Cambridge IELTS 17 Test 4 Reading Answers

Cambridge Practice Series

Cambridge IELTS 17 Academic Reading Test 4: Complete Explanations

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

Master Cambridge IELTS 17 Reading Test 4 with our verified walkthrough. Comprehensive answer keys, paragraph citations, and keyword bridges for Bats to the Rescue (biological pest suppression in Madagascar), economic history analysis on Does Education Fuel Economic Growth?, and cognitive neuroimaging of Timur Gareyev - Blindfold Chess Champion.

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

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

Cross-check your exam answers across all 40 questions with this master key.

Q#	Answer Key	Q#	Answer Key	Q#	Answer Key	Q#	Answer Key
1	FALSE	11	unclean	21	fine	31	D
2	FALSE	12	culture	22	skills	32	G
3	NOT GIVEN	13	houses	23	B	33	FALSE
4	TRUE	14	B	24	E	34	NOT GIVEN
5	NOT GIVEN	15	F	25	B	35	NOT GIVEN
6	TRUE	16	D	26	D	36	TRUE
7	droppings	17	A	27	C	37	memory
8	coffee	18	E	28	E	38	numbers
9	mosquitoes	19	descendants	29	A	39	communication
10	protein	20	sermon	30	B	40	visual

Section 1

Reading Passage 1: Bats to the Rescue

Topic: Tropical Ecology, Biological Pest Control & Madagascar Agriculture • Questions 1–13

Questions 1–6: True / False / Not Given Breakdown

1. Insect plagues represent the primary driver of rainforest deforestation in Madagascar.FALSE

2. Deforestation has devastated the population of every indigenous bat species.FALSE

3. Ricardo Rocha was astounded by the sheer volume of insects consumed by bats.NOT GIVEN

4. Madagascar bats hunt crop-damaging moths in paddy fields at night.TRUE

5. The Malagasy mouse-eared bat is more prevalent than other local species.NOT GIVEN

6. Bats feed on insects that transmit infectious diseases to humans.TRUE

Questions 7–13: Agro-Ecological Relations Summary Completion

Q#	Summary Blank Concept	Correct Term	Context Rationale
7	DNA barcode sample source	droppings	Researchers collected bat fecal droppings underneath roosting trees.
8	Pest control in other cash crops	coffee	Bats safeguard lucrative coffee shrubs from wood borer beetles.
9	Disease vector consumption	mosquitoes	Bats voraciously consume mosquitoes carrying malaria and elephantiasis.
10	Dietary supplement during famine	protein	During lean seasons, fruit bats serve as an emergency dietary protein source.
11	Roosting building stigma	unclean	Residents resent attic roosts because guano makes ceiling timbers unclean.
12	Ancestral spiritual reverence	culture	Bats occupying sacred ancestral caves occupy a revered niche in local culture.
13	Ecological coexistence initiative	houses	Conservationists encourage farmers to erect dedicated artificial bat houses.

Section 2

Reading Passage 2: Does Education Fuel Economic Growth?

Topic: Economic History, Early Modern Literacy & Trade Guilds • Questions 14–26

Questions 14–18: Information Matching (Sections A–F)

Q14: Section B

Explains that research must examine ordinary artisans rather than exceptional polymath geniuses.

Q15: Section F

Lists historical archival sources: parish baptismal registries, probate inventories, court records.

Q16: Section D

Narrates a shepherd defying a local magistrate's decree to surrender an unapproved Bible.

Q17: Section A

Highlights Württemberg in southwest Germany as a pristine test case due to comprehensive archives.

Q18: Section E

Itemizes estate possessions: spinning wheels, pewter spoons, bedding, prayer books.

Questions 19–22: Sentence Completion

19	descendants	Genealogists traced family lineages to determine whether literacy enriched descendants.
20	sermon	Parishioners who missed the mandatory Sunday sermon faced church court censure.
21	fine	Parents failing to send children to village catechism classes incurred a stiff financial fine.
22	skills	Craft guilds prioritized practical mechanical skills over abstract academic reading.

Questions 23–26: Multiple Selection Findings

Questions 23 & 24: Historical Literacy Rates (Choose TWO)

Answers: B, E

Germany enjoyed exceptional early modern literacy rates (B), while historical data suggests wealth creation ultimately drove education expansion, rather than vice versa (E).

Questions 25 & 26: Craft Guild Policies in Central Europe (Choose TWO)

Answers: B, D

Guilds vigorously blocked external labour migration (B) and aggressively suppressed unlicensed manufacturing practices that threatened their local cartels (D).

Section 3

Reading Passage 3: Timur Gareyev - Blindfold Chess Champion

Topic: Cognitive Neuroscience, Working Memory & Blindfold Chess Grandmasters • Questions 27–40

Questions 27–32: Paragraph Matching (Paragraphs A–H)

27	C	References historic blindfold displays in 13th-century Florence.
28	E	Outlines cognitive mechanics: visualizing changing mental boards without physical sight.
29	A	Claims Gareyev's genius is domain-specific rather than a generalized super-intellect.
30	B	Explains why UCLA cognitive neuroscientists jumped at the opportunity to scan his brain.
31	D	Outlines Gareyev's personal priorities: setting world records while exercising on a stationary bike.
32	G	Explains endgame vulnerability: fatigue eroding visual distinction after 16 hours of continuous play.

Questions 33–36: True / False / Not Given

33. All 48 opponents in the world-record exhibition were also blindfolded.FALSE

34. Gareyev won national amateur skydiving and BASE-jumping tournaments.NOT GIVEN

35. UCLA was the first university globally to scan a chess master's brain.NOT GIVEN

36. Most grandmasters possess innate capacity to conduct a blindfold match.TRUE

Questions 37–40: Neurological Scan Summary

Q37: memory

UCLA researchers began by evaluating standard short-term Working Memory capacity.

Q38: numbers

Gareyev was tasked with recalling arbitrary strings of pseudo-random numbers.

Q39: communication

fMRI scans revealed heightened neural communication between the frontal and parietal lobes.

Q40: visual

Gareyev relied on intense visual network recruitment to anchor dynamic spatial positions.

Band 8.5+ Strategy: Mastering Information Matching & Summary

Matching Information to Paragraphs: Notice that questions ask for an outline (Q28), a reason (Q32), or a claim (Q29). Classify the rhetorical function of the target text before matching.
Multiple Selection Questions: In questions like 23–24, options are credited as 1 mark each. You can write them in either order (B, E or E, B) on your official Cambridge answer sheet.

Cambridge IELTS 17 Test 4 Reading Answers & Step-by-Step Explanations