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Table of Contents
- Reading Passage
- Seas beneath the Sands IELTS Reading Answers with Explanation
- Tips for Answering the Question Types in Seas beneath the Sands IELTS Reading Answers
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The IELTS Academic Reading section is broken up into three sections, each of which has a lengthy passage with 12-14 questions. As the difficulty level increases from Passage 1 to tát Passage 3, you need to tát be prepared by practising passages like Seas beneath the Sands Reading Answers.
The Academic passage, Seas beneath the Sands Reading Answers, is a reading passage that appeared in an IELTS Test. Ideally, you should not spend more kêu ca trăng tròn minutes on a passage. Let’s see how easy this passage is for you and if you’re able to tát make it in trăng tròn minutes. If not, try more IELTS reading practice tests from IELTSMaterial.com.
The passage, Seas beneath the Sands Reading Answers, is an IELTS Academic reading passage that consists of 12 questions.
The question types found in it are:
- Table Completion (Q.1-4)
- Matching Information (Q. 5-12)
You should spend trăng tròn minutes on Questions 1-12, which are based on the Reading Passage below.
Seas beneath the Sands
A Look at a map of North Africa from Egypt to tát Algeria. Almost everything outside the Nile Valley and south of the coastal plain appears to tát be lifeless sand and gravel deserts. But – peer deeper, under the sand, and you will find water. Under the Sahara lie three major aquifers, strata of saturated sandstones and limestones that hold water in their pores lượt thích a wet sponge. The easternmost of these, extending over two million square kilometres, contains 375,000 cubic kilometres of water—the equivalent of 3,750 years of Nile river flow. It is called the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System, and lately it has come to tát the attention of practitioners of a subspeciality of nuclear science known as isotope hydrology.
B Isotope hydrology, which studies the atoms of the two elements making up groundwater— oxygen and hydrogen—and the trace elements in it, lượt thích carbon and nitrogen, is able to tát determine when, give or take a couple of thousand years, today’s groundwater fell to tát earth as rain. In the case of the Nubian Aquifer, some water in the system is thought to tát be one million years old, but most of it fell between 50,000 and trăng tròn,000 years ago. Since then, as the region has slowly turned to tát desert, there has been little addition of water to tát the aquifer. What lies beneath the ground is called fossil water, and it will likely never be recharged.
C Because the Nubian Aquifer is shared among four nations, and because Libya and Egypt are now going forward with big water-pumping projects that tap the Nubian Aquifer, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), co-recipient of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, is trying to tát bring the countries together in a joint effort to tát plan for a rational shared use of the water.
D The stakes are certainly high. Egypt eventually hopes to tát use almost half a billion cubic metres of groundwater annually—more kêu ca the volume of Lake Erie. Libya is already pumping water from the Kufra Oasis, in its southeast corner, through a four metre diameter pipeline to tát its thirsty coastal cities. When fully operational, that project will pump some 3.6 million cubic metres per day. Still, at current extraction rates, the aquifer is not likely to tát be depleted for a thousand years.
E Dr Taher Muhammad Hassan of the EAEA (Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority) says “One thing that isotope studies have shown us is that there is surprisingly little aquifer recharge from the Nile. Nile water has a younger isotopic profile, and samples from wells dug as close as five kilometres from the river show no sign of the Nile fingerprint. In fact, some of that well water is dated at 26,000 years old.” Hassan is confident there is little likelihood of international conflict over aquifer sharing. “We know that the velocity of underground flow in most places is just two metres a day,” he says. “It’s lượt thích sucking a thick milkshake through a straw—it doesn’t happen fast, and eventually it stops completely.” Even Libya’s big extraction plans for Kufra will probably have only a minor effect on Egypt’s East Uweinat farming area, given the distance between the two. If Kufra’s water table drops 200 metres, the Egyptian side might see a drop of only 10 centimetres.
F At al-Agouza West in Egypt, a 10-story drilling rig, the same kind used to tát drill oil wells, has reached 800 metres and is now evacuating the drilling mud and widening the bore. It has taken trăng tròn days to tát penetrate layers of shale and clay to tát reach the saturated sandstone—the basement of the Nubian formation is some 1,800 metres deep here—at a cost of about $400,000. Once the well is ready for testing, the ministry engineers kiểm tra its static and dynamic levels with a sounder, a kind of fisherman’s bob at the over of a tape measure that rises and falls with the water table.
G Dr Khaled Abu Zeid, of the Egyptian non-profit Center for Environment and Development of the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE), stresses the social context of water-resource development, and the need to tát keep in mind traditional water users as well as new users. Small farmers and Bedouin who rely on shallow wells should not be ignored in favour of the big development schemes. “They need water today,” he says, “and will still need it tomorrow. We must not let it lập cập dry because deeper wells are more cost-effective. But neither should we have an absolutist conservationist approach, in which we try to tát keep fossil water in some kind of ‘museum’ for their benefit.”
H The director of the Groundwater Research Institute at the Nile Barrage, Ur Ahmed Khater, finds it ironic that in a desert region lượt thích the Middle East, petroleum geology is much better understood kêu ca subsurface hydrology. “But water is what makes our life possible here, and we must use it wisely,” he says. He cites the experience of President Nasser’s “New Valley” project in the 1960s, which proposed a massive resettlement of Nile Valley farmers to tát the western oases. It was a failure. “These isotope studies hold the promise of learning more about what is really our most precious asset—water, not oil,” he says. Nasser, he notes, got the New Valley project’s motto wrong.” He said, ‘When settlers come, then we will find water.’ He should have said, ‘When we find water, then settlers can come.”
Questions 1- 4
Complete the table below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System
Extent | 1 …………………….. 375,000 km3 of water |
Formation | The majority of the 2 …………………… between 50,000 and trăng tròn,000 years ago. |
Flow | water moves only 3 …………………… day in most places |
Depth | The 4 …………………… of the formation is 1,800 metres deep. |
Questions 5-12
The Reading Passage has eight paragraphs, A-H.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-H, next to tát Questions 5-12.
5 dating the age of the water
6 understanding underground water through studying isotopes
7 the process of water collection
8 review of the likelihood of conflict
9 the importance of water for North-Saharan countries
10 layers of porous rock holding water under the desert
11 attention to tát the needs of local people
12 cross-country project for the use of water
Read further for the explanations and location of the ‘Seas beneath the Sands’ IELTS Reading answer!
1 Answer: two million km2
Question type: Table Completion
Answer location: Paragraph A, line 4
Answer explanation: In the mentioned location, it is stated that “The easternmost of these, extending over two million square kilometres, contains 375,000 cubic kilometres of water—the equivalent of 3,750 years of Nile river flow. ”. In the given reference, it is clearly given that the extent of the easternmost part of the aquifer is two million square kilometres and it contains 375,000 cubic kilometres of water. Hence, the answer is ‘two million km2’.
2 Answer: water (fell)
Question type: Table Completion
Answer location: Paragraph B, line 2
Answer explanation: In the cited line, it is stated that “In the case of the Nubian Aquifer, some water in the system is thought to tát be one million years old, but most of it fell between 50,000 and trăng tròn,000 years ago.”. It can be concluded from the above-mentioned lines that although some of the water in the Nubian Aquifer is thought to tát have formed one million years ago, the majority (most) of it fell between 50,000 and trăng tròn,000 years ago. Hence, the answer is ‘water (fell)’.
3 Answer: 2/two metres (a)
Question type: Table Completion
Answer location: Paragraph E, line 3
Answer explanation: In the specified line, it is given that ““We know that the velocity of underground flow in most places is just two metres a day,” he says.”. In other words, the flow (velocity) of the underground water of the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System in Egypt is two metres per day. Hence, the answer is ‘2/two metres’.
4 Answer: basement
Question type: Table Completion
Answer location: Paragraph F, line 2
Answer explanation: In the sixth paragraph, it is stated that “…the basement of the Nubian formation is some 1,800 metres deep here…”. Here, it is clear that the depth of the basement of the Nubian formation is 1,800 metres deep at al-Agouza West in Egypt. Hence, the answer is ‘basement’.
5 Answer: B
Question type: Matching Information
Answer location: Paragraph B, line 1- line 2
Answer explanation: In the second paragraph, it is noted that “Isotope hydrology, which studies the atoms of the two elements making up groundwater— oxygen and hydrogen—and the trace elements in it, lượt thích carbon and nitrogen, is able to tát determine when, give or take a couple of thousand years, today’s groundwater fell to tát earth as rain. In the case of the Nubian Aquifer, some water in the system is thought to tát be one million years old, but most of it fell between 50,000 and trăng tròn,000 years ago.”. From the quoted lines of the passage, it is clear that the second paragraph contains information on how Isotope hydrology is used to tát find the approximate age of the water. Hence, the answer is B.
6 Answer: B
Question type: Matching Information
Answer location: Paragraph B, line 1
Answer explanation: In the cited location, it is stated that “Isotope hydrology, which studies the atoms of the two elements making up groundwater— oxygen and hydrogen—and the trace elements in it, lượt thích carbon and nitrogen, is able to tát determine when, give or take a couple of thousand years, today’s groundwater fell to tát earth as rain.”. Based on this statement, it can be commented that the second paragraph contains information on how isotope hydrology studies underground water by studying isotopes. Hence, the answer is B.
7 Answer: D
Question type: Matching Information
Answer location: Paragraph D, line 3
Answer explanation: In the indicated line, it is given that “Libya is already pumping water from the Kufra Oasis, in its southeast corner, through a four metre diameter pipeline to tát its thirsty coastal cities.”. It can be concluded from the quoted line from Paragraph D that the process of water collection is done through a four-metre diameter pipeline and then is distributed to tát the cities. Hence, the answer is D.
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8 Answer: E
Question type: Matching Information
Answer location: Paragraph E, line 3
Answer explanation: In the specified location, it is noted that “Hassan is confident there is little likelihood of international conflict over aquifer sharing.”. This points out that the fifth paragraph points to tát the review of the likelihood of conflict, which is less in the case of the use of water from the aquifer. Hence, the answer is E.
9 Answer: H
Question type: Matching Information
Answer location: Paragraph H, line 1- line 2
Answer explanation: In the referred lines, it is said that “…Ur Ahmed Khater, finds it ironic that in a desert region lượt thích the Middle East, petroleum geology is much better understood kêu ca subsurface hydrology. “But water is what makes our life possible here, and we must use it wisely,” he says.”. In other words, the eighth paragraph of this passage discusses the importance of water for North-Saharan countries as it is a desert land. Hence, the answer is H.
10 Answer: A
Question type: Matching Information
Answer location: Paragraph A, line 4
Answer explanation: In the referenced line, it is stated that “Under the Sahara lie three major aquifers, strata of saturated sandstones and limestones that hold water in their pores lượt thích a wet sponge.”. It is clear that the first paragraph discusses how layers of porous rocks, lượt thích sandstones and limestones, are holding water under the Sahara desert. Hence, the answer is A.
11 Answer: G
Question type: Matching Information
Answer location: Paragraph G, line 1-line 2
Answer explanation: In the cited location, it is indicated that “Dr Khaled Abu Zeid…stresses the social context of water-resource development, and the need to tát keep in mind traditional water users as well as new users. Small farmers and Bedouin who rely on shallow wells should not be ignored in favour of the big development schemes.”. From the given reference, it can be said that in the seventh paragraph, the writer notes the importance of the aquifer water for traditional water users lượt thích small farmers and Bedouins. Hence, the answer is G.
12 Answer: C
Question type: Matching Information
Answer location: Paragraph C
Answer explanation: In the third paragraph, it is written that “Because the Nubian Aquifer is shared among four nations, and because Libya and Egypt are now going forward with big water-pumping projects that tap the Nubian Aquifer… bring the countries together in a joint effort to tát plan for a rational shared use of the water.”. Based on the reference given, it can be inferred that the third paragraph discusses the cross-country projects between Libya and Egypt for the use of water. Hence, the answer is C.
Since you have gone through the Seas beneath the Sands Reading Answers with location, let us kiểm tra out some quick IELTS exam preparation tips to tát answer the types of questions in the Seas beneath the Sands Reading Answers.
Table Completion:
The method for answering the IELTS Reading Table Completion questions is identical to tát that of Summary Completion. You will be required to tát fill in the blanks in a table with the appropriate words or figures. So, let us rethink how to tát proceed.
- Make sure you read the instructions carefully. It will help you determine the word limit (no more kêu ca two, one word, etc.) and important terms lượt thích ‘using words from the text’ or ‘from the text’. You have to tát follow these strictly.
- Check the incomplete table first. Also, think about keywords and how they could be represented by synonyms or paraphrasing.
- Study the reading text by using the skimming and scanning techniques. It will help to tát establish the answer quickly. When scanning for your answer, make sure you are thinking about paraphrasing and synonyms.
- Don’t waste precious time to tát locate information if you are unable to tát find it quickly. It is recommended that you move on to tát the next question.
- The answers appear in the same order as the questions. So, follow the sequence.
- Be aware of spelling mistakes and remember that your answer should be grammatically correct.
Matching Information:
In this sort of question, you will be given a list of three to tát six statements, and you will need to tát match the information in each statement to tát the relevant data in a paragraph in the reading passage.
- Begin by reading the instructions and follow it with the list of statements – You will get an idea of the main idea of each statement. Also, figure out the keywords from each statement.
- Do not waste time in reading the whole passage – Use these reading techniques to tát go through the text and find out which paragraph or section contains the relevant information of the statements.
- One paragraph will contain information given in a statement – While one statement corresponds to tát one passage, some passages may not have any answer. Remember this to tát avoid repetition or wasting your time.
- Identify the answer – Once you identify the keywords and find out the corresponding paragraph that contains the information, follow this process for the others.
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