Cambridge IELTS 17 Test 3 Reading Answers

Cambridge Practice Series

Cambridge IELTS 17 Academic Reading Test 3: Complete Explanations

⏱ 60 Minutes 🎯 40 Questions 📊 Target: Band 8.0+

In-depth solutions and tactical breakdown for Cambridge IELTS 17 Reading Test 3. Complete answers for The Thylacine (extinction of the Tasmanian tiger), the global ecological and economic debates surrounding Palm Oil, and Jason M. Barr's urban economics in Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan's Skyscrapers.

Reading Strategy & Passage Flow Map — Figure: Academic Reading Passage Structure & Question Distribution Map

Master Quick-Reference Answer Key (Questions 1–40)

Cross-check your results across all three reading passages with this master answer table.

Q#	Answer Key	Q#	Answer Key	Q#	Answer Key	Q#	Answer Key
1	carnivorous	11	FALSE	21	C	31	C
2	scent	12	TRUE	22	E	32	NO
3	pouch	13	NOT GIVEN	23	solid	33	YES
4	fossil	14	G	24	Sumatran orangutan	34	NOT GIVEN
5	habitat	15	E	25	carbon stocks	35	NO
6	TRUE	16	A	26	biodiversity	36	H
7	FALSE	17	F	27	D	37	D
8	NOT GIVEN	18	B	28	B	38	I
9	FALSE	19	C	29	C	39	B
10	NOT GIVEN	20	D	30	D	40	F

Section 1

Reading Passage 1: The Thylacine

Topic: Marsupial Zoology, Extinction & Historical Conservation • Questions 1–13

Questions 1–5: Morphological & Behavioral Notes

Q#	Feature / Category	Correct Term	Passage Citation
1	Feeding classification	carnivorous	As the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times...
2	Prey tracking sense	scent	Relied on keen scent rather than burst velocity to track wallabies...
3	Maternal anatomy	pouch	Females carried joeys in a backward-facing rear abdominal pouch...
4	Prehistoric evidence	fossil	Fossil records indicate widespread dispersal across the Australian mainland...
5	Ecological retreat	habitat	Dingo competition and human hunting restricted its habitat exclusively to Tasmania...

Questions 6–13: True / False / Not Given Breakdown

6. Massive numbers of thylacines were systematically exterminated from the 1830s onwards.TRUE

7. Several healthy thylacine litters were successfully bred in global zoos in the late 1800s.FALSE

8. John Gould's extinction prophecy shocked and surprised contemporary naturalists.NOT GIVEN

9. By the early 1900s, biologists mounted unanimous, well-funded campaigns to protect the species.FALSE

10. T.T. Flynn's sanctuary island proposal was officially deemed unviable.NOT GIVEN

11. Thylacines were still relatively abundant when formal legal protection was enacted in 1936.FALSE

12. Between 1930 and 1936, the only remaining thylacines on Earth lived in captivity.TRUE

13. Field expeditions searching for surviving thylacines in the bush have now ceased entirely.NOT GIVEN

Section 2

Reading Passage 2: An Insight into Palm Oil

Topic: Tropical Agro-Industry, RSPO Certification & Deforestation • Questions 14–26

Questions 14–20: Information Matching (Paragraphs A–G)

Q14: Para G

Details high land efficiency: oil palm produces up to 10 times more oil per hectare than soy or sunflower.

Q15: Para E

Profiles the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) regulatory oversight body.

Q16: Para A

Lists common consumer items: shampoo, detergents, lipstick, packaged baked goods.

Q17: Para F

Highlights barn owls introduced as natural pest predators in plantation canopy ecosystems.

Q18: Para B

Provides production metrics: global supply quadrupling to over 70 million tonnes annually.

Q19: Para C

Explains economic livelihood: supporting millions of smallholder farming families in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Q20: Para D

Documents critically endangered fauna: Sumatran tigers, pygmy elephants, and orangutans.

Questions 21–22: RSPO Policy (Choose TWO Letters)

Which TWO claims are made regarding the RSPO?

Answers: C, E

The RSPO established mandatory standards prohibiting clearing primary rainforest (C) but suffers from monitoring loopholes where uncertified oil blends into supply chains (E).

Questions 23–26: Summary Completion

23	solid	Chemical attribute: remains solid at room temperature without hydrogenation.
24	Sumatran orangutan	Flagship primate whose peat forest habitat is severely fragmented.
25	carbon stocks	Draining peat swamp forests releases centuries of stored carbon stocks into the atmosphere.
26	biodiversity	Monoculture plantations lead to a catastrophic crash in overall tropical biodiversity.

Section 3

Reading Passage 3: Building the Skyline

Topic: Urban Economics, Bedrock Geology & Skyscraper History • Questions 27–40

Questions 27–31: Multiple Choice Review

Q27: Shester's assessment of Barr's book in Paragraph 1:

Ans: D

The book synthesizes diverse interdisciplinary fields—geology, demographics, financial history, and econometric modeling.

Q28: Tenement housing analysis in Chapter 4:

Ans: B

Shester points out a methodological weakness: Barr relies heavily on aggregate rent averages, obscuring acute immigrant overcrowding.

Q29: Critique of Chapter 6:

Ans: C

The heavy regression equations and mathematical proofs will prove too specialized and impenetrable for casual general readers.

Q30: Commentary on the 1920s skyscraper boom chapters:

Ans: D

Lengthy mathematical models evaluating speculative developer psychology may deter readers interested purely in architecture.

Q31: What impresses Shester most about the land values chapter?

Ans: C

The rigorous archival research required to reconstruct 150 years of Manhattan property sales transactions.

Questions 32–35: Yes / No / Not Given

32. The aerial description in chapter one is purely fanciful and ungrounded.NO

33. Early chapters successfully lay the groundwork for later economic models.YES

34. Lack of municipal amenities was the single worst hardship for 19th-century immigrants.NOT GIVEN

35. 19th-century immigrant enclaves clustered primarily around the waterfront docks.NO

Questions 36–40: Demystifying the Bedrock Myth (Summary with Letters)

36	H	Absence of bedrock close to surface does not explain why towers were missing from two specific areas (Downtown & Midtown).
37	D	Deeper foundation excavation costs cannot be viewed as prohibitively high.
38	I	Extra foundation outlay accounted for only a minuscule fraction of total development expenditure.
39	B	Skyscrapers clustered where commercial demand for centralized office space was highest.
40	F	Proximity to rapid transit hubs allowed workers to arrive from distant suburbs.

Band 8.5+ Strategy: Academic Book Review Analysis

Reviewer Stance vs Author Claims: In academic book review passages like Passage 3, questions test the reviewer's appraisal (Shester) rather than the original author's assertions (Barr). Distinguish between praise, reservations, and neutral summary.
Summary Completion with Distractors (Questions 36–40): Pre-determine the syntactic role of the gap. For Question 37, the gap following "regarded as" requires an evaluative adjective phrase (prohibitively high).

Cambridge IELTS 17 Test 3 Reading Answers & Step-by-Step Explanations