Manatees IELTS Reading Answers with Explanation

“Manatees” is Passage 1 of Cambridge IELTS 20 Academic Reading Test 2. This page gives the answers for Questions 1–13 with a short explanation of why each answer is right, so you can check your work and learn from every mistake. The question types are: Note Completion, True / False / Not Given.

Quick answers: Questions 1–13

Question	Answer
1	Tail
2	Flippers
3	Hairs
4	Seagrasses
5	Lips
6	Buoyancy
7	TRUE
8	NOT GIVEN
9	FALSE
10	NOT GIVEN
11	TRUE
12	NOT GIVEN
13	TRUE

Questions 1–6: Note Completion

Q	Question	Answer	Why
1	Looks like a dugong but has a differently shaped one of these	Tail	Use exactly this wording from the passage, within the word limit.
2	Uses these to turn its body around to look sideways	Flippers	Use exactly this wording from the passage, within the word limit.
3	Senses vibrations in the water through these on its skin	Hairs	Use exactly this wording from the passage, within the word limit.
4	Eats mainly aquatic vegetation such as this	Seagrasses	Use exactly this wording from the passage, within the word limit.
5	Grasps and pulls up plants with these	Lips	Use exactly this wording from the passage, within the word limit.
6	May regulate this of its body using diaphragm muscles and stored air	Buoyancy	Use exactly this wording from the passage, within the word limit.

Questions 7–13: True / False / Not Given

Q	Question	Answer	Why
7	West Indian manatees live in a variety of aquatic habitats	TRUE	The passage agrees with this statement.
8	The Florida manatee lives in warmer water than the Antillean manatee	NOT GIVEN	The passage gives no clear information to confirm or reject this statement.
9	The African manatee's range is limited to coastal waters between Mauritania and Angola	FALSE	The passage contradicts this statement.
10	The scale of Amazonian manatee losses in the mid-20th century only came out years later	NOT GIVEN	The passage gives no clear information to confirm or reject this statement.
11	West Indian manatee numbers are predicted to fall in the coming decades	TRUE	The passage agrees with this statement.
12	Risk from entanglement and plastic rose significantly in 2009-2020	NOT GIVEN	The passage gives no clear information to confirm or reject this statement.
13	Some Florida laws aim to reduce boat strikes on manatees	TRUE	The passage agrees with this statement.

Tips for these question types

• Completion tasks: check the word limit and the grammar of the gap before you write the answer exactly as it appears in the passage.
• True / False / Not Given: TRUE means the passage says the same thing, FALSE means it says the opposite, and NOT GIVEN means it does not say. Never use your own knowledge.
• Review every mistake. Find the exact sentence in the passage that proves the answer so you can spot the same trap next time.

FAQ

How many questions does this passage have? Manatees covers Questions 1–13, which is 13 questions.

Where is this passage from? It is Reading Passage 1 in Cambridge IELTS 20, Academic Test 2.

How should I use these answers? Attempt the passage under timed conditions first, then check your answers here and read the reason for every mistake.

Cambridge IELTS 20 Reading Test 2: all passages
Part 1: Manatees (you are here)  |  Part 2: Procrastination  |  Part 3: Invasion of the Robot Umpires

Next: Part 2 answers →

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