Cambridge IELTS 9 · Academic · Test 1 · Passage 3
The History Of The Tortoise — IELTS Reading Answers
All 14 answers for The History Of The Tortoise, Cambridge IELTS 9 Academic Reading Test 1 Passage 3, with the passage evidence and an explanation for each.
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The History Of The Tortoise answer key at a glance
Questions 27–40. Tap an answer to see the evidence.
What this passage tests
This passage is tested with Short Answers (Q27–30), True / False / Not Given (Q31–33), Flow Chart Completion (Q34–39), One Choice (Q40–40). Each section below gives the strategy for that question type, the answers, and the sentence that proves them.
Questions 27–30: Short Answers
Strategy: Use the question word to predict the answer type, locate the relevant sentence, and copy no more words than the limit allows.
What had to transfer from sea to land before any animals could migrate?
“And we mustn't forget the plants, without whose prior invasion of the land none of the other migrations could have happened”
Plants had to invade the land first: 'without whose prior invasion... none of the other migrations could have happened'.
Which TWO processes are mentioned as those in which animals had to make big changes as they moved onto land?
“Moving from water to land involved a major redesign of every aspect of life, including breathing and reproduction”
The two processes named are 'breathing and reproduction', both requiring major redesign for land life.
Which physical feature, possessed by their ancestors, do whales lack?
“They do, however, still breathe air, having never developed anything equivalent to the gills of their earlier marine incarnation”
Whales never developed 'anything equivalent to the gills' of their marine ancestors, so they lack gills.
Which animals might ichthyosaurs have resembled?
“The fossils look like dolphins and they surely lived like dolphins, in the water”
Ichthyosaur fossils 'look like dolphins' and the animals 'lived like dolphins', so dolphins is the answer.
Questions 31–33: 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.
Turtles were among the first group of animals to migrate back to the sea.
“Turtles went back to the sea a very long time ago and, like all vertebrate returnees to the water, they breathe air”
The text says turtles returned to the sea 'a very long time ago' but never ranks them among the first groups to do so.
It is always difficult to determine where an animal lived when its fossilised remains are incomplete.
“You might wonder how we can tell whether fossil animals lived on land or in water, especially if only fragments are found. Sometimes it's obvious”
'Sometimes it's obvious' even from fragments, so it is not always difficult — the absolute claim is contradicted.
The habitat of ichthyosaurs can be determined by the appearance of their fossilised remains.
“Ichthyosaurs were reptilian contemporaries of the dinosaurs, with fins and streamlined bodies. The fossils look like dolphins and they surely lived like dolphins, in the water”
Fins, streamlined bodies and dolphin-like fossils show they lived in water, so appearance does reveal habitat. TRUE.
Questions 34–39: Flow Chart Completion
Strategy: Follow the arrows in order. Each stage usually maps to one sentence or one clause in the passage.
“Walter Joyce and Jacques Gauthier, at Yale University, obtained three measurements in these particular bones of 71 species of living turtles and tortoises”
The flow chart's first step is obtaining 'three measurements' from the bones of 71 species, so '3 measurements' fits.
“They used a kind of triangular graph paper to plot the three measurements against one another”
They plotted the measurements on 'triangular graph paper', so the chart is a 'triangular graph'.
“All the land tortoise species formed a tight cluster of points in the upper part of the triangle; all the water turtles cluster in the lower part of the triangular graph”
Land tortoises 'formed a tight cluster of points' in the upper triangle, so the pattern is a 'cluster'.
“There was no overlap, except when they added some species that spend time both in water and on land. Sure enough, these amphibious species show up on the triangular graph approximately half way between the 'wet cluster' of sea turtles and the 'dry cluster' of land tortoises”
Species living both in water and on land are called 'amphibious', the term the flow chart needs.
“Sure enough, these amphibious species show up on the triangular graph approximately half way between the 'wet cluster' of sea turtles and the 'dry cluster' of land tortoises”
Amphibious species plot 'approximately half way' between the wet and dry clusters, so that phrase fills the gap.
“Both these fossils were dry-land tortoises”
The two fossils are identified as 'dry-land tortoises', placing them with the land group.
Questions 40–40: One Choice
Strategy: Read the question stem and predict the answer before looking at the options. Wrong options often repeat passage words while the correct one paraphrases them.
According to the writer, the most significant thing about tortoises is that
- Athey are able to adapt to life in extremely dry environments.
- Btheir original life form was a kind of primeval bacteria.
- Cthey have so much in common with sea turtles.
- Dthey have made the transition from sea to land more than once.correct
“Tortoises therefore represent a remarkable double return. In common with all mammals, reptiles and birds, their remote ancestors were marine fish and before that various more or less worm-like creatures stretching back, still in the sea, to the primeval bacteria.”
'A remarkable double return' means tortoises moved from sea to land, back to water as sea turtles, then to land again — option D.
Learn the question types in this passage
Frequently asked questions
Where does the The History Of The Tortoise passage come from?
It is Passage 3 of Cambridge IELTS 9 Academic Reading Test 1, and it covers Questions 27–40.
What question types appear in The History Of The Tortoise?
The passage is tested with Short Answers, True / False / Not Given, Flow Chart Completion, One Choice. 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.