Essential strategies and practice techniques for this IELTS Reading question type. Learn how to manage time and improve accuracy.
Originally published March 2025. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.
The Blog post contains the following IELTS Reading Questions:
IELTS Reading Diagram Labelling
IELTS Reading Summary Completion
IELTS Reading Locating Information
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IELTS Reading Passage – Electroreception
ELECTRORECEPTION
In sea water, it is difficult to discern anything other than a murky, blurry green colour. Even the sounds are muddled and hard to make out. How do fish make it look so simple in environments where people would be lost without specialised equipment? The biological phenomena of electroreception, perception, and response to electrical impulses, are largely responsible for this. As water is an effective conductor of electricity, this capacity is exclusive to aquatic and amphibian animals.
There are two forms of electroreception. Although the neural systems of all animals (including humans) produce electric impulses as they are disgorged by the nervous system, certain animals can detect the presence of other species through a process called passive electroreception.
However, certain species can go far further. Active electroreception is animals with organs that can provide distinct electric signals when needed. These are useful not just for finding things in the water, but also as mating signals and territorial displays. Electroreceptors that are actively processing information may identify the distinction between the varied resistances that an electrical current encounters. This can aid in determining whether or not an unidentified animal is a potential meal, a threat, or something to be avoided. The range of active electroreception is around one body length, which is generally just enough for a host to avoid danger or make a killing strike.
The extraordinary use of active electroreception, known as the Jamming Avoidance Response mechanism, has been discovered amongst individuals of some species of weakly electric fish. When two such electric fish encounter one another in the ocean while communicating on the same frequency, each fish will alter the frequency of its discharge to communicate on a different frequency. Doing so protects their electroreception faculties from getting obstructed. Long before citizens’ band radio listeners were required to shout “Get off my frequency!” At least one of the species had developed a form of method for doing so for a quick and peaceful solution to this sort of conflict with incompetent beginners clogging the airwaves.Electroreception can play a significant part in animal defences. Rays are one example of this. Ray embryos grow in egg casings that are anchored to the seafloor. The embryos maintain continual movement of their tails in order to pump water and allow them to breathe through the egg’s shell.However, if a predatory fish is nearby, the embryo’s electroreceptors cause it to stop moving (and so stop sending electric currents) until the fish has gone on. Because many different kinds of marine animals pass by, the embryo has adapted to respond solely to signals that are typical of the respiratory motions of prospective predators like sharks.
Due to sharks, many people fear swimming in the water. This fear is well-founded in certain ways, as humans lack electroreceptive defence systems. Sharks, on the other hand, hunt with incredible accuracy. Moreover, two thirds of a shark’s brain is fully devoted to its olfactory organs, allowing them to first locate its prey based on its scent. As the shark approaches its victim, it tunes into electrical impulses that enable a perfect strike; this sensitivity is so acute that the shark attacks blindly by closing its eyes for defence.
Typically, human beings are attacked unintentionally. Since sharks cannot tell from electroreception if a food will satisfy their preferences, they typically “try before they buy,” taking one or two bites and then evaluating the results (our sinewy muscle is inferior to that of plumper, softer prey such as seals). Salt in the blood increases the strength of the electric field, creating the ideal conditions for a feeding frenzy, which is extremely likely after a human has begun to bleed. In regions where shark attacks on people are prevalent, scientists are studying techniques to develop electroreceptors that might disorient sharks and deter them from swimming shores.
There is still much we do not understand about how electroreception works. Despite the fact that researchers have seen the effects of electroreception on hunting, defence, and communication systems, the precise cerebral mechanisms that store and interpret this information remain unknown. Additionally, scientists are investigating the significance of electroreception in navigation. Salt water and magnetic fields from the Earth’s core may combine to generate electrical currents that sharks employ for migratory reasons, according to certain theories.
Electroreception Reading Questions
Questions 1-3
Label the diagram. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
The shark’s __________ inform the juvenile ray of its existence.
To breathe, the embryo moves its __________.
When a predator is nearby, the embryo ceases transmitting ____________.
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Questions 4-7
Complete the following summary.Write NO MORE THAN THREE words per response from the passage.
A shark is a very efficient predator. Firstly, it uses its 4 __________ to smell its prey. When the shark is close enough to attack, it employs 5 _________ to guide it toward a precise attack. Within the final few feet, the shark rolls its eyes and retracts inside its head. Humans are not popular food sources for most sharks due to their 6 __________ Nevertheless, once a shark has bitten a human, a repeat attack is highly possible as salt from the blood intensifies the intensity of the 7 __________.
Questions 8-13
Which paragraph contains the following information?Write the correct letter from A–H, in boxes 8–13 on your answer sheet.
8. A description of how some fish can avoid disrupting each other’s electric signals
9. The term for the capacity which enables an animal to pick up but not send out electrical signals
10. How electroreception might help creatures find their way over long distances
11. A possible use for electroreception that will benefit humans
12. Why only creatures that live in or near water have electroreceptive abilities
13. How electroreception can be used to help fish reproduce
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Essential strategies and practice techniques for this IELTS Reading question type. Learn how to manage time and improve accuracy.
Originally published March 2025. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.
The Blog post contains the following IELTS Reading Questions:
IELTS Reading Matching Headings
IELTS Reading Matching Features
IELTS Reading Summary Completion
Stay informed and prepared for success – Explore our comprehensive Reading Test Info page to get valuable insights, exam format details, and expert tips for mastering the IELTS Reading section.
IELTS Reading Passage – Making Documentary Films
Making Documentary Films
AFor much of the twentieth century, documentary films were overshadowed by their more successful Hollywood counterparts. For a number of reasons, documentaries were frequently ignored by critics and film studies courses at universities. Firstly, the very idea of documentary film made some people suspicious. As the critic Dr Helmut Fischer put it, ‘Documentary makers might have ambitions to tell the “truth” and show only “facts” but there is no such thing as a non-fiction film. That’s because, as soon as you record an incident on camera, you are altering its reality in a fundamental way’. Secondly, even supporters of documentaries could not agree on a precise definition, which did little to improve the reputation of the genre. Lastly, there were also concerns about the ethics of filming subjects without their consent, which is a necessity
in many documentary films.
B None of this prevented documentaries from being produced, though exactly when the process started is open to question. It is often claimed that Nanook of the North was the first documentary. Made by the American filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty in 1922, the film depicts the hard, sometimes heroic lives of native American peoples in the Canadian Arctic. Nanook of the North is said to have set off a trend that continued though the 1920s with the films of Dziga
Vertov in the Soviet Union and works by other filmmakers around the world. However, that 1922 starting point has been disputed by supporters of an earlier date. Among this group is film historian Anthony Berwick, who argues that the genre can be traced back as early as 1895, when similar films started to appear, including newsreels, scientific films and accounts of journeys of exploration.
C In the years following 1922, one particular style of documentary started to appear. These films adopted a serious tone while depicting the lives of actual people. Cameras were mounted on tripods and subjects rehearsed and repeated activities for the purposes of the film. British filmmaker John Grierson was an important member of this group. Grierson’s career lasted nearly 40 years, beginning with Drifters (1929) and culminating with | Remember, | Remember (1968). However, by the 1960s Grierson’s style of film was being rejected by the Direct Cinema movement, which wanted to produce more natural and authentic films: cameras were hand-held; no additional lighting or sound was used; and the subjects did not rehearse. According to film writer Paula Murphy, the principles and methods of Direct Cinema brought
documentaries to the attention of universities and film historians as never before. Documentaries started to be recognized as a distinct genre worthy of serious scholarly analysis.
D Starting in the 1980s, the widespread availability of first video and then digital cameras transformed filmmaking. The flexibility and low cost of these devices meant that anyone could now be a filmmaker. Amateurs working from home could compete with professionals in ways never possible before. The appearance of online film-sharing platforms in the early 2000s only increased the new possibilities for amateur documentaries were being made, perhaps the most popular documentary of 2006 was still the professionally made An Inconvenient Truth. New cameras and digital platforms revolutionised the making of films. But as critic Maria Fiala has pointed out, “The arguments sometimes put forward that these innovations immediately transformed what the public expected to see in a documentary isn’t entirely accurate”.
E However, a new generation of documentary filmmakers then emerged, and with them came a new philosophy of the genre. These filmmakers moved away from highlighting political themes or urgent social issues. Instead the focus moved inwards, exploring personal lives, relationships and emotions. It could be argued that Catfish (2010) was a perfect example of this new trend. The film chronicles the everyday lives and interactions of the social media generation and was both a commercial and critical success. Filmmaker Josh Camberwell maintains that Catfish embodies a new realization that documentaries are inherently subjective and that this should be celebrated. Says Camberwell, it is a requirement for documentary makers to express a particular viewpoint and give personal responses to the material they are recording.
F The popularity and variety of documentaries today is illustrated by the large number of film festivals focusing on the genre around the world. The biggest of all must be the Hot Docs Festival in Canada, which over the years has showcased hundreds of documentaries from more than 50 different countries. Even older is the Hamburg International Short Film Festival. As its name suggests, Hamburg specializes in short films, but one category takes this to its limits – entries may not exceed three minutes in duration. The Short and Sweet Festival is a slightly
smaller event held in Utah, USA. The small size of the festival means that for first timers this is the ideal venue to try to get some recognition for their films. Then there is the Atlanta Shortsfest, which is a great event for a wide variety of filmmakers. Atlanta welcomes all established types of documentaries and recognises the growing popularity of animations, with a category specifically
for films of this type. These are just a few of the scores of film festivals on offer, and there are more being established every year. All in all, it has never been easier for documentary makers to get their films in front of an audience.
Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A-F. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Select the correct number, i-vill, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i A contrast between two historic approaches to documentary filmmaking ii Disagreement between two individual documentary makers iii A wide range of opportunities to promote documentary filmmaking iv A number of criticisms about all documentary filmmaking in the past v One film that represented a fresh approach to documentary filmmaking vi Some probable future trends in documentary filmmaking vii The debate about the origins of documentary filmmaking viii The ability of ordinary people to create documentary films for the first time
14 Paragraph A 15 Paragraph B 16 Paragraph C 17 Paragraph D 18 Paragraph E 19 Paragraph F
Look at the statements (Questions 20-23) and the list of people below. Match each statement with the correct person, A-E.
List of People
A Dr Helmut Fischer B Anthony Berwick C Paula Murphy D Maria Fiala E Josh Camberwell
Select the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 20-23 on your answer sheet.
20 The creation of some new technologies did not change viewers’ attitudes towards documentaries as quickly as is sometimes proposed. 21 One set of beliefs and techniques helped to make documentary films academically respectable. 22 The action of putting material on film essentially changes the nature of the original material. 23 Documentary filmmakers have an obligation to include their own opinions about and analysis of the real events that they show in their films.
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Questions 24-26
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
FILM FESTIVALS
There are many festivals for documentary makers. For example, Canada’s Hot Docs festival has screened documentaries from more than 50 countries. Meanwhile, the Hamburg Short Film Festival lives up to its name by accepting films no more than 24 …………………………….. long in one of its categories. The Short and Sweet Film Festival is especially good for documentary makers who are 25 …………………………… . And the Atlanta Shortsfest accepts numerous forms of documentaries including 26 ……………………………, which are becoming more common.
Boost your performance in Summary, Notes, Table, and Flowchart Completion tasks. Click here to explore our detailed guide and learn how to effectively complete summaries, notes, tables, and flowcharts in the IELTS Reading section.
14Answer: iv 15Answer: vii 16Answer: i 17Answer: viii 18Answer: v. 19Answer: iii 20Answer: D 21Answer: C 22Answer: A 23Answer: E 24Answer: 3 minutes/three minutes 25Answer: 1st timers/ first timers 26Answer: animations
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Essential strategies and practice techniques for this IELTS Reading question type. Learn how to manage time and improve accuracy.
Originally published March 2025. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.
The Blog post contains the following IELTS Reading Questions:
IELTS Reading Sentence Completion
IELTS Reading Diagram Labelling
IELTS Reading Multiple Choice Questions
Stay informed and prepared for success – Explore our comprehensive Reading Test Info page to get valuable insights, exam format details, and expert tips for mastering the IELTS Reading section.
IELTS Reading PassageIn Praise or Fast Food
In Praise or Fast Food
The media and a multitude of cookbook writers would have us believe that modern, fast, processed food is a disaster and that it is a mark of sophistication to bemoan the steel roller mill and sliced white bread while yearning for stone-ground flour and a brick oven. Perhaps, we should call those who scorn industrialized food, culinary Luddites, after the 19th-century English workers who rebelled against the machines that destroyed their way of life. Instead of technology, what these Luddites abhor is commercial sauces and any synthetic aid to flavoring our food. Culinary Luddism has come to signify more than just taste, however. It presents itself as a moral and political crusade, and it is here that I begin to back off. As a historian, I cannot accept the notion that the sunny, rural days of yesterday are in such contrast to the grey industrial present. I refute the philosophy that so crudely pits fresh and natural against processed and preserved, local against global, slow against fast, and additive-free against contaminated. History shows, I believe, that the Luddites have things back to front. It will come as a shock to many to discover that the notion of food being fresh and natural is a rather modern one. For our ancestors, what was natural frequently tasted bad. Fresh meat was rank and tough, fresh fruit inedibly sour, and fresh vegetables bitter. Natural was unreliable. Fresh milk soured, eggs went rotten, and everywhere seasons of plenty were followed by seasons of hunger. What’s more, natural was usually indigestible. Grains, which supplied 50 to 90 percent of the calories in most societies, had to be threshed, ground, and cooked to be fit for consumption. So to make food tasty, safe, digestible, and healthy, our forebears bred, ground, soaked, leached, curdled, fermented, and cooked naturally occurring plants and animals until they were nothing at all like their original form. They created sweet oranges and juicy apples and non-bitter legumes, happily abandoning their more natural but less tasty ancestors. They dried their meat and fruit, salted and smoked their fish, curdled and fermented their dairy products, and cheerfully used additives and preservatives like sugar, salt, oil, and vinegar to make the food edible. Eating fresh, natural food was regarded with suspicion verging on horror; only the uncivilized, the poor, and the starving resorted to it. The ancient Greeks regarded the consumption of greens and root vegetables as a sign of bad times, and many succeeding civilizations believed the same. Happiness was not a verdant garden abounding in fresh fruits, but a securely locked storehouse jammed with preserved, processed foods. What about the idea that the best food is handmade in the country? That food comes from the country goes without saying. However, the idea that country people eat better than city dwellers is preposterous. Very few of our ancestors working the land were independent peasants baking their bread and salting down their pigs. Most were burdened with heavy taxes and rent, often paid directly by the food they produced. Many were ultimately serfs or slaves, who subsisted on what was leftover watery soup and gritty flatbread. The dishes we call ethnic and assume to be of peasant origin were invented for the urban, or at least urbane, aristocrats who collected the surplus. This is as true of the lasagna of northern Italy as it is of the chicken korma of Mughal Delhi, the moo shu pork of imperial China, and the pilafs
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Reading Passage 3 for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 27-29 on your answer sheet.
27 ………………………………….. = mass, produced bread.
28 ………………………………….. = traditionally produced bread
29 ………………………………….. enhanced by synthetic products
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Questions 30-34
Complete the sentences.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 30-34 on your answer sheet.
30The writer does not believe that a ……………………. philosophy of food production is superior to an industrialized philosophy of food production. 31In the past, the majority of fresh, natural food ……………………. and could not be relied on. 32Most people’s intake consisted largely of.. ………………….., which required a great deal of preparation. 33The ……………………. of food was unrecognizable once it had gone through the various processes of making it edible. 34For the ancient Greeks, a ……………………. full of food was preferable to a garden full of fruit.
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Questions 35-40
Choose the correct letter A, B, C, or D.
Write your answers in boxes 35-40 on your answer sheet.
35What does the writer say about peasants?
They had a better diet than most people living in cities.
They were largely self-sufficient.
Much of what they produced went to a landowner.
They created imaginative soup and flatbread dishes.
36Lasagna is an example of a dish
Invented by peasants.
Created for wealthy city-dwellers.
That was only truly popular in northern Italy.
That tastes like dishes from several other countries.
37Which of the following is NOT an important factor mentioned in the eighth and ninth paragraphs?
The development of take-away food as an option
The arduous nature of food preparation before mass-production
The global benefits of industrialized food production
The range of advantages that industrialized food production had
38What is the important point the writer wishes to make in the tenth paragraph?
There are disadvantages to modem food production as well as advantages.
People need to have a balanced diet.
People everywhere now have a huge range of food to choose from.
Demand for food that is traditionally produced exploits the people that produce it.
39The writer mentions chocolate, pasta, and canned tomatoes in the same paragraph because
The industrialized version has advantages over the natural version.
They are all products associated with a sophisticated lifestyle.
They are all products that have suffered from over-commercialization.
They are the most popular examples of industrial foods.
40What is the overall point that the writer makes in the reading passage?
People should learn the history of the food they consume.
Modem industrial food is generally superior to raw and natural food.
Criticism of industrial food production is largely misplaced.
People should be more grateful for the range of foods they can now choose from.
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27Answer: steel roller mill 28Answer: brick oven 29Answer: flavoring 30Answer: rural 31Answer: tasted bad 32Answer: grains 33Answer: original form 34Answer: storehouse 35Answer: C 36Answer: B 37Answer: A 38Answer: D 39Answer: A 40Answer: C
We hope you found this post useful in helping you to study for the IELTS Test. If you have any questions please let us know in the comments below or on the Facebook page.
The best way to keep up to date with posts like this is to like us on Facebook, then follow us on Instagram and Pinterest. If you need help preparing for the IELTS Test, join the IELTS Achieve Academy and see how we can assist you to achieve your desired band score. We offer an essay correction service, mock exams and online courses.
Comprehensive guide covering essential IELTS preparation strategies and techniques to help you achieve your target band score.
Originally published April 2023. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28-40 which are based on Reading Passage 20 below.
The Pursuit of Happiness
“New research uncovers some anti-intuitive insights into how many people are happy – and why.” _____________________________
Compared with misery, happiness is a relatively unexplored terrain for social scientists. Between 1967 and 1994, 46,380 articles indexed in Psychological Abstracts mentioned depression, 36,851 anxiety, and 5,099 anger. Only 2,389 spoke of happiness, 2,340 life satisfaction, and 405 joy. joy.
Recently we and other researchers have begun a systematic study of happiness. During the past two decades, dozens of investigators throughout the world have asked several hundred thousand Representative sampled people to reflect on their happiness and satisfaction with life or what psychologists call “subjective well-being”. In the US the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago has surveyed a representative sample of roughly 1,500 people a year since 1957; the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan has carried out similar studies on a less regular basis, as has the Gallup Organization. Government-funded efforts have also probed the moods of European countries.
We have uncovered some surprising findings. People are happier than one might expect, and happiness does not appear to depend significantly on external circumstances. Although viewing life as a tragedy has a long and honorable history, the responses of random samples of people around the world about their happiness paints a much rosier picture. In the University of Chicago surveys, three in 10 Americans say they are very happy, for example. Only one in 10 chooses the most negative description “not too happy”. The majority describe themselves as “pretty happy”, …
How can social scientists measure something as hard to pin down as happiness? Most researchers simply ask people to report their feelings of happiness or unhappiness and to assess how satisfying their lives are. Such self-reported well-being is moderately consistent over years of retesting. Furthermore, those who say they are happy and satisfied seem happy to their close friends and family members and to a psychologist-interviewer. Their daily mood ratings reveal more positive emotions, and they smile more than those who call themselves unhappy. Self-reported happiness also predicts other indicators of well-being. Compared with the depressed, happy people are less self-focused, less hostile and abusive, and less susceptible to disease.
We have found that the even distribution of happiness cuts across almost all demographic classifications of age, economic class, race and educational level. In addition, almost all strategies for assessing subjective well-being – including those that sample people’s experience by polling them at random times with beepers – turn up similar findings. Interviews with representative samples of people of all ages, for example, reveal that no time of life is notably happier or unhappier. Similarly, men and women are equally likely to declare themselves “very happy” and “satisfied” with life, according to a statistical digest of 146 studies by Marilyn J, Haring, William Stock and Morris A, Okun, all then at Arizona State University.
Wealth is also a poor predictor of happiness. People have not become happier over time as their cultures have become more affluent. Even though Americans earn twice as much in today’s dollars as they did in 1957, the proportion of those telling surveyors from the National Opinion Research Center that they are “very happy” has declined from 35 to 29 percent.
Even very rich people – those surveyed among Forbes magazine’s 100 wealthiest Americans – are only slightly happier than the average American. Those whose income has increased over a 10-year period are not happier than those whose income is stagnant. Indeed, in most nations the correlation between income and happiness is negligible – only in the poorest countries, such as Bangladesh and India, is income a good measure of emotional well-being.
Are people in rich countries happier, by and large, than people in not so rich countries? It appears in general that they are, but the margin may be slim. In Portugal, for example, only one in 10 people reports being very happy, whereas in the much more prosperous Netherlands the proportion of very happy is four in 10. Yet there are curious reversals in this correlation between national wealth and well-being -the Irish during the 1980s consistently reported greater life satisfaction than the wealthier West Germans. Furthermore, other factors, such as civil rights, literacy and duration of democratic government, all of which also promote reported life satisfaction, tend to go hand in hand with national wealth, As a result, it is impossible to tell whether the happiness of people in wealthier nations is based on money or is a by-product of other felicities.
Although happiness is not easy to predict from material circumstances, it seems consistent for those who have it, In one National Institute on Aging study of 5,000 adults, the happiest people in 1973 were still relatively happy a decade later, despite changes in work, residence and family status,
Questions 28-30 Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 23-30 on your answer sheet.
28 What point are the writers making in the opening paragraph? A Happiness levels have risen since 1967. В Journals take a biased view on happiness. С Happiness is not a well-documented research area, D People tend to think about themselves negatively.
29 What do the writers say about their research findings? A They had predicted the results correctly. В They felt people had responded dishonestly. С They conflict with those of other researchers. D Happiness levels are higher than they had believed.
30 In the fourth paragraph, what does the reader learn about the research method used? A It is new. В It appears to be reliable. С It is better than using beepers. D It reveals additional information.
Questions 31-34 According to the passage, which of the findings below (31-34) is quoted by which Investigative Body (A-G)? Write your answers in boxes 31-34 on your answer sheet.
NB There are more Investigative Bodies than findings, so you do not have to use all of them.
31 Happiness is not gender related. 32 Over fifty percent of people consider themselves to be ‘happy’. 33 Happiness levels are marginally higher for those in the top income brackets. 34 ‘Happy’ people remain happy throughout their lives.
Investigative Bodies A The National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago B Arizona State University С The Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan D Forbes Magazine E The National Institute on Aging F The Gallup Organization G The Government
Questions 35-40 Complete the summary of Reading Passage 20 below. Choose your answers from the box at the bottom of the page and write them in boxes 35-40 on your answer sheet NB There are more words than spaces so you will not use them all. You may use any of the words more than once.
HOW HAPPY ARE WE?
Example : Answer Our happiness levels are … …… by relatively few factors. Affected
For example, incomes in the States have …….. (35)……. over the past forty years but happiness levels have …….. (36)…….. over the same period. In fact, people on average incomes are only slightly …….. (37)…….. happy than extremely rich people and a gradual increase in prosperity makes ……. (38)…….. difference to how happy we are. In terms of national wealth, populations of wealthy nations are …….. (39)…….. happier than those who live in poorer countries. Although in some cases this trend is …….. (40)…….. and it appears that other factors need to be considered.
List of Words
Stopped Slightly too great
Doubled Significant similar some
Stabilized Remarkably reversed dropped
No Less much affected
Crept up Slowed down more clearly
Answer:
28 С 29 D 30 В 31 В 32 A 33 D 34 E 35 doubled 36 dropped 37 less 38 no 39 slightly 40 reversed
Comprehensive guide covering essential IELTS preparation strategies and techniques to help you achieve your target band score.
Originally published April 2023. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–14 which are based on Reading Passage Sample 7 below:
Alarming Rate of Loss of Tropical Rainforests
Adults and children are frequently confronted with statements about the alarming rate of loss of tropical rainforests. For example, one graphic illustration to which children might readily relate is the estimate that rainforests are being destroyed at a rate equivalent to one thousand football fields every forty minutes – about the duration of a normal classroom period. In the face of the frequent and often vivid media coverage, it is likely that children will have formed ideas about rainforests – what and where they are, why they are important, what endangers them – independent of any formal tuition. It is also possible that some of these ideas will be mistaken.
Many studies have shown that children harbour misconceptions about ‘pure’, curriculum science. These misconceptions do not remain isolated but become incorporated into a multifaceted, but organised, conceptual framework, making it and the component ideas, some of which are erroneous, more robust but also accessible to modification. These ideas may be developed by children absorbing ideas through the popular media. Sometimes this information may be erroneous. It seems schools may not be providing an opportunity for children to re-express their ideas and so have them tested and refined by teachers and their peers.
Despite the extensive coverage in the popular media of the destruction of rainforests, little formal information is available about children’s ideas in this area. The aim of the present study is to start to provide such information, to help teachers design their educational strategies to build upon correct ideas and to displace misconceptions and to plan programmes in environmental studies in their schools.
The study surveys children’s scientific knowledge and attitudes to rainforests. Secondary school children were asked to complete a questionnaire containing five open-form questions. The most frequent responses to the first question were descriptions which are self-evident from the term ‘rainforest’. Some children described them as damp, wet or hot. The second question concerned the geographical location of rainforests. The commonest responses were continents or countries: Africa (given by 43% of children), South America (30%), Brazil (25%). Some children also gave more general locations, such as being near the Equator.
Responses to question three concerned the importance of rainforests. The dominant idea, raised by 64% of the pupils, was that rainforests provide animals with habitats. Fewer students responded that rainforests provide plant habitats, and even fewer mentioned the indigenous populations of rainforests. More girls (70%) than boys (60%) raised the idea of the rainforest as animal habitats.
Similarly, but at a lower level, more girls (13%) than boys (5%) said that rainforests provided human habitats. These observations are generally consistent with our previous studies of pupils’ views about the use and conservation of rainforests, in which girls were shown to be more sympathetic to animals and expressed views which seem to place an intrinsic value on non-human animal life.
The fourth question concerned the causes of the destruction of rainforests. Perhaps encouragingly, more than half of the pupils (59%) identified that it is human activities which are destroying rainforests, some personalising the responsibility by the use of terms such as ‘we are’. About 18% of the pupils referred specifically to logging activity.
One misconception, expressed by some 10% of the pupils, was that acid rain is responsible for rainforest destruction; a similar proportion said that pollution is destroying rainforests. Here, children are confusing rainforest destruction with damage to the forests of Western Europe by these factors. While two-fifths of the students provided the information that the rainforests provide oxygen, in some cases this response also embraced the misconception that rainforest destruction would reduce atmospheric oxygen, making the atmosphere incompatible with human life on Earth.
In answer to the final question about the importance of rainforest conservation, the majority of children simply said that we need rainforests to survive. Only a few of the pupils (6%) mentioned that rainforest destruction may contribute to global warming. This is surprising considering the high level of media coverage on this issue. Some children expressed the idea that the conservation of rainforests is not important.
The results of this study suggest that certain ideas predominate in the thinking of children about rainforests. Pupils’ responses indicate some misconceptions in the basic scientific knowledge of rainforests’ ecosystems such as their ideas about rainforests as habitats for animals, plants and humans and the relationship between climatic change and destruction of rainforests.
Pupils did not volunteer ideas that suggested that they appreciated the complexity of causes of rainforest destruction. In other words, they gave no indication of an appreciation of either the range of ways in which rainforests are important or the complex social, economic and political factors which drive the activities which are destroying the rainforests. One encouragement is that the results of similar studies about other environmental issues suggest that older children seem to acquire the ability to appreciate, value and evaluate conflicting views. Environmental education offers an arena in which these skills can be developed, which is essential for these children as future decision-makers.
Questions 1–8 Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
In boxes 1–8 on your answer sheet 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. The plight of the rainforests has largely been ignored by the media. 2. Children only accept opinions on rainforests that they encounter in their classrooms. 3. It has been suggested that children hold mistaken views about the ‘pure’ science that they study at school. 4. The fact that children’s ideas about science form part of a larger framework of ideas mean that it is easier to change them. 5. The study involved asking children a number of yes/no questions such as ‘Are there any rainforests in Africa?’ 6. Girls are more likely than boys to hold mistaken views about the rainforests’ destruction. 7. The study reported here follows on from a series of studies that have looked at children’s understanding of rainforests. 8. A second study has been planned to investigate primary school children’s ideas about rainforests.
Questions 9–13 The box below gives a list of responses A–P to the questionnaire discussed in the Reading Passage.
Answer the following questions by choosing the correct responses A–P. Write your answers in boxes 9–13 on your answer sheet.
9. What was the children’s most frequent response when asked where the rainforests were? 10. What was the most common response to the question about the importance of the rainforests? 11. What did most children give as the reason for the loss of the rainforests? 12. Why did most children think it important for the rainforests to be protected? 13. Which of the responses is cited as unexpectedly uncommon, given the amount of time spent on the issue by the newspapers and television?
A. There is a complicated combination of reasons for the loss of the rainforests. B. The rainforests are being destroyed by the same things that are destroying the forests of Western Europe. C. Rainforests are located near the Equator. D. Brazil is home to the rainforests. E. Without rainforests some animals would have nowhere to live. F. Rainforests are important habitats for a lot of plants. G. People are responsible for the loss of the rainforests. H. The rainforests are a source of oxygen. I. Rainforests are of consequence for a number of different reasons. J. As the rainforests are destroyed, the world gets warmer. K. Without rainforests there would not be enough oxygen in the air. L. There are people for whom the rainforests are home. M. Rainforests are found in Africa. N. Rainforests are not really important to human life. O. The destruction of the rainforests is the direct result of logging activity. P. Humans depend on the rainforests for their continuing existence.
Question 14
Choose the correct letter A, B, C, D or E. Write your answer in box 14 on your answer sheet.
Which of the following is the most suitable title for the Reading Passage?
A. The development of a programme in environmental studies within a science curriculum B. Children’s ideas about the rainforests and the implications for course design C. The extent to which children have been misled by the media concerning the rainforests D. How to collect, collate and describe the ideas of secondary school children E. The importance of the rainforests and the reasons for their destruction.
Essential strategies and practice techniques for this IELTS Reading question type. Learn how to manage time and improve accuracy.
Originally published April 2023. Last reviewed 3 July 2026.
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-27, which are based on the Reading Passage below.
What’s so funny?
John McCrone reviews recent research on humour
The joke comes over the headphones: ‘Which side of a dog has the most hair? The left.’ No, not funny. Try again. ‘Which side of a dog has the most hair? The outside.’ Hah! The punchline is silly yet fitting, tempting a smile, even a laugh. Laughter has always struck people as deeply mysterious, perhaps pointless. The writer Arthur Koestler dubbed it the luxury reflex: ‘unique in that it serves no apparent biological purpose’.
Theories about humour have an ancient pedigree. Plato expressed the idea that humour is simply a delighted feeling of superiority over others. Kant and Freud felt that joke-telling relies on building up a psychic tension which is safely punctured by the ludicrousness of the punchline. But most modern humour theorists have settled on some version of Aristotle’s belief that jokes are based on a reaction to or resolution of incongruity, when the punchline is either a nonsense or, though appearing silly, has a clever second meaning.
Graeme Ritchie, a computational linguist in Edinburgh, studies the linguistic structure of jokes in order to understand not only humour but language understanding and reasoning in machines. He says that while there is no single format for jokes, many revolve around a sudden and surprising conceptual shift. A comedian will present a situation followed by an unexpected interpretation that is also apt.
So even if a punchline sounds silly, the listener can see there is a clever semantic fit and that sudden mental ‘Aha!’ is the buzz that makes us laugh. Viewed from this angle, humour is just a form of creative insight, a sudden leap to a new perspective.
However, there is another type of laughter, the laughter of social appeasement and it is important to understand this too. Play is a crucial part of development in most young mammals. Rats produce ultrasonic squeaks to prevent their scuffles turning nasty. Chimpanzees have a ‘play-face’ – a gaping expression accompanied by a panting ‘ah, ah’ noise. In humans, these signals have mutated into smiles and laughs. Researchers believe social situations, rather than cognitive events such as jokes, trigger these instinctual markers of play or appeasement. People laugh on fairground rides or when tickled to flag a play situation, whether they feel amused or not.
Both social and cognitive types of laughter tap into the same expressive machinery in our brains, the emotion and motor circuits that produce smiles and excited vocalisations. However, if cognitive laughter is the product of more general thought processes, it should result from more expansive brain activity.
Psychologist Vinod Goel investigated humour using the new technique of ‘single event’ functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRl). An MRI scanner uses magnetic fields and radio waves to track the changes in oxygenated blood that accompany mental activity. Until recently, MRI scanners needed several minutes of activity and so could not be used to track rapid thought processes such as comprehending a joke. New developments now allow half-second ‘snapshots’ of all sorts of reasoning and problem-solving activities.
Although Goel felt being inside a brain scanner was hardly the ideal place for appreciating a joke, he found evidence that understanding a joke involves a widespread mental shift. His scans showed that at the beginning of a joke the listener’$ prefrontal cortex lit up, particularly the right prefrontal believed to be critical for problem solving. But there was also activity in the temporal lobes at the side of the head (consistent with attempts to rouse stored knowledge) and in many other brain areas. Then when the punchline arrived, a new area sprang to life -the orbital prefrontal cortex. This patch of brain tucked behind the orbits of the eyes is associated with evaluating information.
Making a rapid emotional assessment of the events of the moment is an extremely demanding job for the brain, animal or human. Energy and arousal levels may need, to be retuned in the blink of an eye. These abrupt changes will produce either positive or negative feelings. The orbital cortex, the region that becomes active in Goel’s experiment, seems the best candidate for the site that feeds such feelings into higher-level thought processes, with its close connections to the brain’s sub-cortical arousal apparatus and centres of metabolic control.
All warm-blooded animals make constant tiny adjustments in arousal in response to external events, but humans, who have developed a much more complicated internal life as a result of language, respond emotionally not only to their surroundings, but to their own thoughts. Whenever a sought-for answer snaps into place, there is a shudder of pleased recognition. Creative discovery being pleasurable, humans have learned to find ways of milking this natural response. The fact that jokes tap into our general evaluative machinery explains why the line between funny and disgusting, or funny and frightening, can be so fine. Whether a joke gives pleasure or pain depends on a person’s outlook.
Humour may be a luxury, but the mechanism behind it is no evolutionary accident. As Peter Derks, a psychologist at William and Mary College in Virginia, says: ‘I like to think of humour as the distorted mirror of the mind. It’s creative, perceptual, analytical and lingual. If we can figure out how the mind processes humour, then we’ll have a pretty good handle on how it works in general.
Questions 14-20 Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
In boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet, 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
14. Arthur Koestler considered laughter biologically important in several ways. 15. Plato believed humour to be a sign of above-average intelligence. 16. Kant believed that a successful joke involves the controlled release of nervous energy. 17. Current thinking on humour has largely ignored Aristotle’s view on the subject. 18. Graeme Ritchie’s work links jokes to artificial intelligence. 19. Most comedians use personal situations as a source of humour. 20. Chimpanzees make particular noises when they are playing.
Questions 21-23 The diagram below shows the areas of the brain activated by jokes. Label the diagram.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 11-23 on your answer sheet.
Questions 24-27 Complete each sentence with the correct ending A-G below. Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 24-27 on your answer sheet.
24. One of the brain’s most difficult tasks is to 25. Because of the language they have developed, humans 26. Individual responses to humour 27. Peter Derks believes that humour
A react to their own thoughts. B helped create language in humans. C respond instantly to whatever is happening. D may provide valuable information about the operation of the brain. E cope with difficult situations. F relate to a person’s subjective views. G led our ancestors to smile and then laugh.
Answer:
14. FALSE 15. NOT GIVEN 16. TRUE 17. FALSE 18. TRUE 19. NOT GIVEN 20. TRUE 21. problem-solving 22. temporal lobes 23. evaluating information 24. C 25. A 26. F 27. D
