Cambridge IELTS 7 · Academic · Test 3 · Passage 1
Ant Intelligence — IELTS Reading Answers
All 13 answers for Ant Intelligence, Cambridge IELTS 7 Academic Reading Test 3 Passage 1, with the passage evidence and an explanation for each.
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Ant Intelligence answer key at a glance
Questions 1–13. Tap an answer to see the evidence.
What this passage tests
This passage is tested with True / False / Not Given (Q1–6), Summary Completion (Q7–13). Each section below gives the strategy for that question type, the answers, and the sentence that proves them.
Questions 1–6: True / False / Not Given
Strategy: Judge the whole statement against the text. FALSE contradicts the passage; NOT GIVEN means the passage never addresses that specific claim.
Ants use the same channels of communication as humans do.
“Such chemical communication can be compared to the human use of visual and auditory channels (as in religious chants, advertising images and jingles, political slogans and martial music) to arouse and propagate moods and attitudes”
Ants rely on chemical communication, compared with the human 'visual and auditory channels', so the channels are not the same. FALSE.
City life is one factor that encourages the development of intelligence.
“Whereas prehistoric man had no exposure to urban lifestyles – the forcing house of intelligence – the evidence suggests that ants have lived in urban settings for close on a hundred million years, developing and maintaining underground cities of specialised chambers and tunnels”
Urban lifestyles are called 'the forcing house of intelligence', confirming city life promotes intelligence. TRUE.
Ants can build large cities more quickly than humans do.
“Yet Hoelldobler and Wilson's magnificent work for ant lovers, The Ants, describes a supercolony of the ant Formica yessensis on the Ishikari Coast of Hokkaido. This 'megalopolis' was reported to be composed of 360 million workers and a million queens living in 4,500 interconnected nests across a territory of 2.7...”
The passage describes a vast ant 'megalopolis' but never compares how quickly ants and humans build, so the comparison is not given.
Some ants can find their way by making calculations based on distance and position.
“when desert ants return from a foraging trip, they navigate by integrating bearings and distances, which they continuously update in their heads”
'Integrating bearings and distances' in their heads is calculation from distance and position, so TRUE.
In one experiment, foraging teams were able to use their sense of smell to find food.
“Elaborate precautions were taken to prevent the foraging team using odour clues”
Precautions 'prevented the foraging team using odour clues', so in that experiment they could not rely on smell. FALSE.
The essay, 'In the company of ants', explores ant communication.
“It's no surprise that Edward Wilson, in his essay, 'In the company of ants', advises readers who ask what to do with the ants in their kitchen to: 'Watch where you step. Be careful of little lives.'”
Wilson's essay is quoted only advising readers to 'watch where you step'; the passage never says it explores ant communication.
Questions 7–13: Summary Completion
Strategy: Read the summary as a paragraph first to establish the logic, then locate the missing idea in the passage. With a lettered list, confirm the grammar fits.
Options for Questions 7–13
- Aaphids
- Bagricultural
- Ccellulose
- Dexchanging
- Eenergy
- Ffertilizers
- Gfood
- Hfungi
- Igrowing
- Jinterbreeding
“Ants can't digest the cellulose in leaves – but some fungi can”
The summary needs what ants cannot digest: 'cellulose in leaves', which the fungi can break down — option C.
“Farmer ants secrete antibiotics to control other fungi that might act as 'weeds', and spread waste to fertilise the crop”
The gap needs what farmer ants 'secrete to control other fungi that might act as weeds' — antibiotics, given as option M.
“spread waste to fertilise the crop”
The gap needs the noun for what waste becomes: ants 'spread waste to fertilise the crop', so 'fertilizers' (F) fits.
“Even more impressively, DNA analysis of the fungi suggests that the ants improve or modify the fungi by regularly swapping and sharing strains with neighbouring ant colonies”
'Swapping and sharing strains' is paraphrased by 'exchanging' (D), so the ants modify fungi by exchanging them.
“The farming methods of ants are at least sustainable. They do not ruin environments or use enormous amounts of energy”
Option N fits the adjective for farming that can continue indefinitely: the text calls ants' methods 'at least sustainable'.
“The farming methods of ants are at least sustainable. They do not ruin environments or use enormous amounts of energy”
Option O fills the object of 'ruin': the ants 'do not ruin environments', so this is the noun needed.
“They do not ruin environments or use enormous amounts of energy”
The gap ends 'enormous amounts of ___', and the text says ants do not 'use enormous amounts of energy', so E fits.
Learn the question types in this passage
Frequently asked questions
Where does the Ant Intelligence passage come from?
It is Passage 1 of Cambridge IELTS 7 Academic Reading Test 3, and it covers Questions 1–13.
What question types appear in Ant Intelligence?
The passage is tested with True / False / Not Given, Summary Completion. Each type is explained on this page, alongside the answers.
Are these reading answers reliable?
Every answer is paired with the sentence that proves it, so you can check each one against the passage yourself. Use the page after a timed attempt, not instead of one.
Cambridge IELTS is published by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Band9Prep is not affiliated with Cambridge. This page is an independent study aid: it gives the answer key, the passage evidence and an explanation so you can review an attempt you have already made.