Cambridge IELTS 21 · General Training · Test 4 · Section 3
Tracking Elephants In Namibia — IELTS Reading Answers
All 13 answers for Tracking Elephants In Namibia, Cambridge IELTS 21 General Training Reading Test 4 Section 3, with the passage evidence and an explanation for each.
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Tracking Elephants In Namibia answer key at a glance
Questions 28–40. Tap an answer to see the evidence.
What this section tests
This section is tested with Matching Headings (Q28–34), One Choice (Q35–37), Summary Completion (Q38–40). Each section below gives the strategy for that question type, the answers, and the sentence that proves them.
Questions 28–34: Matching Headings
Strategy: Read the paragraph first and summarise its main idea in five words. Choose the heading that matches the whole paragraph, not a repeated keyword.
Section A
“Hendrick raised his arm, pointing his index finger in the air – this was the signal not to move, not to make a sound, not to breathe”
Heading vii fits Section A, where Hendrick's raised finger signals 'not to move, not to make a sound, not to breathe'.
Section B
“The last time I had seen these elephants, 15 years earlier, I had narrowly escaped being flattened as they charged towards us, and was saved by the fact that the matriarch, the eldest member and authority on decision making, had been towards the back of the herd”
Heading iv matches Section B's flashback to the previous charge, when the matriarch's position at the back saved the writer.
Section C
“Just as it seemed as though Deliwe was about to take Elisabeth’s pencil with her trunk, Hendrick clapped his hands in quick bursts and the mother and daughter retreated a little”
Heading vi covers Section C's tense encounter as Deliwe nearly takes Elisabeth's pencil before Hendrick's claps move the elephants back.
Section D
“We were not on safari, we were on patrol with EHRA to collect data: to record the locations of these herds, check their wellbeing, note down any injuries they may have suffered, make sure they were all there and record any new-borns.”
Heading viii fits Section D's explanation that the patrol collects data on the herds while also benefiting the women taking part.
Section E
“I could picture it all really clearly, but now I had to make it happen”
Heading ix matches Section E's line 'I could picture it all really clearly, but now I had to make it happen', about turning a plan into reality.
Section F
“We certainly hadn’t expected to be cooking our barbecue under umbrellas”
Heading v fits Section F's unexpected weather: 'We certainly hadn't expected to be cooking our barbecue under umbrellas'.
Section G
“Even with rain, the spirits of this all-women team were not dampened: in fact it made for a great sense of community”
Heading ii matches Section G, where rain failed to dampen spirits and instead 'made for a great sense of community'.
Questions 35–37: 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.
The writer wasn’t flattened by elephants 15 years ago because
- Athe oldest one led them away.
- Bthe young females thought the humans would attack them.
- Cthe oldest one was behind most of the others.correct
- Dthey were frightened by the noise of the 4×4’s engine.
“I had narrowly escaped being flattened as they charged towards us, and was saved by the fact that the matriarch, the eldest member and authority on decision making, had been towards the back of the herd”
Option C restates the reason: the matriarch, 'the eldest member', was 'towards the back of the herd', not leading them away.
According to the writer, one aim of EHRA is
- Ato prevent conflict between elephants and human inhabitants.correct
- Bto encourage tourists to behave responsibly towards the elephants.
- Cto keep elephants out of the areas where humans live.
- Dto provide work for local residents.
“But for years, Hendrick Munembone, and other rangers working alongside Elephant Human Relations Aid (EHRA), have tried to create a positive relationship, not only within the herds of elephants in the region,”
Option A fits EHRA's aim of building 'a positive relationship' between elephants and 'the humans who live and work side by side with them'.
In section C, the writer implies that elephants pretending to eat may be
- Ain need of food.
- Ba danger to humans.correct
- Cmore interesting to watch.
- Dcurious about humans.
“This time, as it turned out, they really were eating – which meant they were calm and curious rather than nervous and potentially aggressive”
Option B follows from the contrast: elephants that only pretend to eat are 'nervous and potentially aggressive', so they pose a danger.
Questions 38–40: 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.
“This made tracking them difficult, and we frequently had to climb up the rocks and peer through binoculars. If someone had told me that an elephant could disguise itself as a rock I wouldn’t have believed them, but with thousands of these boulders in our view, it was almost impossible to distinguish the herd,”
Because the herd was hard to distinguish among boulders, the team climbed rocks and peered 'through binoculars', the noun needed.
“Later, as we headed back to our camp, I spotted a rainbow”
On the way back to camp the writer 'spotted a rainbow', the singular noun the summary needs.
“We certainly hadn’t expected to be cooking our barbecue under umbrellas”
The surprise was cooking the barbecue 'under umbrellas', the plural noun for the rain cover.
Learn the question types in this section
Frequently asked questions
Where does the Tracking Elephants In Namibia passage come from?
It is Section 3 of Cambridge IELTS 21 General Training Reading Test 4, and it covers Questions 28–40.
What question types appear in Tracking Elephants In Namibia?
The section is tested with Matching Headings, One Choice, 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.