The Long Search for Water on Mars: Reading Answers & Explanations
IELTS Reading practice test · 14 questionsAcademichard
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About this passage
The passage opens: “Seen through a telescope, Mars is a rusty, reddish disc, and the spacecraft we have sent to it confirm the first impression: a cold, dry and dusty desert, swept by thin winds and bathed in radiation. Its air is so thin that liquid water on the open surface would boil away or freeze almost at once.”
- Passage length: about 651 words
- Questions: 14
- Question types: Matching Headings, True / False / Not Given, Sentence Completion
“The Long Search for Water on Mars” is an original IELTS-style practice passage written by IELTS-Bank. It is not taken from an official IELTS or Cambridge test, so these answers only apply to our version.
Answer key at a glance
The Long Search for Water on Mars answers with explanations
Questions 1–6: Matching Headings
The passage has six paragraphs, A-F. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
- i. A red desert that may once have been wet
- ii. Landforms shaped by ancient water
- iii. Minerals that remember a wetter age
- iv. Where the water went
- v. The ice that remains today
- vi. Why water means the chance of life
- vii. Evidence of active volcanoes
- viii. The first telescopes to observe Mars
- ix. Colours in the Martian sky
- 1
Paragraph A
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Answer: i — A red desert that may once have been wet
Why: This is the part of the passage that supports i — A red desert that may once have been wet.
Evidence · Paragraph A “…a cold, dry and dusty desert ... there are strong hints that Mars was once a far warmer and wetter world.”
- 2
Paragraph B
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Answer: ii — Landforms shaped by ancient water
Why: This is the part of the passage that supports ii — Landforms shaped by ancient water.
Evidence · Paragraph B “Cameras aboard orbiting spacecraft have photographed features that look unmistakably like the work of water”
- 3
Paragraph C
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Answer: iii — Minerals that remember a wetter age
Why: This is the part of the passage that supports iii — Minerals that remember a wetter age.
Evidence · Paragraph C “…found minerals, among them certain clays and salts, that on Earth form only in the presence of liquid water. These minerals act as a kind of chemical memory”
- 4
Paragraph D
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Answer: iv — Where the water went
Why: This is the part of the passage that supports iv — Where the water went.
Evidence · Paragraph D “…the obvious question is where all the water went. The answer seems to lie in the planet's small size.”
- 5
Paragraph E
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Answer: v — The ice that remains today
Why: This is the part of the passage that supports v — The ice that remains today.
Evidence · Paragraph E “A great deal of it survives on Mars today, though in frozen form.”
- 6
Paragraph F
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Answer: vi — Why water means the chance of life
Why: This is the part of the passage that supports vi — Why water means the chance of life.
Evidence · Paragraph F “…water and life are closely bound together ... a Mars that once had rivers and lakes is a Mars that might once have supported life”
Questions 7–10: True / False / Not Given
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Write TRUE if the statement agrees, FALSE if it contradicts, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information.
- 7
Orbiting spacecraft have photographed features on Mars that resemble dried riverbeds.
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Answer: TRUE
Why: This sentence confirms the statement, so the answer is TRUE.
Evidence · Paragraph B “…long winding channels that resemble dried riverbeds”
- 8
The clays and salts found by rovers can form without liquid water.
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Answer: FALSE
Why: This sentence directly contradicts the statement, so the answer is FALSE.
Evidence · Paragraph C “…certain clays and salts, that on Earth form only in the presence of liquid water.”
- 9
Mars has completely lost all of its water.
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Answer: FALSE
Why: This sentence directly contradicts the statement, so the answer is FALSE.
Evidence · Paragraph E “Not all of the water, however, has been lost. A great deal of it survives on Mars today, though in frozen form.”
- 10
Living organisms have been discovered in the Martian ice.
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Answer: NOT GIVEN
Why: The statement claims that living organisms have been discovered in the Martian ice, but the passage neither confirms nor denies this, only discussing the potential for past water and the search for life.
Questions 11–14: Sentence Completion
Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
- 11
Liquid water cannot survive on the open Martian surface because the planet's ______ is very thin.(max 2 words)
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Answer: air (also accepted: atmosphere)
Why: The answer “air” is taken from this sentence — copy the word(s) exactly as they appear. It fits the 2-word limit.
Evidence · Paragraph A “Its air is so thin that liquid water on the open surface would boil away or freeze almost at once.”
- 12
Certain minerals act as a chemical ______ of the wet conditions in which they formed.(max 2 words)
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Answer: memory
Why: The answer “memory” is taken from this sentence — copy the word(s) exactly as they appear. It fits the 2-word limit.
Evidence · Paragraph C “These minerals act as a kind of chemical memory, preserving in their very structure the record of the wet conditions”
- 13
The escape of the atmosphere was worsened by the fading of the planet's ______.(max 2 words)
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Answer: magnetic field
Why: The answer “magnetic field” is taken from this sentence — copy the word(s) exactly as they appear. It fits the 2-word limit.
Evidence · Paragraph D “…made worse by the fading of the planet's magnetic field”
- 14
As well as drinking water and oxygen, buried ice could one day supply explorers with ______.(max 2 words)
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Answer: fuel
Why: The answer “fuel” is taken from this sentence — copy the word(s) exactly as they appear. It fits the 2-word limit.
Evidence · Paragraph F “…the buried ice could one day supply drinking water, breathable oxygen and even fuel for human explorers”
Estimated band score for this test
Your raw score out of 14 scaled to the 40-question IELTS Reading (Academic) conversion table. This is the same estimate the practice page shows after you submit. A single passage is a small sample, so treat it as a guide.
| Correct answers | Estimated band |
|---|---|
| 14 / 14 | 9.0 |
| 13 / 14 | 8.5 |
| 12 / 14 | 7.5 |
| 11 / 14 | 7.0 |
| 10 / 14 | 6.5 |
| 8–9 / 14 | 6.0 |
| 7 / 14 | 5.5 |
| 6 / 14 | 5.0 |
| 5 / 14 | 4.5 |
| 4 / 14 | 4.0 |
| 3 / 14 | 3.5 |
| 2 / 14 | 3.0 |
| 1 / 14 | 2.0 |
| 0 / 14 | 0.0 |
Full-test score? Use the IELTS band calculator.
Tips for the question types in this test
Matching Headings
- Read the list of headings first so you know the options, and notice how they differ from one another — often two headings are deliberately similar.
- Read the first paragraph and ask yourself: "In one sentence, what is this paragraph mainly saying?" before you look back at the headings.
Common trap: Picking a heading because it repeats a word from the paragraph, when that word only appears in a minor detail.
Full Matching Headings strategyTrue / False / Not Given
- Read the statement first and underline the key idea, especially any qualifiers like "all", "only", "never", "always", "more than" or dates and numbers.
- Because the questions follow the order of the passage, scan for the paragraph that deals with the same topic rather than re-reading everything.
Common trap: Confusing "False" with "Not Given": choose False only when the passage actively contradicts the statement; if the passage is silent, it is Not Given.
Full True / False / Not Given strategySentence Completion
- Circle the word limit before reading anything else.
- Predict the missing word class: noun, verb, adjective, number or short phrase.
Common trap: Exceeding the word limit.
Full Sentence Completion strategyPractise “The Long Search for Water on Mars” under exam conditions
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