Cambridge IELTS 4 · Academic · Test 1 · Passage 2
What Do Whales Feel? — IELTS Reading Answers
All 12 answers for What Do Whales Feel?, Cambridge IELTS 4 Academic Reading Test 1 Passage 2, with the passage evidence and an explanation for each.
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What Do Whales Feel? answer key at a glance
Questions 15–26. Tap an answer to see the evidence.
What this passage tests
This passage is tested with Table Completion (Q15–21), Short Answers (Q22–26). Each section below gives the strategy for that question type, the answers, and the sentence that proves them.
Questions 15–21: Table Completion
Strategy: Work row by row. The row label tells you where to look; the column heading tells you what kind of word you need.
“Similarly, although at least some cetaceans have taste buds, the nerves serving these have degenerated or are rudimentary”
The table needs the organ cetaceans possess but whose nerves degenerate: 'at least some cetaceans have taste buds', though their nerves are rudimentary.
“However, the position of the eyes so restricts the field of vision in baleen whales that they probably do not have stereoscopic vision”
The table needs the whale type lacking stereoscopic vision: 'the position of the eyes so restricts the field of vision in baleen whales'.
“On the other hand, the position of the eyes in most dolphins and porpoises suggests that they have stereoscopic vision forward and downward”
The table needs dolphins' and porpoises' stereoscopic direction: their eye position suggests vision 'forward and downward'.
“Eye position in freshwater dolphins, which often swim on their side or upside down while feeding, suggests that what vision they have is stereoscopic forward and upward”
The table needs the species with forward-and-upward vision: 'eye position in freshwater dolphins' suggests their vision is stereoscopic in that direction.
“By comparison, the bottlenose dolphin has extremely keen vision in water”
The table needs where the bottlenose dolphin sees keenly: 'the bottlenose dolphin has extremely keen vision in water'.
“Large baleen whales primarily use the lower frequencies and are often limited in their repertoire”
The table needs what large baleen whales use: 'large baleen whales primarily use the lower frequencies'.
“Notable exceptions are the nearly song-like choruses of bowhead whales in summer and the complex, haunting utterances of the humpback whales”
The table needs the whale with song-like choruses: 'the nearly song-like choruses of bowhead whales in summer' are a notable exception.
Questions 22–26: 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.
Which of the senses is described here as being involved in mating?
“This contact may help to maintain order within a group, and stroking or touching are part of the courtship ritual in most species”
Mating involves 'stroking or touching', which are 'part of the courtship ritual in most species', so the sense is touch.
Which species swims upside down while eating?
“Eye position in freshwater dolphins, which often swim on their side or upside down while feeding, suggests that what vision they have is stereoscopic forward and upward”
The species that swims 'on their side or upside down while feeding' is the freshwater dolphin, as the eye-position sentence states.
What can bottlenose dolphins follow from under the water?
“By comparison, the bottlenose dolphin has extremely keen vision in water. Judging from the way it watches and tracks airborne flying fish, it can apparently see fairly well through the air-water interface as well”
The bottlenose dolphin 'watches and tracks airborne flying fish', apparently seeing through the air-water interface.
Which type of habitat is related to good visual ability?
“For example, vision is obviously more useful to species inhabiting clear open waters than to those living in turbid rivers and flooded plains”
Vision is 'more useful to species inhabiting clear open waters than to those living in turbid rivers', so clear water is the habitat.
Which of the senses is best developed in cetaceans?
“such weaknesses are more than compensated for by cetaceans' well-developed acoustic sense”
Cetaceans' poor vision is 'more than compensated for by cetaceans' well-developed acoustic sense', the best-developed sense.
Learn the question types in this passage
Frequently asked questions
Where does the What Do Whales Feel? passage come from?
It is Passage 2 of Cambridge IELTS 4 Academic Reading Test 1, and it covers Questions 15–26.
What question types appear in What Do Whales Feel??
The passage is tested with Table Completion, Short Answers. 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.