About this set: compiled and lightly cleaned up from real reading passages that test-takers recalled. IELTS draws from a global question pool, so these passages circulate worldwide. To give you a complete, sittable test, passages reported around the same period are assembled together — so a set may combine passages from several exam dates, not one single sitting. Organized for study convenience. Based on test-taker recalls — not official IELTS material.
Reading Passage 1: What Lucy Taught Us
A scientific finding in east Africa has changed our understanding of how humans have developed.
On a Sunday morning in late November 1974, a team of scientists were digging in an isolated spot in the Afar region of Ethiopia. Surveying the area, palaeoanthropologist Donald Johanson spotted a small piece of bone. Straight away, he recognised it as coming from the elbow of a human ancestor. And there were plenty more. ‘As I looked up the slopes to my left, I saw bits of the skull, a chunk of jaw, a couple of vertebrae,’ says Johanson.
It was immediately obvious that the skeleton was a significant find, because the sediments at the site were known to be 3.5 million years old. ‘I realised this was part of a skeleton that was older than three million years,’ says Johanson. It was the most ancient early human ever found. Later it became apparent that it was also the most complete – 40% of the skeleton had been preserved.
At the group's campsite that night, Johanson played a Beatles song called 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds', and, as the feeling was that the skeleton was female due to its size, someone suggested calling it Lucy. The name stuck and Johanson says, 'All of a sudden, she became a person. But the morning after the discovery, the discussion was dominated by questions. How old was Lucy when she died? Did she have children? And might she be our direct ancestor? Nowadays, we're starting to get the answers to some of these questions.
According to Johanson, Lucy had an incredible combination of primitive and derived features, which had not been seen before. Her skull and jaws were more ape-like than those of other groups of early humans. Her braincase was also very small, no bigger than that of a chimp. She had a hefty jaw, a low forehead and long dangly arms.
For Johanson, it was immediately apparent that Lucy walked upright. That's because the shape and positioning of her pelvis reflected a fully upright gait. Lucy's knee and ankle were also preserved and seemed to reflect bipedal walking. Later studies of feet offer even more evidence. As an upright walker, Lucy strengthened the idea that walking was one of the selective pressures driving human evolution forwards. Early humans did not need bigger brains to take defining steps away from apes. Extra brainpower only came over a million years later with the arrival of the species Homo erectus, meaning upright man. Though big brains would clearly be important later, walking remains one of the traits that makes us uniquely human.
She may have walked like a human, but Lucy spent at least some of her time up in the trees, as chimpanzees and orangutans still do today. It may be that upright walking evolved in the trees, as a way to walk along branches that would otherwise be too flexible. It's not clear why Lucy left the safety of the trees. It is thought that savannahs were gradually opening up, so trees were spaced further apart. But hunting for food may have been the real reason for heading to the ground, says Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London. In line with this idea, recent evidence suggests that the diet of early humans was changing at that time.
Studies of the remains of food trapped on preserved human teeth indicate that several species, including Lucy's, were expanding their diet around 3.5 million years ago. Instead of mostly eating fruit from trees, they began to include grasses and possibly meat. This change in diet may have allowed them to range more widely, and to travel around more efficiently in a changing environment. Fossilised crocodile and turtle eggs were found near her skeleton, suggesting that Lucy died while foraging for them in a nearby lake.
How did early humans process all these new foods? Later species, like Homo erectus, are known to have used simple stone tools, but no tools have ever been found from this far back. However, in 2010 archaeologists uncovered animal bones with scratches that seem to have been made by stone tools. This suggests that Lucy and her relatives used stone tools to eat meat. There have since been heated debates over whether or not the marks were really made by tools. But if they were, it is not surprising, says Fred Spoor of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
It also seems that Lucy's childhood was much briefer than ours and that she had to fend for herself from a young age. We know that Lucy was a full-grown adult because she had wisdom teeth and her bones had fused. But unlike modern humans, she seems to have grown to full size very quickly, and time of death was when she was around 12 years old. In line with that, a recent study of a 3-year-old early human suggested that their brains matured much earlier than ours do.
- 1
Donald Johanson was uncertain about the nature of the elbow bone he found in Afar.
- 2
Several bones were found by Donald Johanson at the same site in Afar.
- 3
The experts realised the importance of the discovery at Afar.
- 4
It was the upper part of the skeleton that had suffered the least damage.
- 5
The skeleton's measurements helped Johanson's team to decide if it was male or female.
- 6
upright movement possibly started among the ... of trees
- 7
probably moved to the ... in search of food
- 8
analysis of food in the ... of the skeletons of early humans shows changes in their diet
- 9
it is likely that meat and grasses were substituted for ...
- 10
... that were located close to Lucy suggest these were also part of her diet
- 11
... that were found had marks on them, possibly made by tools used for eating
- 12
modern-day humans have a longer ... than Lucy did
- 13
the ... of modern-day humans appear to develop later than Lucy's did
Reading Passage 2: Theory of Mind in Children
A considerable amount of research since the mid 1980s has been concerned with what has been termed children's theory of mind. This involves children's ability to understand that people can have different beliefs and representations of the world—a capacity that is shown by four years of age. Furthermore, this ability appears to be absent in children with autism. The ability to work out that another person is thinking is clearly an important aspect of both cognitive and social development. Furthermore, one important explanation for autism is that children suffering from this condition do not have a theory of mind (TOM). Consequently, the development of children's TOM has attracted considerable attention.
Wimmer and Perner devised a 'false belief task' to address this question. They used some toys to act out the following story. Maxi left some chocolate in a blue cupboard before he went out. When he was away his mother moved the chocolate to a green cupboard. Children were asked to predict where Maxi will look for his chocolate when he returns. Most children under four years gave the incorrect answer, that Maxi will look in the green cupboard. Those over four years tended to give the correct answer, that Maxi will look in the blue cupboard. The incorrect answers indicated that the younger children did not understand that Maxi's beliefs and representations no longer matched the actual state of the world, and they failed to appreciate that Maxi will act on the basis of his beliefs rather than the way that the world is actually organised.
A simpler version of the Maxi task was devised by Baron-Cohen to take account of criticisms that younger children may have been affected by the complexity and too much information of the story in the task described above. For example, the child is shown two dolls, Sally and Anne, who have a basket and a box, respectively. Sally also has a marble, which she places in her basket, and then leaves to take a walk. While she is out of the room, Anne takes the marble from the basket, eventually putting it in the box. Sally returns, and child is then asked where Sally will look for the marble. The child passes the task if she answers that Sally will look in the basket, where she put the marble; the child fails the task if she answers that Sally will look in the box, where the child knows the marble is hidden, even though Sally cannot know, since she did not see it hidden there. In order to pass the task, the child must be able to understand that another's mental representation of the situation is different from their own, and the child must be able to predict behavior based on that understanding. The results of research using false-belief tasks have been fairly consistent: most normally-developing children are unable to pass the tasks until around age four.
Leslie argues that, before 18 months, children treat the world in a literal way and rarely demonstrate pretence. He also argues that it is necessary for the cognitive system to distinguish between what is pretend and what is real. If children were not able to do this, they would not be able to distinguish between imagination and reality. Leslie suggested that this pretend play becomes possible because of the presence of a de-coupler that copies primary representations to secondary representations. For example, children, when pretending a banana is a telephone, would make a secondary representation of a banana. They would manipulate this representation and they would use their stored knowledge of 'telephone' to build on this pretence.
There is also evidence that social processes play a part in the development of TOM. Meins and her colleagues have found that what they term mindmindedness in maternal speech to six-month old infants is related to both security of attachment and to TOM abilities. Mindmindedness involves speech that discusses infants' feelings and explains their behaviour in terms of mental stages (e.g. 'you're feeling hungry').
Lewis investigated older children living in extended families in Crete and Cyprus. They found that children who socially interact with more adults, who have more friends, and who have more older siblings tend to pass TOM tasks at a slightly earlier age than other children. Furthermore, because young children are more likely to talk about their thoughts and feelings with peers than with their mothers, peer interaction may provide a special impetus to the development of a TOM. A similar point has been made by Dunn, who argues that peer interaction is more likely to contain pretend play and that it is likely to be more challenging because other children, unlike adults, do not make large adaptations to the communicative needs of other children.
In addition, there has been concern that some aspects of the TOM approach underestimate children's understanding of other people. After all, infants will point to objects apparently in an effort to change a person's direction of gaze and interest; they can interact quite effectively with other people; they will express their ideas in opposition to the wishes of others; and they will show empathy for the feeling of others. Schatz studied the spontaneous speech of three-year-olds and found that these children used mental terms, and used them in circumstances where there was a contrast between, for example, not being sure where an object was located and finding it, or between pretending and reality. Thus the social abilities of children indicate that they are aware of the difference between mental states and external reality at ages younger than four.
A different explanation has been put forward by Harris. He proposed that children use 'simulation'. This involves putting yourself in the other person's position, and then trying to predict what the other person would do. Thus success on false belief tasks can be explained by children trying to imagine what they would do if they were a character in the stories, rather than children being able to appreciate the beliefs of other people. Such thinking about situations that do not exist involves what is termed counterfactual reasoning.
- 14
14. found that children under 4 can tell difference between reality and mentality
- A. Baron-Cohen
- B. Meins
- C. Wimmer and Perner
- D. Lewis
- E. Dunn
- F. Schatz
- G. Harris
- H. Leslie
- 15
15. conducted famous experiment and drew a conclusion that children under 4 were unable to comprehend the real state of the world.
- A. Baron-Cohen
- B. Meins
- C. Wimmer and Perner
- D. Lewis
- E. Dunn
- F. Schatz
- G. Harris
- H. Leslie
- 16
16. found that children who get along with sisters and brothers often passed test more easily
- A. Baron-Cohen
- B. Meins
- C. Wimmer and Perner
- D. Lewis
- E. Dunn
- F. Schatz
- G. Harris
- H. Leslie
- 17
17. revised an easier experiment rule out the possibility that children might be influenced by sophisticated reasoning.
- A. Baron-Cohen
- B. Meins
- C. Wimmer and Perner
- D. Lewis
- E. Dunn
- F. Schatz
- G. Harris
- H. Leslie
- 18
18. a terminology related social factor such as emotion.
- A. Baron-Cohen
- B. Meins
- C. Wimmer and Perner
- D. Lewis
- E. Dunn
- F. Schatz
- G. Harris
- H. Leslie
- 19
19. peer play is more important than parent's interaction in young children.
- A. Baron-Cohen
- B. Meins
- C. Wimmer and Perner
- D. Lewis
- E. Dunn
- F. Schatz
- G. Harris
- H. Leslie
- 20
20. Children may be more willing to act as a role in stories rather than understand other's belief.
- A. Baron-Cohen
- B. Meins
- C. Wimmer and Perner
- D. Lewis
- E. Dunn
- F. Schatz
- G. Harris
- H. Leslie
- 21
21. In 1980s theory called ______ was designed to research if children have the ability to represent the reality.
- 22
22. First experiment carried out on the subject of a boy. And questions had been made on where the boy can find the location of ______.
- 23
23. But it was accused that this experiment had excessive ______.
- 24
24. So another modified experiment was conducted involving two dolls, and most children passed the test at the age of ______.
- 25
25. Then Lewis and Dunn researched ______ children in a certain place, and found children who play with adults have more mates and companions.
- 26
26. and found children who play with ______ have more mates and companions.
- 27
27. Besides, peer interaction is ______ because of consisting pretending elements.
Reading Passage 3: Humanities and the Health Professional
A Professor Jock Murray from Dalhousie Medical School in Canada writes about the role of humanities in the education of health professionals. In a recent meeting with health professionals from many disciplines, the concept of the humanities and how they enrich the lives and practice of physicians was discussed. There were nurses, chiropractors, speech therapists, health administrators and professionals from a dozen other fields. Everyone commented on the need to achieve a balance between the humanities and the skills and technological expertise of their specific discipline, beginning with the experience in medical school and then life in their chosen specialization, to create fully realized professionals. The purpose of my discussion here is to advocate a balanced approach to the education of all health professionals.
I believe that most people wish to see in their medical professional a person who not only brings excellent skills, techniques and treatments, but also personal qualities that show they are fully developed individuals. Such individuals are sensitive, communicative, and understanding of the human condition. They acknowledge the vast array of backgrounds, views, fears and hopes each person brings to the clinical encounter.
The training of health professionals has usually been exemplary in teaching them to recognize and treat a symptom or disease, but often less attentive to the broad education that would inform and educate them about the persons who come from various cultures, backgrounds, and experiences. Such understanding does not come from the course textbooks but from literature, history, poetry, art, and other aspects of the humanities.
There are two sides to the healing profession, once described as the art and the science of medical practice. It is evident, however, that most educational programs emphasize knowledge, clinical skill and competence, and although educators wish the person to be humanistic, empathetic and communicative, they take this aspect for granted, as if valuable educational time does not need to be allocated to this 'soft' feature of the profession. It is compounded by the recognition that this aspect is harder to define and measure than knowledge and competence. We may want the health professional to understand many elements of the human condition so they can understand, assess and manage the suffering of patients, but it is harder to design and teach such a course than one on anatomy, for example. Developing a humanities program in professional education refocuses attention on what everyone recognizes as important. Rather than take humanities education for granted, it becomes a direct part of the program. This signals that the school takes it seriously and encourages activities related to the broad area of the humanities.
Distinguished by their focus on human values, the humanities cover many areas, including history, ethics, literature, theology, art, music, law, and the social sciences as they apply to the profession. For example, a history of the profession gives us an understanding of how we have come to be where we are, and how things change and progress. Literature can teach us about human hopes and aspirations, suffering and loss, relationships, and life and death. Emphasis on human values is important in this day and age as we are increasingly at risk of being overwhelmed by more emotionless technology and complex bureaucracy.
In medical education during the 18th and 19th centuries, there was an emphasis on the humanities. As time went on, encouraged by increasing interest in medical sciences, laboratory experiments and technological aspects of the profession, emphasis in medical studies was weighted towards courses in the sciences. The Flexner Report in 1910 recognized the variable quality of medical education and the need to have better teaching in the medical sciences and laboratory methods. This resulted in a pendulum swing in emphasis, directing the curriculum to the medical sciences, to the exclusion of the humanities, an imbalance never intended by Flexner.
Currently at Dalhousie Medical School we have elective programs in the humanities, summer research studentships, lecture series, presentations and discussions. There is an artist-in-residence program that brings artists to the school. There is a large choir of over a hundred students and faculty, a concert band, a string ensemble, and groups of student artists who put on regular performances and exhibitions. The list of activities is much longer, but it should be pointed out that these provide some balance and broaden the life and learning of the student.
Perhaps more important than the activities themselves is the change in mind-set that occurs when students see that diversity in their studies and activities is legitimized and encouraged. We emphasize that we want students and faculty to continue to express interests and talents they had before entering medical school. They now come forward with ideas and activities that are more imaginative and exciting than we could have designed. They also comment that the humanities has made medical school a more enjoyable and fulfilling experience. Students see that their learning and their lives can be more balanced, making them better equipped to care for their patients.
Will involvement in the humanities make one a better health professional? It's a question often asked of today's medical professionals but very difficult to document in this evidence-based era of medicine. But as ethics scholars have said of learning ethics, it cannot guarantee that a person will be more ethical, but it is more likely than not. My firm belief is that all the healing professions should increase the balance of humanities with the traditional educational emphasis on skills and knowledge, and this will benefit both the healers and those who need to be healed.
- 28
27. An approach that incorporates the humanities is more important for some medical disciplines than others.
- 29
28. Most people value medical expertise over sensitivity in their medical professionals.
- 30
29. Most medical programmes devote little course time to developing interpersonal skills.
- 31
30. It is more difficult to design a humanities course for health professionals than a medical one.
- 32
31. It would be best if a medical programme included a course about the lives of medical professionals.
- 33
32. What unforeseen result did the Flexner report have?
- A. It caused the public to distrust the quality of medical education.
- B. It caused a dramatic increase in medical school applicants.
- C. It started a fierce debate over proper laboratory methods.
- D. It moved the focus of medical studies away from the humanities.
- 34
33. The writer lists humanities activities at Dalhousie Medical School to show how these activities
- A. have become the most popular events on campus.
- B. widen students' educational experiences.
- C. are of as high a quality as medical ones
- D. have gained acceptance with teaching staff
- 35
34. How do students at Dalhousie Medical School react to humanities activities?
- A. They have difficulty letting go of the mind-set that scientific knowledge is more legitimate.
- B. They report feeling that medical school has become more engaging and satisfying.
- C. They have started to transfer creative ideas to their scientific and laboratory studies.
- D. They have trouble connecting to talents they had valued before entering medical school.
- 36
35. What is the writer's main conclusion?
- A. Greater emphasis on humanities in medical schools will benefit both patients and practitioners.
- B. Medical schools are not adequately preparing students to become balanced medical professionals.
- C. Creating a humanities programme in a medical school is an overwhelmingly difficult but necessary task.
- D. Medical schools should return to the early twentieth-century model of medical education
- 37
36. Health professionals at a recent seminar discussed a need for educational institutions to
- A. generate innovative and creative suggestions for activities and programmes.
- B. are difficult to describe with any precision.
- C. find it difficult to prove statistically the benefits of humanities programmes.
- D. suggest that humanities studies create stronger practitioners.
- E. rely on course textbooks to teach humanities.
- F. give less attention to broad education and more to recognising and treating symptoms.
- G. provide more equal coverage of both medical knowledge and skills, and humanities.
- 38
37. Most medical training programmes
- A. generate innovative and creative suggestions for activities and programmes.
- B. are difficult to describe with any precision.
- C. find it difficult to prove statistically the benefits of humanities programmes.
- D. suggest that humanities studies create stronger practitioners.
- E. rely on course textbooks to teach humanities.
- F. give less attention to broad education and more to recognising and treating symptoms.
- G. provide more equal coverage of both medical knowledge and skills, and humanities.
- 39
38. The interpersonal and behavioural aspects of medical practice
- A. generate innovative and creative suggestions for activities and programmes.
- B. are difficult to describe with any precision.
- C. find it difficult to prove statistically the benefits of humanities programmes.
- D. suggest that humanities studies create stronger practitioners.
- E. rely on course textbooks to teach humanities.
- F. give less attention to broad education and more to recognising and treating symptoms.
- G. provide more equal coverage of both medical knowledge and skills, and humanities.
- 40
39. Dalhousie Medical School students and faculty
- A. generate innovative and creative suggestions for activities and programmes.
- B. are difficult to describe with any precision.
- C. find it difficult to prove statistically the benefits of humanities programmes.
- D. suggest that humanities studies create stronger practitioners.
- E. rely on course textbooks to teach humanities.
- F. give less attention to broad education and more to recognising and treating symptoms.
- G. provide more equal coverage of both medical knowledge and skills, and humanities.
- 41
40. Modern evidence-based practitioners
- A. generate innovative and creative suggestions for activities and programmes.
- B. are difficult to describe with any precision.
- C. find it difficult to prove statistically the benefits of humanities programmes.
- D. suggest that humanities studies create stronger practitioners.
- E. rely on course textbooks to teach humanities.
- F. give less attention to broad education and more to recognising and treating symptoms.
- G. provide more equal coverage of both medical knowledge and skills, and humanities.
Show answer key
Answer key
1. FALSE
2. TRUE
3. NOT GIVEN
4. NOT GIVEN
5. TRUE
6. branches
7. ground
8. teeth
9. fruit
10. eggs
11. bones
12. childhood
13. brains
14. F
15. C
16. D
17. A
18. B
19. D
20. G
21. Theory of mind
22. chocolate
23. information
24. four
25. older
26. adults
27. challenging
28. NO
29. NO
30. YES
31. YES
32. NOT GIVEN
33. D
34. B
35. B
36. A
37. G
38. G
39. B
40. A
41. C