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
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 – 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
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.
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 no more than 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.
Visual Symbols and the Blind
Part 1
From a number of recent studies, it has become clear that blind people can appreciate the use of outlines and perspectives to describe the arrangement of objects and other surfaces in space. But pictures are more than literal representations. This fact was drawn to my attention dramatically when a blind woman in one of my investigations decided on her own initiative to draw a wheel as it was spinning. To show this motion, she traced a curve inside the circle (Fig. 1). I was taken aback, lines of motion, such as the one she used, are a very recent invention in the history of illustration. Indeed, as art scholar David Kunzle notes, Wilhelm Busch, a trend-setting nineteenth-century cartoonist, used virtually no motion lines in his popular figure until about 1877.
When I asked several other blind study subjects to draw a spinning wheel, one particularly clever rendition appeared repeatedly: several subjects showed the wheel’s spokes as curves lines. When asked about these curves, they all described them as metaphorical ways of suggesting motion. Majority rule would argue that this device somehow indicated motion very well. But was it a better indicator than, say, broken or wavy lines or any other kind of line, for that matter? The answer was not clear. So I decided to test whether various lines of motion were apt ways of showing movement or if they were merely idiosyncratic marks. Moreover, I wanted to discover whether there were differences in how the blind and the sighted interpreted lines of motion.
To search out these answers, I created raised-line drawings of five different wheels, depicting spokes with lines that curved, bent, waved, dashed and extended beyond the perimeters of the wheel. I then asked eighteen blind volunteers to feel the wheels and assign one of the following motions to each wheel: wobbling, spinning fast, spinning steadily, jerking or braking. My control group consisted of eighteen sighted undergraduates from the University of Toronto.
All but one of the blind subjects assigned distinctive motions to each wheel. Most guessed that the curved spokes indicated that the wheel was spinning steadily; the wavy spokes, they thought; suggested that the wheel was wobbling, and the bent spokes were taken as a sign that the wheel was jerking. Subjects assumed that spokes extending beyond the wheel’s perimeter signified that the wheel had its brakes on and that dashed spokes indicated the wheel was spinning quickly.
In addition, the favoured description for the sighted was favoured description for the blind in every instance. What is more, the consensus among the sighted was barely higher than that among the blind. Because motion devices are unfamiliar to the blind, the task I gave them involved some problem solving. Evidently, however, the blind not only figured out the meaning for each of the motion, but as a group they generally came up with the same meaning at least as frequently as did sighted subjects.
Part 2
We have found that the blind understand other kinds of visual metaphors as well.One blind woman drew a picture of a child inside a heart-choosing that symbol, she said, to show that love surrounded the child. With Chang Hong Liu, a doctoral student from china, I have begun exploring how well blind people understand the symbolism behind shapes such as hearts that do not directly represent their meaning.
We gave a list of twenty pairs of words to sighted subjects and asked them to pick from each pair the term that best related to a circle and the term that best related to assure. For example, we asked: what goes with soft? A circle or a square? Which shape goes with hard?
All our subjects deemed the circle soft and the square hard. A full 94% ascribed happy to the circle, instead of sad. But other pairs revealed less agreement: 79% matched fast to slow and weak to strong, respectively. And only 51% linked deep to circle and shallow to square. (see Fig. 2) When we tested four totally blind volunteers using the same list, we found that their choices closely resembled those made by the sighted subjects. One man, who had been blind since birth, scored extremely well. He made only one match differing from the consensus, assigning ‘far’ to square and ‘near’ to circle. In fact, only a small majority of sighted subjects, 53%, had paired far and near to the opposite partners. Thus we concluded that the blind interprets abstract shapes as sighted people do.
Questions: 27-29 Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write your answers in boxes 27 –29 on your answer sheet.
27. In the first paragraph, the writer makes the point that blind people A. may be interested in studying art. B. can draw outlines of different objects and surfaces. C. can recognise conventions such as perspective. D. can draw accurately.
28. The writer was surprised because the blind woman A. drew a circle on her own initiative. B. did not understand what a wheel looked like. C. included a symbol representing movement. D. was the first person to use lines of motion.
29. From the experiment described in Part 1, the writer found that the blind subjects A. had good understanding of symbols representing movement. B. could control the movement of wheels very accurately. C. worked together well as a group in solving problems. D. got better results than the sighted undergraduates.
Questions 30 –32 Look at the following diagrams (Questions 30 –32), and the list of types of movement below. Match each diagram to the type of movement A–E generally assigned to it in the experiment. Choose the correct letter A–E and write them in boxes 30–32 on your answer sheet.
A steady spinning B jerky movement C rapid spinning D wobbling movement E use of brakes
Questions 33–39 Complete the summary below using words from the box. Write your answers in boxes 33–39 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any word more than once.
In the experiment described in Part 2, a set of word 33…….…… was used to investigate whether blind and sighted people perceived the symbolism in abstract 34…..……… in the same way. Subjects were asked which word fitted best with a circle and which with a square. From the 35………… volunteers, everyone thought a circle fitted ‘soft ’while a square fitted ‘hard’. However, only 51% of the 36…….…… volunteers assigned a circle to 37…..…… . When the test was later repeated with 38………… volunteers, it was found that they made 39………… choices.
associations blind deep hard hundred identical pairsshapes sighted similar shallow soft words
Question 40 Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D. Write your answer in box 40 on your answer sheet.
Which of the following statements best summarises the writer’s general conclusion? A The blind represent some aspects of reality differently from sighted people. B The blind comprehend visual metaphors in similar ways to sighted people. C The blind may create unusual and effective symbols to represent reality. D The blind may be successful artists if given the right training.
Answer: 27. C 28. C 29. A 30. E 31. C 32. A 33. pairs 34. shapes 35. sighted 36. sighted 37. deep 38. blind 39. similar 40. B
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 14-26, which are based on the Reading Passage below.
Therapeutic Jurisprudence Reading Answers
A Therapeutic jurisprudence is the study of the role of the law as a therapeutic agent. It examines the law’s impact on emotional life and on psychological well-being, and the therapeutic and anti-therapeutic consequences of the law. It is most applicable to the fields of mental health law, criminal law, juvenile law and family law.
B The general aim of therapeutic jurisprudence is the humanizing of the law and addressing the human, emotional and psychological side of the legal process. It promotes the perspective that the law is a social force that produces behaviours and consequences. Therapeutic jurisprudence strives to have laws made or applied in a more therapeutic way so long as other values, such as justice and due process, can be fully respected. It is important to recognise that therapeutic jurisprudence does not itself suggest that therapeutic goals should trump other goals. It does not support paternalism or coercion by any means. It is simply a way of looking at the law in a richer way and then bringing to the table some areas and issues that previously have gone unnoticed. Therapeutic jurisprudence simply suggests that we think about the therapeutic consequences of law and see if they can be factored into the processes of law-making, lawyering, and judging.
C The law can be divided into the following categories: (1) legal rules, (2) legal procedures, such as hearings and trials and (3) the roles of legal actors – the behaviour of judges, lawyers, and of therapists acting in a legal context. Much of what legal actors do has an impact on the psychological well-being or emotional life of persons affected by the law, for example, in the dialogues that judges have with defendants or that lawyers have with clients. Therefore, therapeutic jurisprudence is especially applicable to this third category.
D Therapeutic jurisprudence is a relatively new phenomenon. In the early days of the law, attitudes were very different and efforts were focused primarily on what was wrong with various sorts of testimony. While there were good reasons for that early emphasis, an exclusive focus on what is wrong, rather than also looking at what is right and how these aspects could be further developed, is seriously shortsighted. Therapeutic jurisprudence focuses attention on this previously under-appreciated aspect, encouraging us to look very hard for promising development and to borrow from the behavioural science literature, even when this literature has nothing obviously to do with the law. It encourages people to think creatively about how promising developments from other fields might be brought into the legal system.
E Recently, as a result of this multidisciplinary approach, certain kinds of rehabilitative programmes have begun to emerge that look rather promising. One type of cognitive behavioural treatment encourages offenders to prepare relapse prevention plans which require them to think through the chain of events that lead to criminality. These reasoning and rehabilitation-type programmes teach offenders cognitive self-change, to stop and think and figure out consequences, to anticipate high-risk situations, and to learn to avoid or cope with them. These programmes, so far, seem to be reasonably successful.
F From a therapeutic jurisprudence standpoint, the question is how these programmes might be brought into the law. In one obvious sense, these problem-solving, reasoning and rehabilitation-type programmes can be made widely available in correctional and community settings. A way of linking them even more to the law, of course, would be to make them part of the legal process itself. The suggestion here is that if a judge or parole board becomes familiar with these techniques and is about to consider someone for probation, the judge might say. ‘I’m going to consider you but I want you to come up with a preliminary relapse prevention plan that we will use as a basis for discussion. I want you to figure out why I should grant you probation and why I should be comfortable that you’re going to succeed. In order for me to feel comfortable, I need to know what you regard to be high-risk situations and how you’re going to avoid them or cope with them!
G If that approach is followed, courts will be promoting cognitive self-change as part and parcel of the sentencing process itself. The process may operate this way; an offender would make a statement like ‘I realise I mess up on Friday nights; therefore, I propose that I will stay at home on Friday nights. Suddenly, it is not a judge imposing something on the offender. It’s something that the offender has come up with him or herself, so he or she should think it is fair. If a person has a voice in his rehabilitation, then he is more likely to feel a commitment to it, and with that commitment, presumably, compliance will increase dramatically.
Questions 14-20
Complete the notes below.
Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.
NOTES: Therapeutic Jurisprudence
Therapeutic Jurisprudence:
study of the law as a therapeutic 14……………. and the therapeutic and 15………….. consequences of the law.
Goal:
the 16 ………… of the law, but NOT at the expense of 17…………….. and due
process.
Applicable to:
especially applicable to the role of legal 18………………… such as judges and lawyers
Therapeutic jurisprudence = new attitude
1. It asks people to seek out 19………………… developments, not problems.
2. It urges people to think 20……………… and borrow from other fields.
Questions 21-23
Complete the sentences.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
21 One aspect of cognitive behavioural treatment includes the preparation of ……………. by offenders.
22 The treatment requires offenders to consider the……………. that lead to a crime being committed.
23 Treatment programmes encourage offenders to recognise… ……………. before they happen, and know what to do in case they do happen.
Questions 24-26
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
In boxes 24-26 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
24 The use of rehabilitative programmes has been proved to greatly reduce the chance of a criminal re-offending.
25 Therapeutic jurisprudence aims to make cognitive behavioural treatment a part of the legal process itself.
26 Offenders might be encouraged by judges to take part in deciding what their punishment should be.
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 1-14, which are based on the Reading Passage below.
Persistent Bullying Reading Answers
How can it be prevented? Peter Smith, Professor of Psychology at the University of Sheffield, directed the Sheffield Anti-Bullying Intervention Project, funded by the Department for Education.
Here he reports on his findings.
A Bullying can take a variety of forms, from the verbal – being taunted or called hurtful names – to the physical – being kicked or shoved – as well as indirect forms, such as being excluded from social groups. A survey I conducted with Irene Whitney found that in British primary schools up to a quarter of pupils reported experience of bullying, which in about one in ten cases was persistent. There was less bullying in secondary schools, with about one in twenty-five suffering persistent bullying, but these cases may be particularly recalcitrant.
B Bullying is clearly unpleasant, and can make the child experiencing it feel unworthy and depressed. In extreme cases it can even lead to suicide, though this is thankfully rare. Victimised pupils are more likely to experience difficulties with interpersonal relationships as adults, while children who persistently bully are more likely to grow up to be physically violent, and convicted of anti-social offences.
C Until recently, not much was known about the topic, and little help was available to teachers to deal with bullying. Perhaps as a consequence, schools would often deny the problem. ‘There is no bullying at this school’ has been a common refrain, almost certainly untrue. Fortunately more schools are now saying: There is not much bullying here, but when it occurs we have a clear policy for dealing with it.’
D Three factors are involved in this change. First is an awareness of the severity of the problem. Second, a number of resources to help tackle bullying have become available in Britain. For example, the Scottish Council for Research in Education produced a package of materials, Action Against Bullying, circulated to all schools in England and Wales as well as in Scotland in summer 1992, with a second pack, Supporting Schools Against Bullying, produced the following year. In Ireland, Guidelines on Countering Bullying Behaviour in Post-Primary Schools was published in 1993. Third, there is evidence that these materials work, and that schools can achieve something. This comes from carefully conducted ‘before and after’ evaluations of interventions in schools, monitored by a research team. In Norway, after an intervention campaign was introduced nationally, an evaluation of forty-two schools suggested that, over a two-year period, bullying was halved. The Sheffield investigation, which involved sixteen primary schools and seven secondary schools, found that most schools succeeded in reducing bullying.
E Evidence suggests that a key step is to develop a policy on bullying, saying clearly what is meant by bullying, and giving explicit guidelines on what will be done if it occurs, what records will be kept, who will be informed, what sanctions will be employed. The policy should be developed through consultation, over a period of time – not just imposed from the head teacher’s office! Pupils, parents and staff should feel they have been involved in the policy, which needs to be disseminated and implemented effectively.
Other actions can be taken to back up the policy. There are ways of dealing with the topic through the curriculum, using video, drama and literature. These are useful for raising awareness, and can best be tied into early phases of development, while the school is starting to discuss the issue of bullying. They are also useful in renewing the policy for new pupils, or revising it in the light of experience. But curriculum work alone may only have short-term effects; it should be an addition to policy work, not a substitute.
There are also ways of working with individual pupils, or in small groups. Assertiveness training for pupils who are liable to be victims is worthwhile, and certain approaches to group bullying such as ‘no blame’, can be useful in changing the behaviour of bullying pupils without confronting them directly, although other sanctions may be needed for those who continue with persistent bullying.
Work in the playground is important, too. One helpful step is to train lunchtime supervisors to distinguish bullying from playful fighting, and help them break up conflicts. Another possibility is to improve the playground environment, so that pupils are less likely to be led into bullying from boredom or frustration.
F With these developments, schools can expect that at least the most serious kinds of bullying can largely be prevented. The more effort put in and the wider the whole school involvement, the more substantial the results are likely to be. The reduction in bullying – and the consequent improvement in pupil happiness – is surely a worthwhile objective.
Questions 1-4
The reading passage has six sections, A-F.
Choose the correct heading for sections A-D from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-vii, in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i The role of video violence
ii The failure of government policy
iii Reasons for the increased rate of bullying
iv Research into how common bullying is in British schools
v The reaction from schools to enquiries about bullying
vi The effect of bullying on the children involved
vii Developments that have led to a new approach by schools
1 Section A
2 Section B
3 Section C
4 Section D
Questions 5-8
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet.
5 A recent survey found that in British secondary schools
A there was more bullying than had previously been the case.
B there was less bullying than in primary schools.
C cases of persistent bullying were very common.
D indirect forms of bullying were particularly difficult to deal with.
6 Children who are bullied
A are twice as likely to commit suicide as the average person.
B find it more difficult to relate to adults.
C are less likely to be violent in later life.
D may have difficulty forming relationships in later life.
7 The writer thinks that the declaration ‘There is no bullying at this school’
A is no longer true in many schools.
B was not in fact made by many schools.
C reflected the school’s lack of concern.
D reflected a lack of knowledge and resources.
8 What were the findings of research carried out in Norway?
A Bullying declined by 50% after an anti-bullying campaign.
B Twenty-one schools reduced bullying as a result of an anti-bullying campaign.
C Two years is the optimum length for an anti-bullying campaign.
D Bullying is a less serious problem in Norway than in the UK.
Questions 9-13
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.
What steps should schools take to reduce bullying?
The most important step is for the school authorities to produce a 9 ………………. which makes the school’s attitude towards bullying quite clear.
It should include detailed 10 ………………. as to how the school and its staff will react if bullying occurs.
In addition, action can be taken through the 11 ……………….
This is particularly useful in the early part of the process, as a way of raising awareness and encouraging discussion.
On its own, however, it is insufficient to bring about a permanent solution.
Effective work can also be done with individual pupils and small groups.
For example, potential 12 ………………. of bullying can be trained to be more self-confident.
Or again,in dealing with group bullying, a ‘no blame’ approach, which avoids confronting the offender too directly, is often effective.
Playground supervision will be more effective if members of staff are trained to recognise the difference between bullying and mere 13 ……………….
Question 14
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in box 14 on your answer sheet.
14 Which of the following is the most suitable title for the Reading Passage?
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 1-13, which are based on the Reading Passage below.
The Nature of Yawning
A While fatigue, drowsiness or boredom easily bring on yawns, scientists are discovering there is more to yawning than most people think. Not much is known about why we yawn or if it serves any useful function. People have already learned that yawning can be infectious. “Contagious yawning” is the increase in likelihood that you will yawn after watching or hearing someone else yawn, but not much is known about the under-lying causes, and very little research has been done on the subject. However, scientists at the University of Albany, as well as the University of Leeds and the University of London have done some exploration.
B It is commonly believed that people yawn as a result of being sleepy or tired because they need oxygen. However, the latest research shows that a yawn can help cool the brain and help it work more effectively, which is quite different from the popular belief that yawning promotes sleep and is a sign of tiredness. Dr. Andrew Gallup and his colleagues at the University of Albany in New York State said their experiments on 44 students showed that raising or lowering oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood did not produce that reaction.
In the study participants were shown videos of people laughing and yawning, and researchers counted how many times the volunteers responded to the “contagious yawns”. The researchers found that those who breathed through the nose rather than the mouth were less likely to yawn when watching a video of other people yawning. The same effect was found among those who held a cool pack to their forehead, whereas those who held a warm pack yawned while watching the video. Since yawning occurs when brain temperature rises, sending cool blood to the brain serves to maintain the best levels of mental efficiency.
C Yawning is universal to humans and many animals. Cats, dogs and fish yawn just like humans do, but they yawn spontaneously. Only humans and chimpanzees, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, have shown definite contagious yawning. Though much of yawning is due to suggestibility, sometimes people do not need to actually see a person yawn to involuntarily yawn themselves: hearing someone yawning or even reading about yawning can cause the same reaction.
D However, contagious yawning goes beyond mere suggestibility. Recent studies show that contagious yawning is also related to our predisposition toward empathy— the ability to understand and connect with others’ emotional states. So empathy is important, sure, but how could it possibly be related to contagious yawning? Leave it up to psychologists at Leeds University in England to answer that. In their study, researchers selected 40 psychology students and 40 engineering students.
Generally, 57 psychology students are more likely to feel empathy for others, while engineering students are thought to be concerned with objects and science. Each student was made to wait individually in a waiting room, along with an undercover assistant who yawned 10 times in as many minutes. The students were then administered an emotional quotient test: students were shown 40 images of eyes and asked what emotion each one displayed. The results of the test support the idea that contagious yawning is linked to empathy.
The psychology students—whose future profession requires them to focus on others—yawned contagiously an average of 5.5 times in the waiting room and scored 28 out of 40 on the emotional test. The engineering students—who tend to focus on things like numbers and systems—yawned an average of 1.5 times and scored 25.5 out of 40 on the subsequent test. The difference doesn’t sound like much, but researchers consider it significant. Strangely enough, women, who are generally considered more emotionally attuned, didn’t score any higher than men.
E Another study, led by Atsushi Senju, a cognitive researcher at the University of London, also sought to answer that question. People with autism disorder are considered to be developmentally impaired emotionally. Autistics have trouble connecting with others and find it difficult to feel empathy. Since autistics have difficulty feeling empathy, then they shouldn’t be susceptible to contagious yawning. To find out, Senju and his colleagues placed 49 kids aged 7 to 15 in a room with a television.
24 of the test subjects had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, the other 25 were non-autistic kids. The test subjects were shown short clips of people yawning as well as clips of people opening their mouths but not yawning. While the kids with autism had the same lack of reaction to both kinds of clips, the non autistic kids yawned more after the clips of people yawning.
F There also have been studies that suggest yawning, especially psychological “contagious” yawning, may have developed as a way of keeping a group of animals alert and bonding members of a group into a more unit one. If an animal is drowsy or bored, it may not be as alert as it should to be prepared to spring into action and its yawning is practically saying, “Hey, I need some rest, you stay awake”.
Therefore, a contagious yawn could be an instinctual reaction to a signal from one member of the herd reminding the others to stay alert when danger comes. So the theory suggests evidence that yawning comes from the evolution of early humans to be ready to physically exert themselves at any given moment.
Question 1 – 5
Read paragraphs A-F. Which paragraph contains the following information?
NB You may use any letter more than once.
1 Humans’ imaginations can cause yawning.
2 Research shows that yawning is closely related to occupations.
3 An overview of the latest research in yawning.
4 Yawning is used to regulate brain temperature.
5 Scientists discovered some evidence disproving the early understanding of yawning.
Questions 6 – 9
Match each of the following research results with the university which it comes from
NB You may use any letter more than once.
A University of Albany
B University of Leeds
C University of London
6 There is no gender difference in the cause of yawning.
7 People with certain disorders are less likely to be affected by other people yawning.
8 Yawning is associated with the way people breathe.
9 People who are trained to feel empathy for others are more likely to yawn than those who are untrained.
Questions 10 – 13
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.
Another theory shows that yawning is used for 10……………….individuals into a tighter social unit. Alternatively, yawning can help increase alertness of group members in case 11………… is close. For example, yawning signals that a member of the group needs some 12……………….and requires the others to stay aware of the surrounding situation. This theory proves that yawning is only a spontaneous behaviour resulting from some part of a simple 13……………….system in early humans.
