Cambridge IELTS 16 Academic Reading Test 1 Answers
Looking for the Cambridge IELTS 16 Academic Reading Test 1 answers? This hub holds the complete key for all 40 questions on Why we need to protect polar bears, The Step Pyramid of Djoser and The future of work. Every entry is taken from Cambridge IELTS 16, Academic Test 1 — all 40 answers — so you can mark your practice test immediately and trust every line of the key.
Each passage links to its own walkthrough from this page, where every answer is explained with quoted evidence instead of a bare letter. Mark your thirteen polar bear answers, read the polar bears walkthrough, then repeat for the pyramid and the future of work. Every passage also runs as an interactive exam, so you can retake the weakest one against the clock later. For your next full paper, the Cambridge IELTS 18 Academic Reading Test 1 hub is ready and waiting. The three passages here run from biology to engineering to speculation, so expect your vocabulary to be tested widely.
Cambridge IELTS 16 Academic Reading Test 1 Reading Answers
Questions and Answers
| Question | Answer | Passage |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | FALSE | Passage 1 |
| 2 | FALSE | Passage 1 |
| 3 | NOT GIVEN | Passage 1 |
| 4 | TRUE | Passage 1 |
| 5 | TRUE | Passage 1 |
| 6 | FALSE | Passage 1 |
| 7 | TRUE | Passage 1 |
| 8 | violent | Passage 1 |
| 9 | tool | Passage 1 |
| 10 | meat | Passage 1 |
| 11 | photographer | Passage 1 |
| 12 | game | Passage 1 |
| 13 | frustration | Passage 1 |
| 14 | iv | Passage 2 |
| 15 | vii | Passage 2 |
| 16 | ii | Passage 2 |
| 17 | v | Passage 2 |
| 18 | i | Passage 2 |
| 19 | viii | Passage 2 |
| 20 | vi | Passage 2 |
| 21 | city | Passage 2 |
| 22 | priests | Passage 2 |
| 23 | trench | Passage 2 |
| 24 | location | Passage 2 |
| 25 | B AND D | Passage 2 |
| 26 | B AND D | Passage 2 |
| 27 | B | Passage 3 |
| 28 | D | Passage 3 |
| 29 | C | Passage 3 |
| 30 | D | Passage 3 |
| 31 | G | Passage 3 |
| 32 | E | Passage 3 |
| 33 | C | Passage 3 |
| 34 | F | Passage 3 |
| 35 | B | Passage 3 |
| 36 | A | Passage 3 |
| 37 | C | Passage 3 |
| 38 | A | Passage 3 |
| 39 | B | Passage 3 |
| 40 | C | Passage 3 |
Passage Walkthroughs
Why we need to protect polar bears
Passage 1 makes the case that polar bears matter beyond conservation, because their remarkable biology holds clues relevant to human health. It covers Questions 1–13 and combines True/False/Not Given with summary completion. The scientific vocabulary is heavier than usual for a Passage 1, so anchor yourself in the paragraph topics first. The full Why we need to protect polar bears walkthrough explains all thirteen answers, and the passage is also available as an interactive reading exam.
The Step Pyramid of Djoser
Passage 2 recounts how an early giant stone pyramid was designed, built and repeatedly repaired, and what it reveals about the era’s organisation and engineering. Questions 14–26 lean on matching information and note completion, which means lots of movement between detailed paragraphs. The building stages follow a clear sequence — use it to stay oriented. The Step Pyramid of Djoser walkthrough pins every answer to its place in the text, with an interactive reading exam version too. Construction stages follow each other in time — a margin sketch of the sequence answers half the set.
The future of work
The final passage looks at how technology keeps redrawing employment, and which skills will keep humans valuable as machines take on more tasks. Questions 27–40 mix matching headings with multiple choice and completion questions. The wrong headings borrow the passage’s own words as bait, so match ideas rather than vocabulary. The future of work walkthrough takes the last fourteen answers apart, and an interactive reading exam version is available as well.
Study Tips
The note completion set over the Step Pyramid is the highest-value target on this paper. Notes compress the passage’s sequence, so find the note’s heading in the text, then work gap by gap through the matching sentences instead of rereading the whole passage. Check the word limit before you write anything, and make your answer fit the grammar of the note rather than the grammar of the passage. Our note completion technique guide walks through this with full examples.
The future of work opens with matching headings, and this test shows exactly why word-matching fails. Two headings will contain phrases lifted almost verbatim from the passage while describing the wrong paragraph, and the correct heading for each paragraph is usually the more general one. Read the first and last sentence of each paragraph, cover the heading options, and summarise the paragraph to yourself in three words before you look. The matching headings technique page builds that habit step by step. Headings done well also give you a free map for the completion questions that follow.
This test catches candidates in a familiar way: they spend too long hunting one polar bear statement, arrive at the pyramid tired, and rush the future of work. Twenty minutes per passage, one clean pass each, beats forty minutes of heroic effort on Passage 1. When you review the walkthroughs, note whether your losses came from reading, from question technique, or from pure timing — most candidates discover it is mostly timing. The common reading mistakes guide names these patterns so you can fix them directly.
Practice More Cambridge Tests
A reviewed paper beats five unmarked ones, and Simply IELTS makes reviewing systematic with the free IELTS reading course. Once Test 1 is fully absorbed, move on to the Cambridge IELTS 18 Academic Reading Test 4 hub for a newer official paper and its complete answer key.
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