Passage 1 from start to finish

One complete Passage 1 on the Panama Canal with True/False/Not Given and note completion, solved step by step as a Band 8 reader would solve it, with every trap explained.

The Reading course explains each question type separately. In this lesson you will see the whole job done on one passage: what to read, what to skip, where each answer hides and why the wrong answers are wrong. The passage is a factual, descriptive text of the kind that usually opens the Academic Reading paper, followed by a set of True / False / Not Given statements and a note-completion task.

Do the task first. Set a timer for 17 minutes, read the passage and answer questions 1 to 13 on paper. Only then read the walkthrough. If you read the explanations first, you learn nothing about your own habits.

The passage

The Panama Canal

For more than three centuries after Europeans reached the Americas, a ship sailing from one ocean to the other had to make a voyage of thousands of kilometres around Cape Horn, at the southern tip of South America. The idea of a shortcut across the Isthmus of Panama, where the land is only about fifty kilometres wide at its narrowest, was proposed in the sixteenth century, but the engineering involved was far beyond anything then possible. Interest revived in the middle of the nineteenth century, when the California gold rush sent thousands of travellers across Panama on their way to the west coast of the United States. A railway linking the two coasts, completed in 1855, quickly became a highly profitable business.

In 1881 a French company began work on a canal. Its leader, Ferdinand de Lesseps, had led the company that built the Suez Canal, which opened in 1869, and he planned a similar canal at sea level, without locks. The comparison proved unfortunate. Suez had crossed flat desert; Panama offered mountains, torrential rain and the Chagres River, which flooded without warning. Worst of all was disease. Yellow fever and malaria killed workers in huge numbers, and because nobody yet understood that mosquitoes transmitted both illnesses, doctors could do little more than watch. More than twenty thousand workers are thought to have died before the company collapsed in 1889, leaving its investors with enormous losses.

The project then passed to the United States, which obtained the right to build and run a canal after Panama broke away from Colombia in 1903. American engineers arrived in 1904 and found a half-finished excavation, rusting machinery and a workforce that was sick or in flight. The most important early decision was not about digging at all. William Gorgas, an army doctor who had already reduced yellow fever in Havana, was given the money and authority he needed to attack the mosquitoes. His teams drained pools, covered water tanks, sprayed oil on swamps and fitted screens to houses. At the same time, the new management built housing, kitchens and hospitals for a workforce drawn from many countries, above all from the Caribbean. Yellow fever had disappeared from the Canal Zone by 1906, and although malaria was never completely removed, deaths from it fell sharply in the following years.

With the workforce healthier, the engineers turned to the central question: should the canal be dug down to sea level, as de Lesseps had wanted, or should ships be lifted over the mountains in locks? The chief engineer, John Stevens, argued for locks, and in 1906 the American government accepted his recommendation. His reasoning was practical: a sea-level channel would have needed far more digging, and the Chagres would still have flooded it, whereas a dam could turn the unruly river into a lake. Stevens also reorganised the railway that carried away the excavated earth, so that wagons could be loaded by steam shovels and emptied quickly. He resigned in 1907 and was replaced by an army officer, George Goethals, who directed the remaining construction.

The design that resulted is one of the great achievements of engineering. A huge earth dam across the Chagres River created Gatun Lake, then the largest artificial lake in the world. Ships are raised about twenty-six metres from the ocean to the lake in a series of locks, cross the lake, and are lowered on the other side. The locks use no pumps: water moves between the chambers by gravity alone, and the chambers are filled from the lake. The most difficult section to excavate was the Culebra Cut, a channel of about thirteen kilometres through the continental divide, where wet hillsides slid into the excavation again and again. The canal opened on 15 August 1914, at a cost to the United States of about 375 million dollars. The occasion attracted little attention, since the First World War had broken out in Europe a few weeks before.

Today a passage takes between eight and ten hours, and more than thirteen thousand ships use the canal each year, carrying cargoes such as grain, fuel and manufactured goods. Panama took full control of the waterway on the last day of 1999. The canal has limits, however. As ships grew larger, many could no longer fit through the original locks, and a third, wider set of locks was opened in 2016. Another limit is water: each passage sends millions of litres from Gatun Lake out to sea, and in unusually dry years, when the lake falls, the authorities have had to restrict the number of ships allowed through.

The questions

Questions 1 to 8

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1. A canal across Panama was proposed in the sixteenth century.
2. The railway across Panama was a financial success.
3. De Lesseps intended to build the Panama canal with locks.
4. Doctors in 1881 understood how yellow fever and malaria were spread.
5. The American workforce in Panama was larger than the French one had been.
6. Gorgas had fought yellow fever elsewhere before he went to Panama.
7. By 1906 both yellow fever and malaria had been completely eliminated from the Canal Zone.
8. Stevens left the project because of ill health.

Questions 9 to 13

Complete the notes below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

The canal as built

• The locks raise ships about 9 … metres to Gatun Lake.
• Water moves between the locks’ chambers by 10 … alone.
• The most difficult section to excavate was the 11 …
• The total cost to the United States was about 12 … million dollars.
• In 2016 a third, wider set of 13 … was opened.

Stop here and do the task before you continue.

The walkthrough

Step 0: One minute of preparation (what is read, what is skipped)

A Band 8 reader does not start at the first word of the passage and read everything. In the first minute they do three things.

1. Read the title and the first sentence of each paragraph. That gives them the shape: early history, the French failure, the American arrival and the mosquito campaign, the locks-versus-sea-level decision, the finished design, the canal today. Six paragraphs, in time order. They now know that the passage follows history from beginning to end, so the answers will come in the same order as the questions.
2. Glance at the task types. Questions 1 to 8 are statements, in passage order, and they cover roughly paragraphs 1 to 4. Questions 9 to 13 are notes about the finished canal, so they must come from paragraphs 5 and 6. Without reading a single detail, the reader already knows where the second task lives.
3. Skip nothing yet, but decide what to ignore later. Dates, names and numbers are what the questions are built from. Descriptions of the weather, the Suez comparison and the second half of the last paragraph are context. The reader will not memorise any of it. They will find it again when a question points to it.

What a Band 6 reader does differently. They read the whole passage slowly from the top, trying to understand every sentence, and spend six or seven minutes before looking at question 1. They then have forty facts in their head and cannot find any of them. Worse, they have used a third of their time on a task that rewards locating, not memorising.

Step 1: Questions 1 to 8, True / False / Not Given

For each statement the Band 8 reader does the same five things: underline the keywords, find the sentence, compare piece by piece, apply the opposite test, and write the answer before moving on.

Question 1: A canal across Panama was proposed in the sixteenth century.

• Keywords: canal, Panama, proposed, sixteenth century. The date is the best keyword because dates are not paraphrased.
• Where: paragraph 1, second sentence.
• Deciding sentence: “The idea of a shortcut across the Isthmus of Panama … was proposed in the sixteenth century.”
• Paraphrase: “a canal” for “a shortcut” and the same date.
• TRUE. Do not waste time on this one. Not every question is a trap, and the Band 8 reader accepts an easy mark.

Question 2: The railway across Panama was a financial success.

• Keywords: railway, financial success.
• Deciding sentence: “A railway linking the two coasts, completed in 1855, quickly became a highly profitable business.”
• Paraphrase: “financial success” = “highly profitable business”.
• TRUE. A Band 6 reader sometimes marks this NOT GIVEN because the word “success” never appears. They are matching words, not meaning.

Question 3: De Lesseps intended to build the Panama canal with locks.

• Keywords: De Lesseps (a name, so easy to scan for), intended, locks.
• Deciding sentence: “he planned a similar canal at sea level, without locks.”
• Paraphrase: “intended” = “planned”.
• Opposite test: the statement says locks, the passage says without locks. They cannot both be true. FALSE.
• A second sentence confirms it in paragraph 4: de Lesseps “had wanted” sea level. The Band 8 reader is happy with one clear sentence and does not hunt for more.

Question 4: Doctors in 1881 understood how yellow fever and malaria were spread.

• Keywords: doctors, 1881, understood, spread.
• Where: the date is the trap. 1881 is the year the French began, in paragraph 2. The reader scans that paragraph for “doctors”.
• Deciding sentence: “because nobody yet understood that mosquitoes transmitted both illnesses, doctors could do little more than watch.”
• Paraphrase: “spread” = “transmitted”; “understood” is a repeated word, but the passage says nobody understood.
• FALSE. The statement reverses the passage. A Band 6 reader spots the word “understood”, sees it in both places and rushes to TRUE. Always read the word before the keyword: “nobody yet understood”.

Question 5: The American workforce in Panama was larger than the French one had been.

• Keywords: American workforce, larger, French.
• Where: paragraph 3 mentions the arrival of American engineers and “a workforce that was sick or in flight”. Paragraph 2 gives deaths (more than twenty thousand) but no size.
• Reasoning: the passage mentions both workforces, but never compares their size. It does not give the number of workers on either side.
• Opposite test: could the American workforce have been smaller? The passage allows that. Could it have been larger? It allows that too. NOT GIVEN.
• This is the classic comparison trap. A Band 6 reader sees two groups, “the Americans did it better”, and guesses TRUE.

Question 6: Gorgas had fought yellow fever elsewhere before he went to Panama.

• Keywords: Gorgas, yellow fever, elsewhere, before.
• Deciding sentence: “William Gorgas, an army doctor who had already reduced yellow fever in Havana.”
• Paraphrase: “elsewhere” = “in Havana” (a specific place becomes a general one); “fought” = “reduced”; “before he went” = “had already”.
• TRUE. “Reduced” is enough for “fought”. A Band 6 reader may worry that reduced is weaker than fought, but fighting a disease and reducing it are the same activity seen from two sides.

Question 7: By 1906 both yellow fever and malaria had been completely eliminated from the Canal Zone.

• Keywords: 1906, yellow fever, malaria, completely eliminated.
• Deciding sentence: “Yellow fever had disappeared from the Canal Zone by 1906, and although malaria was never completely removed, deaths from it fell sharply.”
• Reasoning: the statement has two halves. Yellow fever: disappeared, matches “eliminated”. Malaria: “never completely removed”. The statement says completely eliminated, the passage says never completely removed.
• FALSE. One half of a statement is wrong, so the whole is wrong. A Band 6 reader sees the date and the first disease, ticks TRUE and never reaches “although”.

Question 8: Stevens left the project because of ill health.

• Keywords: Stevens, left, ill health.
• Deciding sentence: “He resigned in 1907 and was replaced by an army officer.”
• Reasoning: we are told that he resigned, and nothing about why. The only illness in the passage is tropical disease among the workers. The opposite test: “Stevens left for a reason other than ill health” is just as possible.
• NOT GIVEN. A Band 6 reader invents a reason from the many diseases in the text. NOT GIVEN statements often supply a plausible reason (ill health, disagreement, money) for an event the passage reports without one.

By now the Band 8 reader has used about eight minutes, including preparation: roughly one minute per statement. Notice what they did not do: they never re-read the whole passage, and they never used outside knowledge. (Many learners know that the canal was built partly by Caribbean workers or that Stevens had experience building railways. None of this is in the text, so none of it counts.)

Step 2: Questions 9 to 13, note completion

Notes tasks are different. The gaps need exact words from the passage, and the word limit is strict.

First, the Band 8 reader reads the instruction and decides what to look for. “No more than two words and/or a number” means a one- or two-word noun, or a figure. Question 9 is a number, 10 is probably a noun, 12 is a number, and so on. This is prediction, and it narrows the search.

Second, they scan for keywords in the right area. The notes are titled “The canal as built”, and all five gaps are in paragraphs 5 and 6, in order.

Question 9: “The locks raise ships about ___ metres to Gatun Lake.”

• Keywords: raise, ships, metres, Gatun Lake.
• Deciding sentence: “Ships are raised about twenty-six metres from the ocean to the lake.”
• Paraphrase: “raise … to Gatun Lake” = “are raised … to the lake”.
• Answer: twenty-six (or 26). Both forms are accepted, because the words say the same thing. A number counts as one answer and does not break the limit.

Question 10: “Water moves between the locks’ chambers by ___ alone.”

• Keywords: water moves, chambers, alone. The word “alone” is a signpost, because the passage uses it too.
• Deciding sentence: “water moves between the chambers by gravity alone.”
• Answer: gravity. One word. A Band 6 reader sometimes writes “gravity alone”, which repeats a word already in the notes, or “no pumps”, which is a different sentence (the previous one) and does not fit the grammar of the gap.

Question 11: “The most difficult section to excavate was the ___.”

• Keywords: most difficult, section, excavate. The passage repeats the whole phrase: “The most difficult section to excavate was the Culebra Cut”.
• Answer: Culebra Cut. Two words, capital letters copied. When the passage repeats the notes almost exactly, trust it. A Band 6 reader sometimes writes “continental divide”, which comes later in the same sentence and is a place, but not the section’s name.

Question 12: “The total cost to the United States was about ___ million dollars.”

• Keywords: cost, United States, million dollars.
• Deciding sentence: “at a cost to the United States of about 375 million dollars.”
• Answer: 375. The gap is followed by “million dollars”, so do not write “375 million”. Doing so makes the answer wrong, because “million dollars” is already printed. The number is also the one that is easy to confuse with the date 1914 nearby.

Question 13: “In 2016 a third, wider set of ___ was opened.”

• Keywords: 2016, third, wider set.
• Deciding sentence: “a third, wider set of locks was opened in 2016.”
• Answer: locks. Here the Band 8 reader notices the notes use “locks” earlier, but the gap is a noun after “set of”, and only “locks” completes it.

Step 3: Check, in about two minutes

• Spelling: twenty-six, gravity, Culebra.
• Word limit: every answer is two words or fewer.
• Nothing carried over from the words already printed in the note (“million dollars” after question 12).
• TFNG answers typed in full, with the right label set: TRUE, FALSE, NOT GIVEN (not YES / NO).

Total time: about 17 minutes. That leaves room for the longer passages to come.

Answer key

What to take from your own result

Count your errors by kind rather than by number.

• Marked TRUE when the answer was FALSE (3, 4, 7)? You are reading for matching words, not for what the passage says about them. Practise reading the words around the keyword, especially nobody, although, without and never.
• Marked NOT GIVEN when the answer was TRUE (2, 6)? You want the passage to use the same words. It almost never does.
• Marked TRUE or FALSE when the answer was NOT GIVEN (5, 8)? You filled a gap with common sense. Ask: “Which sentence proves this?” If you cannot point to one, it is NOT GIVEN.
• Lost marks in the notes? Check that you copied the words exactly, stayed within the limit and did not repeat words from the note.

Key points

• Spend about one minute on preparation: title, first sentences, task types. Then locate, do not memorise.
• Statements in True / False / Not Given follow the order of the passage, and notes tasks usually follow it too, so each answer is near the previous one.
• Read the word before and after each keyword. One nobody, although or never decides the answer.
• Use the opposite test for FALSE against NOT GIVEN. Comparisons (“larger than”) and invented reasons (“because of ill health”) are the most common NOT GIVEN statements.
• Notes answers come word for word from the passage, within the word limit, without repeating words already printed in the gap.
• A good score on this passage takes about 17 minutes, so be ready to move on once an answer is decided.

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