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The Secret Of Staying Young Reading Answers: IELTS Reading Practice Test

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Updated on Jul 02, 2024, 11:57

Prepare to embark on a journey of comprehension and discovery as you navigate through the IELTS Reading section. This pivotal part of the IELTS is not just an assessment; it's an opportunity to showcase your linguistic finesse and intellectual agility. 

 

It serves as your gateway to demonstrate your prowess in deciphering written texts, a skill indispensable in academia, professional settings, and everyday life. Within these passages lies a tapestry of ideas, waiting to be unravelled and understood, offering insights that expand your knowledge and deepen your understanding of the world around you.

 

Key highlights of the Reading section:

 

  • Encounter three progressively challenging passages, each inviting you to engage with its content.
  • With 60 minutes at your disposal, the Reading section demands efficiency and accuracy.
  • The texts from newspapers to academic journals represent diverse genres, mirroring real-world reading scenarios.
  • Hone your skills in skimming, scanning, and extracting main ideas and supporting details.
  • Every detail matters as questions may require you to discern specific information, discern viewpoints, or draw inferences from the text.

 

Now, let's move to the practice test topic, "The Secret Of Staying Young," where we'll uncover how to answer various questions asked from this topic. 

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1. The Secret Of Staying Young Reading Answers Reading Passage

You should spend approximately 20 minutes answering Questions 1 - 13 based on the Reading Passage below. This approach can help manage time effectively during a reading comprehension activity or exam. 

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2. The Secret Of Staying Young Reading Question & Answers

Discover exciting and informative IELTS reading answers about The Secret Of Staying Young

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1.

The Secret Of Staying Young Reading Answers Reading Passage

General Information

  • Read Instructions: Understand each question before answering.
  • Manage Time: Spend about 20 minutes per passage.
  • Skim and Scan: Quickly get the main idea and find specific information.
  • Highlight Key Info: Underline essential words or phrases.
  • Answer All Questions: Attempt every question; no penalty for wrong answers.
  • Stay Focused: Avoid distractions and keep your attention on the task.
  • Check Spelling: Ensure correct spelling and grammar.
  • Transfer Answers Clearly: Write answers neatly on the answer sheet.
  • Don’t Dwell: Move on if stuck and return later.
  • Review: If time allows, review your answers.

 

 

 

 

 

The Secret Of Staying Young Reading Answers Reading Passage

 


 

Paragraph A: The ant Pheidole dentata, which is native to the southeastern United States, is not immortal. According to scientists, it does not appear to show any signs of ageing. Old worker ants can do all jobs as well as their younger counterparts, and their minds appear to be just as sharp. According to Ysabel Giraldo, these ants do not appear to degrade. At Boston University, Ysable Giraldo's PhD dissertation was about ants.

 

Paragraph B: Such feats of longevity are rare in the animal kingdom. Naked mole rats have a life expectancy of 30 years and are generally healthy throughout their lives. They can reproduce at any age and never get cancer. However, the majority of plants and fauna mature in the same way that humans do. Ants, like naked mole rats, are social insects that live in well-organised colonies. According to Giraldo, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology, P. dentata's social complexity makes it perfect for studying the ageing process in humans.

 

Paragraph C: Pheidole dentata worker ants have a lifespan of about 140 days when kept in captivity. Giraldo studied four different age groups of ants: those between 20 and 22 days, 45 and 47 days, 95 and 97 days, and 120 and 122 days. Her research followed ants from the time they were just time the larvae developed into adults, so she knew how old they were for sure. They were then subjected to a battery of tests that she devised.

 

Paragraph D: Giraldo observed the ants of a colony and made notes on how often each ant cared for, transported, and fed the colony's young. She examined the differences in ant foraging efficiency between ants aged 20 and 95 days by tracing the odours the insects leave behind as they eat food. She counted the number of times ants in a little dish crossed a line in order to determine how busy they were and to see how the ants reacted to light. She also conducted an experiment to see how ants would respond to a live prey item, in this case a fruit fly that was tethered. As Giraldo had predicted, the older ants were not going to fare well in any of these activities. Even the 95-day-old ants were able to follow the scent even further than their younger colleagues, proving that the senior insects were excellent caretakers and trail-followers. All of them were highly responsive to illumination, albeit the more active ones were the more senior ones. And when it came to responding to prey, the older ants attacked the hapless fruit fly with the same vigour as the juvenile ones, flaring their mandibles and yanking at the fly's legs.

 

Paragraph E: Giraldo then examined the brains of 20-day-old and 95-day-old ants to look for dying cells. She found no significant differences in the location of dying cells with age, indicating that age did not appear to affect particular brain processes. Mushroom bodies are structures in ant and other insect brains that are necessary for information processing, learning, and memory. She was particularly curious about how ageing affects the density of synaptic complexes within these structures—regions where neurons converge. Once again, the response was unfavourable. Furthermore, neither serotonin or dopamine levels, which generally diminish with age, reduced in the old ants. In humans, a decrease in serotonin has been linked to Alzheimer's disease.

 

Paragraph F: ‘This is the first time anyone has analysed behavioural and neurological changes in these ants in such detail," Giraldo says, whose findings were just published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Senescence is the term used by biologists to describe age-related declines in bees; nevertheless, the results of current bee research have been conflicting; some studies have shown senescence, while others have not. "When asked about the mystery of P dentata's continued health, Giraldo states, "the investigation raises more questions than it answers for the time being."

 

Paragraph G. Furthermore, if ants do not deteriorate with age, why do they die? Ants are unlikely to live for a full 140 days in the wild due to predators, illness, and a harsher environment than in the laboratory. "The fortunate ants that reach old age may experience a rapid decline shortly before passing away," Giraldo adds, though she is unsure because her study was not designed to track an ant's final moments.

 

Paragraph H: Gene E. Robinson, an entomologist at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, emphasises that applying these findings to other species of social insects will be critical. This ant could be a one-of-a-kind creature, or it could represent a larger pattern among other social insects, providing insights into the science of ageing in larger species. In any event, it appears that age is unimportant to these ants.

2.

The Secret Of Staying Young Reading Question & Answers

Discover exciting and informative IELTS reading answers about The Secret Of Staying Young

Questions and Answers 1-5
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
In boxes 1-5 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 in the passage

 

 

1. Only Pheidole dentata ants are known to remain active for nearly their whole lifetimes.

2. Ysabel Giraldo was the first researcher to determine the specific ages of Pheidole dentata ants.

3. The behaviour of the ants in Giraldo's trials matched her predictions.

4. Recent studies of bees employed various techniques for evaluating age-related decrease.

5. Under laboratory circumstances, Pheidole dentata ants tend to live longer.


 

The Secret Of Staying Young Reading Answers with Explanations (1-5)


 

Type of Question: True/False/Not Given

 

These types of questions in IELTS reading involve identifying whether the sentence is  True, False, or Not Given using the given paragraph.

 

How to best answer: 

 

  • Read the statements and paragraphs carefully to understand the context and meaning.
  • Identify keywords or key phrases in both the statements and paragraphs.
  • Look for direct matches between the statements and the content of the paragraphs.
  • Pay attention to synonyms or paraphrases that convey similar meanings.
  • Choose the paragraph that best aligns with the statement based on the information provided in the passage.

 

 

1. False

 

Reference:

 

From Paragraph A, "Pheidole dentata worker ants have a lifespan of about 140 days when kept in captivity."
 

Explanation: The passage states that while Pheidole dentata ants do not show signs of aging, they are not immortal. They do have a lifespan of about 140 days when kept in captivity, indicating that they do not remain active for nearly their whole lifetimes.


 

2. True

 

Reference:

 

From Paragraph C, “Giraldo studied four different age groups of ants: those between 20 and 22 days, 45 and 47 days, 95 and 97 days, and 120 and 122 days."

 

Explanation: The passage mentions that Giraldo studied four different age groups of ants, indicating that she was the first researcher to determine the specific ages of Pheidole dentata ants.


 

3. False

 

Reference:

 

From Paragraph D, "As Giraldo had predicted, the older ants were not going to fare well in any of these activities."

 

Explanation: Giraldo's predictions about the behavior of the ants were proven wrong in some aspects, as mentioned in Paragraph D. For example, she predicted that older ants would not fare well in certain activities, but they actually performed excellently.


 

4. Not Given

 

Reference:

 

Not Given

 

Explanation: There is no information provided in the passage about recent studies of bees employing various techniques for evaluating age-related decrease.


 

5. True

 

Reference:

 

From Paragraph C, “Pheidole dentata worker ants have a lifespan of about 140 days when kept in captivity."

 

Explanation: The passage states in Paragraph C that Pheidole dentata worker ants tend to live longer under laboratory circumstances, with a lifespan of about 140 days when kept in captivity.

Questions and Answers 6-10
  • Complete the notes below.
  • Write NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.
  • Write your answers in the boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet.

 

 

 Ysabel Giraldo’s research

 

Specifically examined a sample of 6.___________ ants across a range of ages.

 

Behaviour: 

 

How well ants looked after their 7._____________

Their ability to locate 8.______________ using a scent trail

The effect of 9.______________has on them

How 10.___________ they attacked prey 

 

 

The Secret Of Staying Young Reading Answers with Explanations (6-10)


 

Type of Question: Write no more than one-word question for each blank. 


 

These types of questions in IELTS reading involve completing sentences using passage information. 


 

How to best answer: 
 

  • Read the question carefully to understand what information is being asked for.
  • Scan the passage quickly to locate the relevant information.
  • Pay attention to keywords in the question that may help you find the answer more efficiently.
  • Choose the answer that directly matches the information in the passage.
  • If you're unsure, eliminate incorrect options and make an educated guess based on context.


 

6. Four

 

Reference:

 

From Paragraph C, "Giraldo studied four different age groups of ants."
 

Explanation: The line explicitly mentions that Giraldo studied four different age groups, making "four" the correct answer.


 

7. Young

 

Reference:

 

From Paragraph D, "notes on how often each ant cared for, transported, and fed the colony's young."

 

Explanation: The line describes the tasks the ants performed for the colony's young, confirming "young" as the correct answer.


 

8. Food

 

Reference:

 

From Paragraph D, "efficiency between ants aged 20 and 95 days by tracing the odours the insects leave behind as they eat food."

 

Explanation: The line explains how ants use scent trails to locate food, making "food" the correct answer.


 

9. Light

 

Reference:

 

From Paragraph D, "See how the ants reacted to light."

 

Explanation: The line specifically mentions the study of ants' reactions to light, confirming "light" as the correct answer.

 

 

10. Aggressively

 

Reference:

 

Paragraph D, "The older ants attacked the hapless fruit fly with the same vigour as the juvenile ones."
 

 

Explanation: The line illustrates how the ants attacked their prey with vigour, indicating they attacked "aggressively."

Questions and Answers 11-13

 

  • Reading Passage 1 has 8 paragraphs A-H
  • Choose the correct heading for Paragraphs from the list of headings below.
  • Write the correct number (i-viii) in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

 

 

List of headings 

 

 

11. Gene E. Robinson stresses the importance of expanding these discoveries to other types of social insects.
12. Classification of ages. 
13. Examination of the brains of two different age groups of ants. 

 

Paragraphs:

 

Paragraph A
Paragraph B
Paragraph C
Paragraph D
Paragraph E
Paragraph F
Paragraph G
Paragraph H

 

 

The Secret Of Staying Young Reading Answers with Explanations (11-13)


 

Type of Question: Heading Matching

 

Matching heading questions in the IELTS section involves choosing the right heading using the passage information. 
 

How to best answer: 

 

  • Quickly read through each paragraph to get a general idea of its main topic or theme.
  • Look for keywords or phrases that summarise the central idea of the paragraph.
  • Compare the main ideas you've identified with the given headings and choose the one that best captures the essence of the paragraph.
  • Discard any headings that clearly do not match the paragraph’s content to narrow down your options.
  • Ensure the selected heading is the best fit by rereading the paragraph briefly, confirming it aligns well with the main idea.

 

 

11. H

 

Reference:

 

From Paragraph H, "Gene E. Robinson, an entomologist at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, emphasises that applying these findings to other species of social insects will be critical."

 

Explanation: This line shows Gene E. Robinson's emphasis on the importance of expanding these discoveries to other types of social insects.


 

12. C

 

Reference:

 

From Paragraph C, "Giraldo studied four different age groups of ants."

 

Explanation: This line indicates the classification of ants into different age groups for the study.


 

13. E

 

Reference:

 

From Paragraph E, "Giraldo then examined the brains of 20-day-old and 95-day-old ants to look for dying cells."

 

Explanation: This line mentions the examination of the brains of two different age groups of ants.

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FAQs

Q. How many passages are there in the IELTS Reading test?

Ans. The IELTS Reading test consists of three passages. Each passage is designed to assess various reading skills, including skimming, scanning, understanding logical arguments, and identifying writers' opinions, attitudes, and purpose. The difficulty of the passages increases progressively, challenging test-takers to demonstrate a wide range of reading comprehension abilities across different types of texts.

Q. What are some effective reading strategies for the IELTS Reading test?

Ans. Effective strategies for the IELTS Reading test include skimming to get the gist of the passage, scanning for specific information, and focusing on keywords. Reading the questions first can help target relevant sections of the text. Practising time management is crucial, as well as ensuring that you allocate appropriate time to each passage and question set to complete the test within the given time.

Q. Can I use a highlighter or take notes during the IELTS Reading test?

Ans. You cannot use a highlighter during the IELTS Reading test, but you can underline and make notes on the question paper. These annotations can help you track important information and locate answers more efficiently. It's a good practice to jot down brief notes or mark key sections, which can assist in answering questions accurately and managing your time effectively.