The Coconut Palm — IELTS Reading Answers

“The coconut palm has a smooth, slender, grey trunk, up to 30 metres tall. This is an important source of timber for building houses, and is increasingly being used as a replacement for endangered hardwoods in the furniture construction industry.”

The trunk is used 'as a replacement for endangered hardwoods in the furniture construction industry', so the table's category is furniture.

“The flower stems may be tapped for their sap to produce a drink, and the sap can also be reduced by boiling to produce a type of sugar used for cooking”

Boiling the sap produces 'a type of sugar used for cooking', which is the product the table asks for.

“The wall of the fruit has three layers: a waterproof outer layer, a fibrous middle layer and a hard, inner layer. The thick fibrous middle layer produces coconut fibre, ‘coir’, which has numerous uses and is particularly important in manufacturing ropes.”

Coir from the fibrous middle layer 'is particularly important in manufacturing ropes', supplying the missing product.

“An important product obtained from the shell is charcoal, which is widely used in various industries as well as in the home as a cooking fuel.”

The shell yields 'charcoal', widely used as cooking fuel and in industry, exactly what the gap requires.

“When broken in half, the shells are also used as bowls in many parts of Asia.”

Shells broken in half are 'used as bowls in many parts of Asia', so bowls is the item needed.

“Initially, the endosperm is a sweetish liquid, coconut water, which is enjoyed as a drink, but also provides the hormones which encourage other plants to grow more rapidly and produce higher yields”

Coconut water 'provides the hormones which encourage other plants to grow', matching the benefit listed in the table.

“Dried coconut flesh, ‘copra’, is made into coconut oil and coconut milk, which are widely used in cooking in different parts of the world, as well as in cosmetics”

Coconut oil and milk are used in cooking 'as well as in cosmetics', the second use the table lists.

“A derivative of coconut fat, glycerine, acquired strategic importance in a quite different sphere, as Alfred Nobel introduced the world to his nitroglycerine-based invention: dynamite”

Glycerine, a derivative of coconut fat, gained strategic importance through Nobel's nitroglycerine-based invention, 'dynamite'.

Coconut seeds need shade in order to germinate.

“Literally cast onto desert island shores, with little more than sand to grow in and exposed to the full glare of the tropical sun, coconut seeds are able to germinate and root”

FALSE: the statement claims shade is needed, but seeds germinate 'exposed to the full glare of the tropical sun' on bare sand — a direct contradiction.

Coconuts were probably transported to Asia from America in the 16th century.

“16th century trade and human migration patterns reveal that Arab traders and European sailors are likely to have moved coconuts from South and Southeast Asia to Africa and then across the Atlantic to the east coast of America”

FALSE: the movement ran from Asia to Africa and across the Atlantic to America, the reverse of the statement's America-to-Asia direction.

Coconuts found on the west coast of America were a different type from those found on the east coast.

“But the origin of coconuts discovered along the west coast of America by 16th century sailors has been the subject of centuries of discussion. Two diametrically opposed origins have been proposed: that they came from Asia, or that they were native to America”

NOT GIVEN: the passage debates whether west-coast coconuts came from Asia or were native, but never compares their type with east-coast coconuts.

All the coconuts found in Asia are cultivated varieties.

“In Asia, there is a large degree of coconut diversity and evidence of millennia of human use – but there are no relatives growing in the wild”

TRUE: Asia has coconut diversity but 'no relatives growing in the wild', implying the coconuts found there are cultivated varieties only.

Coconuts are cultivated in different ways in America and the Pacific.

“In America, there are close coconut relatives, but no evidence that coconuts are indigenous. These problems have led to the intriguing suggestion that coconuts originated on coral islands in the Pacific and were dispersed from there.”

NOT GIVEN: origins and wild relatives are discussed, yet the passage never describes different cultivation methods in America and the Pacific.