This page gives you the complete Adapting to the effects of climate change IELTS Reading Answers for Cambridge IELTS 20, Academic Test 4, Reading Passage 2 (Questions 14–26). The passage tours five adaptation projects around the world — raised roads and new pumps in Miami Beach, bamboo dams on the shores of Java, amphibious houses in the Mekong Delta, salt-tolerant crops in Bangladesh and cool pavements in Los Angeles — and every answer below is the official Cambridge key.

You will find the full passage, all thirteen questions and the answer table first, followed by a detailed explanation for every item that quotes the exact evidence from the text. The paper mixes three question types here: locating information (Questions 14–17), ONE WORD ONLY sentence completion (Questions 18–22) and matching statements to five named people (Questions 23–26). Work through the passage untimed first, then mark yourself strictly — and for the rest of the paper, see the Cambridge IELTS 20 Test 4 answers hub or continue to the Passage 3 walkthrough, A new role for livestock guard dogs.

Reading Passage 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14–26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

Adapting to the effects of climate change

A. All around the world, nations are already preparing for, and adapting to, climate change and its impacts. Even if we stopped all CO2 emissions tomorrow, we would continue to see the impact of the CO2 already released since industrial times, with scientists forecasting that global warming would continue for around 40 years. In the meantime, ice caps would continue to melt and sea levels rise. Some countries and regions will suffer more extreme impacts from these changes than others. It’s in these places that innovation is thriving.

B. In Miami Beach, Florida, USA, seawater isn’t just breaching the island city’s walls, it’s seeping up through the ground, so the only way to save the city is to lift it up above sea level. Starting in the lowest and most vulnerable neighbourhoods, roads have been raised by as much as 61 centimetres. The elevation work was carried out as part of Miami Beach’s ambitious but much-needed stormwater-management programme. In addition to the road adaptations, the city has set up new pumps that can remove up to 75,000 litres of water per minute. In the face of floods, climate-mitigation strategies have often been overlooked, says Yanira Pineda, a senior sustainability coordinator. She knows that they’re essential and that the job is far from over. ‘We know that in 20, 30, 40 years, we’ll need to go back in there and adjust to the changing environment,’ she says.

C. Seawalls are a staple strategy for many coastal communities, but on the soft, muddy northern shores of Java, Indonesia, they frequently collapse, further exacerbating coastal erosion. There have been many attempts to restore the island’s coastal mangroves: ecosystems of trees and shrubs that help defend coastal areas by trapping sediment in their net-like root systems, elevating the sea bed and dampening the energy of waves and tidal currents. But Susanna Tol of the not-for-profit organisation Wetlands International says that, while hugely popular, the majority of mangrove-planting projects fail. So, Wetlands International started out with a different approach, building semi-permeable dams, made from bamboo poles and brushwood, to mimic the role of mangrove roots and create favourable conditions for mangroves to grow back naturally. The programme has seen moderate success, mainly in areas with less subsidence. “Unfortunately, traditional infrastructure is often single-solution focused,’ says Tol. ‘For long-term success, it’s critical that we transition towards multifunctional approaches that embed natural processes and that engage and benefit communities and local decision-makers.”

D. As the floodwaters rose in the rice fields of the Mekong Delta in September 2018, four small houses rose with them. Homes in this part of Vietnam are traditionally built on stilts but these ones had been built to float. The modifications were made by the Buoyant Foundation Project, a not-for-profit organisation that has been researching and retrofitting amphibious houses since 2006. ‘When I started this,’ explains founder Elizabeth English, ‘climate change was not on the tip of everybody’s tongue,’ but this technology is becoming necessary in places that didn’t previously need it. It’s much cheaper than permanently elevating houses, English explains – about a third of what it would cost to completely replace a building’s foundations. It also avoids the problem of taller houses being at greater risk from wind damage. Another plus comes from the fact that amphibious structures can be sensitively adapted to meet cultural needs and match the kind of houses that are already common in a community.

E. Bangladesh is especially vulnerable to climate change. Most of the country is less than a metre above sea level and 80 per cent of its land lies on floodplains. ‘Almost 35 million people living on the coastal belt of Bangladesh are currently affected by soil and water salinity,’ says Raisa Chowdhury of the international development organisation ICCO Cooperation. Rather than fighting against it, one project is helping communities adapt to salt-affected soils. ICCO Cooperation has been working with 10,000 farmers in Bangladesh to start cultivating naturally salt-tolerant crops in the region. Certain varieties of carrot, potato, kohlrabi, cabbage and beetroot have been found to be better suited to salty soil than the rice and wheat that is typically grown there. Chowdhury says that the results are very visible, comparing a barren plot of land to the ‘beautiful, lush green vegetable garden’ sitting beside it, in which he and his team have been working with the farmers. Since the project began, farmers trained in saline agriculture have reported increases of two to three more harvests per year.

F. Greg Spotts from Los Angeles (LA) in the USA is chief sustainability officer of the city’s street services department. He leads the Cool Streets LA programme, a series of pilot projects, which include the planting of trees and the installation of a ‘cool pavement’ system, designed to help reach the city’s goal of bringing down its average temperature by 1.5°C. ‘Urban cooling is literally a matter of life and death for our future in LA,’ says Spotts. Using a Geographic Information System data mapping tool, the programme identified streets with low tree canopy cover in three of the city’s neighbourhoods and covered them with a light-grey, light-reflecting coating, which had already been shown to lower road surface temperature in Los Angeles by 6°C. Spotts says one of these streets, in the Winnetka neighbourhood of San Fernando Valley, can now be seen as a pale crescent, the only cool spot on an otherwise red thermal image, from the International Space Station.

Questions 14–26

Questions 14–17

Reading Passage has six paragraphs, A–F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A–F, in boxes on your answer sheet.

14. how a type of plant functions as a natural protection for coastlines

15. a prediction about how long it could take to stop noticing the effects of climate change

16. a reference to the fact that a solution is particularly cost-effective

17. a mention of a technology used to locate areas most in need of intervention

Questions 18–22

Complete the sentences below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes on your answer sheet.

• The stormwater-management programme in Miami Beach has involved the installation of efficient 18 …………
• The construction of 19 ………… was the first stage of a project to ensure the success of mangroves in Indonesia.
• As a response to rising floodwaters in the Mekong Delta, a not-for-profit organisation has been building houses that can 20 ………… .
• Rising sea levels in Bangladesh have made it necessary to introduce various 21 ………… that are suitable for areas of high salt content.
• A project in LA has increased the number of 22 ………… on the city’s streets.

Questions 23–26

Look at the following statements and the list of people below.

Match each statement with the correct person,

Write the correct letter, A E, in boxes on your answer sheet.

List of People

• A. Yanira Pineda
• B. Susanna Tol
• C. Elizabeth English
• D. Raisa Chowdhury
• E. Greg Spotts

23. It is essential to adopt strategies which involve and help residents of the region.

24. Interventions which reduce heat are absolutely vital for our survival in this location.

25. More work will need to be done in future decades to deal with the impact of rising water levels.

26. The number of locations requiring action to adapt to flooding has grown in recent years.

Adapting to the effects of climate change IELTS Reading Answers

Questions and Answers

Detailed Explanations for Adapting to the effects of climate change Answers

Questions 14–17

14. C — Paragraph C defines mangroves as “ecosystems of trees and shrubs that help defend coastal areas” by trapping sediment and dampening waves, which is exactly a type of plant acting as natural protection for coastlines.

15. A — The timescale prediction sits in the opening paragraph: scientists forecast that “global warming would continue for around 40 years”, the estimate of how long the effects of existing CO2 will keep being felt.

16. D — Cost-effectiveness is flagged in paragraph D, where amphibious housing is “much cheaper than permanently elevating houses” — roughly a third of the cost of replacing foundations entirely.

17. F — The locating technology appears in paragraph F: using a Geographic Information System mapping tool, “the programme identified streets with low tree canopy cover”, the areas most in need of intervention.

Questions 18–22

18. pumps — The sentence asks what the stormwater-management programme installed, and paragraph B confirms the city has “set up new pumps that can remove up to 75,000 litres” of water per minute — efficient removal is the whole point.

19. dams — The Indonesia project in paragraph C began by “building semi-permeable dams, made from bamboo poles” and brushwood, structures that recreate the role of mangrove roots so the mangroves can return on their own.

20. float — Paragraph D states that when the floodwaters rose in the rice fields, the four houses “had been built to float” — a direct one-word answer for how they respond to rising water.

21. crops — In paragraph E, ICCO Cooperation has been training 10,000 farmers in “cultivating naturally salt-tolerant crops in the region”, the produce suited to soil with high salt content.

22. trees — The LA programme in paragraph F includes “the planting of trees and the installation” of cool pavement, so what the streets have gained more of is trees.

Questions 23–26

23. B — Susanna Tol argues for approaches that “engage and benefit communities and local decision-makers”, her words in paragraph C, which restates the idea of strategies that involve and help residents of the region.

24. E — Greg Spotts makes the survival claim in paragraph F: “Urban cooling is literally a matter of life and death” for the future of LA, matching heat reduction being absolutely vital.

25. A — Yanira Pineda expects repeated work on rising water in paragraph B: in “20, 30, 40 years, we’ll need to go back in there” and adjust to the changing environment, she says — more work in future decades.

26. C — Elizabeth English notes in paragraph D that demand has spread beyond the old flood zones, with this technology “becoming necessary in places that didn’t previously need it” — a growing number of locations.

Key Vocabulary from Adapting to the effects of climate change

Study Tips

Questions 14–17 are locating-information items, and they are pure paraphrase tests: the statement about ‘a type of plant functions as a natural protection for coastlines’ never uses the word mangrove, so match meaning rather than vocabulary. Skim each paragraph for its single topic — Miami engineering, Java dams, floating houses, saline crops, LA cooling — label it in the margin, then slot the statements in. With four statements across six paragraphs, two paragraphs are distractors, so never force a match you cannot justify with evidence.

In Questions 18–22 the instruction is ONE WORD ONLY, and the five answers come from five different paragraphs in order, which makes scanning far easier. Predict the grammar of each gap before you look: after ‘the installation of efficient’ you need a plural noun, and that points straight to pumps. Copy the form exactly as the passage prints it, singular or plural, and reject any candidate that needs a second word. The same predict-then-scan discipline underpins our True/False/Not Given strategy guide and transfers to every completion task.

For Questions 23–26, underline each speaker’s quoted words before reading the statements: ‘a matter of life and death’ belongs to Spotts and ‘communities and local decision-makers’ to Tol. Each of the five people is used exactly once, so answer the statements you are certain of first and let elimination finish the rest. Budget twenty minutes for this passage using the reading time management plan, then convert your marks with the reading band score calculator to see where Passage 2 leaves you.

The matching features lesson in our free course breaks this task down step by step — pair it with extra timed attempts from the Reading Passage 2 exam archive.

Practice More Cambridge Tests

If this passage sharpened your eye for paraphrase, keep the momentum going. Simply IELTS offers a free IELTS reading course that drills every question type on this page, from locating information to ONE WORD ONLY completion, and you can finish the rest of Test 4 with the Georgia O’Keeffe walkthrough for Passage 1. One passage a day is all it takes to make the full 40-question paper feel manageable.