All answers on this page include the question number, correct answer and a brief explanation of where to find it in the passage or audio. Use these alongside the original Cambridge IELTS books for the best practice experience.
The Thylacine is the opening passage of Cambridge IELTS 17, Test 3, Academic Reading. The passage describes the now-extinct Tasmanian tiger, covering its physical features, hunting behaviour, breeding biology, mainland Australian decline, the more dramatic Tasmanian extinction during the 19th and 20th centuries, and ongoing modern searches for surviving individuals. The 13 questions test note completion using one word only from the passage (Q1-5) and True/False/Not Given (Q6-13).
Passage overview at a glance
The Thylacine passage moves through several specific historical periods - 1830s, 1899, 1914, 1929, 1930, July 1936, September 1936. Several T/F/NG questions hinge on which event happened in which year. Mark the dates as you read the first time so you can navigate back without re-reading.
What the passage is about
The Thylacine passage describes the extinct marsupial commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf. It covers physical features (stripes, length, dog-like appearance), feeding behaviour (exclusively carnivorous, hunting by exhaustion using scent), breeding (pouch-rearing for the first three months), the mainland Australian decline some 3,100 years ago likely caused by dingoes, and the more recent Tasmanian extinction. The Tasmanian decline began in the 1830s, driven by sheep farmers and bounty hunters with shotguns, compounded by habitat loss, prey reduction, and possibly a distemper-like disease. The passage closes on belated protection efforts - too late by 1936 - and ongoing camera-trap searches for any surviving individuals.
Complete answer key with explanations
Questions 1-5: Note completion (ONE WORD ONLY)
Complete the notes about the thylacine using ONE WORD ONLY from the passage. Answers exceeding the one-word limit score zero even when the content is correct.
| Q# | Note context | Answer | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ate an entirely __________ diet. | carnivorous | Paragraph 2 states "in terms of feeding, it was exclusively carnivorous". Exclusively = entirely. |
| 2 | Probably depended mainly on __________ when hunting. | scent | Paragraph 2 explains that "during long-distance chases, thylacines were likely to have relied more on scent than any other sense". Relied mainly on = depended mainly on. |
| 3 | Young spent first months of life inside its mother's __________. | pouch | Paragraph 3 says newborns "crawled into the pouch on the belly of their mother, and attached themselves to one of the four teats, remaining there for up to three months". |
| 4 | Last evidence in mainland Australia is a 3,100-year-old __________. | fossil | Paragraph 4 states "the most recent, well-dated occurrence of a thylacine on the mainland is a carbon-dated fossil from Murray Cave in Western Australia, which is around 3,100 years old". |
| 5 | Reduction in __________ and available sources of food were partly responsible for decline in Tasmania. | habitat | Paragraph 5 lists contributing factors as "competition with wild dogs introduced by European settlers, loss of habitat along with the disappearance of prey species, and a distemper-like disease". Loss of habitat = reduction in habitat. |
Questions 6-13: True / False / Not Given
Mark TRUE if the statement agrees with the information in the passage, FALSE if it contradicts the information, and NOT GIVEN if the information is not addressed in the passage.
| Q# | Statement | Answer | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Significant numbers of thylacines were killed by humans from the 1830s onwards. | TRUE | Paragraph 5 states "the dramatic decline of the thylacine in Tasmania, which began in the 1830s and continued for a century, is generally attributed to the relentless efforts of sheep farmers and bounty hunters with shotguns". |
| 7 | Several thylacines were born in zoos during the late 1800s. | FALSE | Paragraph 6 says "there was only one successful attempt to breed a thylacine in captivity, at Melbourne Zoo in 1899". Only one breeding contradicts the claim of several births. |
| 8 | John Gould's prediction about the thylacine surprised some biologists. | NOT GIVEN | Paragraph 6 quotes Gould's prediction of the thylacine's demise from his Mammals of Australia (1848-1863), but says nothing about how biologists reacted to it. Surprise is not addressed. |
| 9 | In the early 1900s, many scientists became worried about the possible extinction of the thylacine. | FALSE | Paragraph 7 says "there seems to have been little public pressure to preserve the thylacine, nor was much concern expressed by scientists at the decline of this species in the decades that followed". Little concern contradicts the claim that many scientists were worried. |
| 10 | T. T. Flynn's proposal to rehome captive thylacines on an island proved to be impractical. | NOT GIVEN | Paragraph 7 records that Flynn suggested capturing some thylacines and placing them on a small island in 1914. The passage does not say whether the proposal was tested, accepted, or rejected, so its practicality is not addressed. |
| 11 | There were still reasonable numbers of thylacines in existence when a piece of legislation protecting the species during their breeding season was passed. | FALSE | Paragraph 7 explains that protection during December (the prime breeding season) only came in 1929 "with the species on the very edge of extinction". On the edge of extinction contradicts the claim of reasonable numbers. |
| 12 | From 1930 to 1936, the only known living thylacines were all in captivity. | TRUE | Paragraph 8 notes "the last known wild thylacine to be killed was shot by a farmer in the north-east of Tasmania in 1930, leaving just captive specimens". After 1930 only captive individuals are recorded, up to the death of the last one in Hobart Zoo in September 1936. |
| 13 | Attempts to find living thylacines are now rarely made. | NOT GIVEN | Paragraph 9 describes ongoing camera-trap installations in reported sighting areas. The passage does not state whether such attempts are rare or frequent in the present day, so the claim about frequency is not addressed. |
Question type strategy for this passage
Note completion
Q1-5 follow the order of the passage closely. The first three answers come from paragraphs 2-3 (physical biology), the last two from paragraphs 4-5 (decline and extinction). The instruction is ONE WORD ONLY - "habitat" not "the habitat", "scent" not "the scent".
True / False / Not Given
Q6-13 also follow passage order. Three of the eight are NOT GIVEN - this is a high proportion. Resist the temptation to mark them as TRUE because the topic was discussed. The standard applies: if you cannot find a sentence directly supporting or contradicting the claim, the answer is NOT GIVEN.
Anchor by date
The decline-to-extinction story is told by date: 1830s decline begins, 1899 Melbourne Zoo breeding, 1914 Flynn's proposal, 1929 partial protection, 1930 last wild kill, July 1936 official protection, September 1936 last captive dies. Date the questions, scan to the matching paragraph.
Time management
About 17 minutes including answer transfer. Q9 and Q11 are the slowest - both require careful reading to distinguish what is stated from what is implied. Spend extra time on these and recover by reading Passages 2 and 3 efficiently.
Vocabulary worth learning from this passage
- Marsupial, a mammal that carries its young in a pouch
- Carnivorous, meat-eating
- Distend, to swell or expand outwards
- Carbon-dated, having its age estimated by radiocarbon analysis
- Distemper, a contagious viral disease affecting some mammals
- Bounty hunter, a person paid a reward for killing or capturing animals or fugitives
- Demise, end, downfall, or death
- Captivity, the state of being kept in confinement, as opposed to in the wild
Related Cambridge Reading practice
Cambridge 17, Test 3 also includes Palm Oil (Passage 2) and Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan's Skyscrapers (Passage 3). Browse our Reading answers hub for more verified Cambridge passage answer keys including William Henry Perkin from Cambridge IELTS 9 and Henry Moore from Cambridge IELTS 15.
Frequently asked questions
Which Cambridge IELTS book contains The Thylacine passage?
The Thylacine is Reading Passage 1 in Cambridge IELTS 17, Test 3, Academic Reading. Cambridge IELTS 17 is a recent book in the official series, so the question patterns reflect current test conventions.
How difficult is the Thylacine passage?
Medium difficulty. The narrative is biographical and chronological, which makes specific facts easy to locate. The challenge is in Q6-13, where three of the eight answers are NOT GIVEN - candidates who confuse "the passage talks about this topic" with "the passage makes this specific claim" will get those wrong.
Why is Q8 NOT GIVEN and not FALSE?
Q8 asks whether John Gould's prediction surprised some biologists. The passage records the prediction itself in detail but says nothing about how biologists reacted to it. Because the passage neither confirms nor denies that biologists were surprised, NOT GIVEN is correct. FALSE would require the passage to state that biologists were not surprised.
Why is Q11 FALSE and not NOT GIVEN?
Q11 says reasonable numbers existed when breeding-season protection was passed (1929). The passage explicitly says the protection came when the species was "on the very edge of extinction". On the edge of extinction is a direct contradiction of reasonable numbers, so FALSE is correct.
Where can I find the original passage text?
The full passage and official answer key are in Cambridge IELTS 17 (Cambridge University Press), available from major bookstores and online retailers.