domesticated several strains of wild tomatoes with desirable traits lost in domesticated tomatoes. In this way, they managed to create a strain resistant to a common disease called bacterial spot race, which can devastate yields."
Q15	B	problems from focusing on specific tomato plant	B: 6-9	"But every time a single plant with a mutation is taken from a larger population for breeding, much genetic diversity is lost. And sometimes the desirable mutations come with less desirable traits. For instance, the tomato strains grown for supermarkets have lost much of their flavour."
Q16	E	plants not cultivated but could be useful as food sources	E: 1-3	"The three teams already have their eye on other plants that could be ‘catapulted into the mainstream’, including foxtail, oat-grass, and cowpea."
Q17	B	comparison between early and recent tomato domestication	B: 6-9	"By comparing the genomes of modern plants to those of their wild relatives, biologists have been working out what genetic changes occurred as plants were domesticated. The teams in Brazil and China have now used this knowledge to reintroduce these changes from scratch while maintaining or even enhancing the desirable traits of wild strains."
Q18	C	personal reaction to genetically edited tomato flavor	C: 10-12	"‘They are quite tasty,’ says Kudla. ‘A little bit strong. And very aromatic.’"
Q19	B	domestication allowing adaptation to environmental challenges	E paragraph’s second full paragraph	. The three teams already have their eye on other plants that could be ‘catapulted into the mainstream’, including foxtail, oat-grass and cowpea. By choosing wild plants that are drought or heat tolerant, says Gao, we could create crops that will thrive even as the planet warms.
Q20	D	growing and eating unusual plants may not be accepted	E: 1-3	"This approach could boost the use of many obscure plants, says Jonathan Jones of the Sainsbury Lab in the UK. But it will be hard for new foods to grow so popular with farmers and consumers that they become new staple crops, he thinks."
Q21	A	future direction of research not advisable to be made public	C: 13-15	No specific researcher mentioned, but it aligns with the statement about revealing the species they are working on.
Q22	C	present efforts limited by costs involved	D: 5-8	"Van Eck’s team has edited the plants to increase fruit size, make their growth more compact and to stop fruits dropping. ‘There’s potential for this to be a commercial crop,’ says Van Eck. But she adds that taking the work further would be expensive because of the need to pay for a licence for the CRISPR technology and get regulatory approval."
Q23	A	humans using a small proportion of plant food available	B: 15-16	"‘This could transform what we eat,’ says Jorg Kudla at the University of Munster in Germany, a member of the Brazilian team. ‘There are 50,000 edible plants in the world, but 90 percent of our energy comes from just 15 crops.’"
Q24	flavor	undesirable trait caused by mutation	B: 6-9	"For instance, the tomato strains grown for supermarkets have lost much of their flavour."
Q25	size	modification in a gene resulted in tomato increase	C: 1-2	"Kudla’s team made six changes altogether. For instance, they tripled the size of fruit by editing a gene called FRUIT WEIGHT."
Q26	salt	type of tomato rich in vitamin C, not affected by	D: 5-7 |	"The team in China re-domesticated several strains of wild tomatoes with desirable traits lost in domesticated tomatoes. In this way, they managed to create a strain resistant to a common disease called bacterial spot race, which can devastate yields. They also created another strain that is more salt tolerant – and has higher levels of vitamin C."

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 .

Insight or evolution?

Question	Answer	Keywords	Location	Text
27	D	purpose first paragraph	First paragraph	"Scientific discovery is popularly believed to result from the sheer genius of such intellectual stars as naturalist Charles Darwin and theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. Our view of such unique contributions to science often disregards the person’s prior experience and the efforts of their lesser-known predecessors."
28	A	writers second paragraph	Second paragraph	"Setting aside such greats as Darwin and Einstein – whose monumental contributions are duly celebrated – we suggest that innovation is more a process of trial and error"
29	A	writers suggest Darwin Einstein	Third paragraph	"We propose that science is constantly evolving, much as species of animals do."
30	C	John Nicholson example	Third paragraph	"Niels Bohr, the Nobel prize-winning father of modern atomic theory, jumped off from this interesting idea to conceive his now-famous model of the atom."
31	A	key point 'acey-deucy' stirrup placement	Fourth paragraph	"His modification just happened to coincide with enhanced left-hand turning performance."
32	NO	Plato da Vinci geniuses understand process	Not given	Not given
33	NOT GIVEN	Law of Effect discovered psychologists scientific reason	Not given	Not given
34	YES	Law of Effect no planning	Ninth paragraph	"The Law of Effect involves an entirely mechanical process of variation and selection, without any end objective in sight."
35	NO	Law of Effect clear explanations sources	Ninth paragraph	"Of course, the origin of human innovation demands much further study."
36	NOT GIVEN	scientists turning away from intelligent design genius	Not given	Not given
37	F	sudden inspiration	Summary	"The traditional view of scientific discovery is that breakthroughs happen when a single great mind has sudden..."
38	D	mistakes	Summary	"Advances are more likely to be the result of a longer process. In some cases, this process involves..."
39	E	luck	Summary	"There is also often an element of..."
40	B	goals	Summary	"With both the Law of Natural Selection and the Law of Effect, there may be no clear..."