The History of the Tortoise Reading Answers

Students rarely find any authentic IELTS reading material for practicing questions. “The History of the Tortoise” is a genuine and authentic IELTS exam practice passage taken from the Cambridge IELTS 9 book. It assesses your ability to understand academic texts, locate specific information, grasp main ideas, and interpret the author’s viewpoint.

The history of tortoise reading answers not only improve exam performance but also boost your confidence in handling time pressure. This passage blends scientific explanation with historical context, making it an excellent choice to enhance comprehension skills while dealing with detailed and factual content. Practicing with such passages helps you develop accuracy and speed in identifying key details.

Let us have a look on the table below which will provide you with an overview of  "The History of the Tortoise" reading passage:

Section	Details
Passage Title	The History of the Tortoise
Main Theme	Evolution, adaptation, and re-emergence of tortoises
Question Types	Short answer, True/False/Not Given, Flow-chart completion, Multiple Choice
Key Vocabulary	Evolution, terrestrial, marine, amphibious, fossils, cluster, metabolism
Keywords to Locate	Plants, respiration, reproduction, gills, graph, dry-land tortoises
Tips	Scan for evolutionary transitions, fossil examples, habitats, and measurement methods
Common Answer Types	Factual recall, cause-effect, classification, inference based on data clusters

For more information, also check: How to Prepare for the IELTS Reading Section?

The History of the Tortoise IELTS Reading Passage

Passage A- If you look far enough back, everything lived in the ocean. At various points in the evolutionary narrative, members of various animal groups invaded land from the sea, sometimes taking some of their seawater along as blood and cellular fluid, even into the driest deserts. Aside from the reptiles, birds, mammals, and insects that surround us, there are many other groups that invaded those arid portions of the land and overcame the danger of desiccation, for example, scorpions, snails, crustaceans like woodlice and land crabs, millipedes and centipedes, spiders, and various worms. We must not forget the vegetation without which no other migration would have happened to pre-invaded land.

Passage B- The transitions from water to land involve significant re-modelling of every aspect of life, and include both respiration and reproduction. A significant number of terrestrial animals returned to the water later, giving up their terrestrial surface and the tool they had refined in the process. The seals acknowledged only partially. On the way to significant events like Whales and dugongs through evolution, they show us what mediating would have looked like. Whales and dugongs, and their nearest cousins, the Manatees, have ceased to be terrestrial on any level, and they returned back to the marine customs of their distant ancestors. They essentially do not go onshore to breed. They certainly breathe in air, creating nothing akin to gills that would resemble their prior marine incarnation.The turtles that went to sea do so at some distant time, like all vertebrates that come home to the sea, breathe in air, but in a sense are not more distant to returning than whales or dugongs, since turtles lay their eggs on the beach.

Passage C- There is evidence that all modern turtles descend from a terrestrial ancestor that lived before nearly all dinosaurs. From the start of the dinosaur era, we know two fossils, Proganochelys quenstedti and Palaeochersis talampayensis, all of which are highly likely to be closely related to the ancestry of modern turtles and tortoises. You may be thinking, "How do we know that fossil animals were terrestrial or aquatic, especially when they were not more than fragments?" Sometimes it is obvious. Ichthyosaurs are reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs; they had paddles and streamlined bodies. The bones look like dolphins and they certainly lived aquatic like dolphins. With turtles, it is less obvious. One way around this is to measure the bones of the forelimbs.

Passage D- Walter Joyce and Jacques Gauthier of Yale University collected three measurements on the specific bones of 71 species of living turtles and tortoises. They used a variety of triangular graph paper to plot all three measurements against one another. All of the terrestrial turtle species formed a compact spot at the top of the triangle, whereas water turtles are at the bottom of the triangular graph. They are not mutually exclusive except for adding some species that have made a case to spend time on water and land. Of course, this amphibious species appears on the triangle between the 'wet cluster' of sea turtles and the 'dry cluster' of land turtles. The next smarter step was to identify where the fossils fell. We cannot miss the bones of P quenstedti and JR talampayensis. The thickness of the dry mass is represented by a pattern of data. Both of these fossils are deserts land turtles. These species came before our turtles could return to water.

Passage E- So, as with most mammals after going to sea, it could be assumed modern land turtles have stayed on land since that early terrestrial time. But of course they did not. If you draw the genealogy of all modern turtles and tortoises, nearly all the branches of that family tree are aquatic. Modern land turtles are a branch with very deep burrows within the branches of aquatic turtles. There is evidence, then, that modern land turtles have not lived on dry land continuously since the time of P. quenstedti and P. talampayensis. Rather, they are among the ancestors who returned to the water who on one occasion returned to land more recently. 

Passage F- So turtles do represent significant double returns. As the dead ancestors of all mammals, reptiles, and birds are all marine fish, every lodestone of marine fish, and before that some more or less worm-like creature, still marine, which earlier had developed into the earliest bacteria.  Later some ancestors returned to land as land forms and lived as land forms for some ages. From there some ancestors turned back into water and became sea turtles, and later returned to land as turtles, with some of those now in dry deserts.

For an additional source of strategies to improve and support your desired score, see: Strategies to Obtain High Scores on the IELTS Reading Test.

The History of the Tortoise Reading Answers: Question 1-4

Do the statements below agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?  

TRUE: If the statement agrees with the information in the Reading Passage  

FALSE: If the statement contradicts the information in the Reading Passage  

NOT GIVEN: If there is no information on this in the Reading Passage

1. Without whose pre-occupied land, no other displacements could have occurred.

2. Turtles didn't go to sea for long, like other vertebrates.

3. Turtles still lay eggs in the sands of the beaches.

4. Turtles are the first creatures to re-enter the sea.

The History of the Tortoise Reading Answers: Question 5-9

Instruction: Fill in the gaps using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text for each gap.

5. Who existed before the majority of the dinosaurs? 

6. Who is the Proganochelys quenstedti and Palaeochersis talampayensis? 

7. What does the fossil look like?

8. Walter Joyce and Jacques Gauthier were from where?

9. What species are represented on the triangular graph?

The History of the Tortoise Reading Answers: Question 10-12

Choose one of the correct letters from A to D.

10. All present-day turtles and tortoises are from, almost all branches. 

A. ancestors 

B. fossils 

C. aquatic 

D. terrestrial 

11. Modern terrestrial turtles did not have depended on the 

A. water 

B. desert 

C. sea 

D. land

12. Even later ancestors turned back to the water and became 

A. land turtles 

B. sea turtles 

C. deserts turtles 

D. desert land turtles

Designated Answers with Explanations

Let us see the answers of each question with their explanations to understand it in a more better way:

Answer to Q1. True

Explanation: Paragraph 1- We should not forget the vegetation, land without which, there could not have been any migrations to sea.

Answer to Q2. False

Explanation: Paragraph 2- Turtles went to sea long ago, and like all vertebrates that have returned to water, they breathe air.

Answer to Q3. True

Explanation: Paragraph 2- However, they are, in a sense, less likely to come back to water, than whales or dugongs, because turtles have to lay their eggs on the beaches.

Answer to Q4. Not given

Explanation: The precise information is not included in the provided reading passage. 

Answer to Q5. terrestrial ancestor

Explanation: Paragraph 3 - There is evidence that all modern turtles are related to a terrestrial ancestor who lived longer ago than most dinosaurs.

Answer to Q6. fossils

Explanation: Paragraph 3 - Sometime from the earliest period of dinosaurs, there are two major fossils of Proganochelys quenstedti and Palaeochersis talampayensis, both of which closely relate to the ancestry of modern turtles and tortoises.

Answer to Q7. dolphins 

Explanation: Paragraph 3 - The fossils look like dolphins and they surely lived in the water like dolphins. With turtles, that's a little less obvious. One way is to measure the bones in their forelimbs. 

Answer to Q8. Yale University

Explanation: Paragraph 4 - Walter Joyce and Jacques Gauthier from Yale University took three measurements on the particular bones from seventy one species of living turtles and tortoises. 

Answer to Q9. amphibious

Explanation: Paragraph 4 - Obviously this amphibious species appears somewhere on the triangular graph not long from halfway between the 'wet cluster' of sea turtles and the 'dry cluster' of tortoises or land turtles. 

Answer to Q10. C. aquatic

Explanation: Paragraph 5 - But obviously not. If you draw the family tree for all turtles and tortoises nowadays, nearly all the branches are aquatic. Modern land turtles are a branch of tortoises or land turtles that can have been created from species that made deep nests among (their relatives) the aquatic turtles. 

Answer to Q11. D. land

Explanation: Paragraph 5 - Modern land turtles are a branch of tortoises or land turtles that can have been created from species that made deep nests among (their relatives) the aquatic turtles. This process suggests that modern land turtles have not depended on the land all the way back to the times of P. quenstedti and P. talampayensis. 

Answer to Q12. B. sea turtles 

Explanation:Paragraph 6 - Eventually, ancestors lived on the land and stayed there for ever long ages. Then, the ancestors still went back to the water and became sea turtles.

Conclusion

Practicing with passages like The Story of Tortoise can significantly improve your IELTS Reading performance. This text offers rich factual details and scientific explanations, making it perfect for honing skills like skimming, scanning, and critical thinking. By reviewing The Story of Tortoise reading answers along with detailed explanations, you can better understand how to locate precise information and match it to question requirements. Consistent practice with such passages will not only boost your accuracy but also enhance your overall exam confidence.