Changes in Reading Habits – IELTS Reading Answers

The IELTS Academic Reading passage “Changes in Reading Habits” challenges your ability to understand how reading trends have shifted over time. This passage features 13 questions to be completed within 20 minutes, a realistic simulation of the actual exam. To succeed, mastering strategies for each question type is essential. Practicing with sample IELTS reading questions from previous exams is an excellent way to prepare for the test. 

The “Changes in Reading Habits” passage contains the following question types:

• Multiple Choice Question (Q. 1 – 4)
• Summary Completion (Q. 5 – 9)
• TRUE/FALSE/Not Given (Q. 10 – 13)

Changes in Reading Habits IELTS Reading Passage

What are the implications of the way we read today?

Look around on your next plane trip. The iPad is the new pacifier for babies and toddlers. Younger school-aged children read stories on smartphones; older kids don’t read at all, but hunch over video games. Parents and other passengers read on tablets or skim a flotilla of email and news feeds. Unbeknown to most of us, an invisible, game-changing transformation links everyone in this picture: the neuronal circuit that underlies the brain’s ability to read is subtly, rapidly changing and this has implications for everyone from the pre-reading toddler to the expert adult.

As work in neurosciences indicates, the acquisition of literacy necessitated a new circuit in our species’ brain more than 6,000 years ago. That circuit evolved from a very simple mechanism for decoding basic information, like the number of goats in one’s herd, to the present, highly elaborated reading brain. My research depicts how the present reading brain enables the development of some of our most important intellectual and affective processes: internalized knowledge, analogical reasoning, and inference; perspective-taking and empathy; critical analysis and the generation of insight. Research surfacing in many parts of the world now cautions that each of these essential ‘deep reading’ processes may be under threat as we move into digital-based modes of reading.

This is not a simple, binary issue of print versus digital reading and technological innovations. As MIT scholar Sherry Turkle has written, we do not err as a society when we innovate but when we ignore what we disrupt or diminish while innovating. In this hinge moment between print and digital cultures, society needs to confront what is diminishing in the expert reading circuit, what our children and older students are not developing, and what we can do about it.

We know from research that the reading circuit is not given to human beings through a genetic blueprint like vision or language; it needs an environment to develop. Further, it will adapt to that environment’s requirements – from different writing systems to the characteristics of whatever medium is used. If the dominant medium advantages processes that are fast, multi-task oriented and well-suited for large volumes of information, like the current digital medium, so will the reading circuit. As UCLA psychologist Patricia Greenfield writes, the result is that less attention and time will be allocated to slower, time-demanding deep reading processes.

Increasing reports from educators and from researchers in psychology and the humanities bear this out. English literature scholar and teacher Mark Edmundson describes how many college students actively avoid the classic literature of the 19th and 20th centuries in favour of something simpler as they no longer have the patience to read longer, denser, more difficult texts. We should be less concerned with students’ ‘cognitive impatience’, however, than by what may underlie it: the potential inability of large numbers of students to read with a level of critical analysis sufficient to comprehend the complexity of thought and argument found in more demanding texts.

Multiple studies show that digital screen use may be causing a variety of troubling downstream effects on reading comprehension in older high school and college students. In Stavanger, Norway, psychologist Anne Mangen and colleagues studied how high school students comprehend the same material in different mediums. Mangen’s group asked subjects questions about a short story whose plot had universal student appeal; half of the students read the story on a tablet, the other half in paperback. Results indicated that students who read on print were superior in their comprehension to screen-reading peers, particularly in their ability to sequence detail and reconstruct the plot in chronological order.

Ziming Liu from San Jose State University has conducted a series of studies which indicate that the ‘new norm’ in reading is skimming, involving word-spotting and browsing through the text. Many readers now use a pattern when reading in which they sample the first line and then word-spot through the rest of the text. When the reading brain skims like this, it reduces time allocated to deep reading processes. In other words, we don’t have time to grasp complexity, to understand another’s feelings, to perceive beauty, and to create thoughts of the reader’s own.

The possibility that critical analysis, empathy and other deep reading processes could become the unintended ‘collateral damage’ of our digital culture is not a straightforward binary issue about print versus digital reading. It is about how we all have begun to read o various mediums and how that changes not only what we read, but also the purposes for which we read. Nor is it only about the young. The subtle atrophy of critical analysis and empathy affects us all equally. It affects our ability to navigate a constant bombardment of information. It incentivizes a retreat to the most familiar stores of unchecked information, which require and receive no analysis, leaving us susceptible to false information and irrational ideas.

There’s an old rule in neuroscience that does not alter with age: use it or lose it. It is a very hopeful principle when applied to critical thought in the reading brain because it implies choice. The story of the changing reading brain is hardly finished. We possess both the science and the technology to identify and redress the changes in how we read before they become entrenched. If we work to understand exactly what we will lose, alongside the extraordinary new capacities that the digital world has brought us, there is as much reason for excitement as caution.

Changes in Reading Habits IELTS Reading Questions

Questions 1-4

1 What is the writer’s main point in the first paragraph?

1.  Our use of technology is having a hidden effect on us.
2. Technology can be used to help youngsters to read.
3. Travellers should be encouraged to use technology on planes.
4. Playing games is a more popular use of technology than reading.

2 What main point does Sherry Turkle make about innovation?

1. Technological innovation has led to a reduction in print reading.
2. We should pay attention to what might be lost when innovation occurs.
3. We should encourage more young people to become involved in innovation.
4. There is a difference between developing products and developing ideas.

3 What point is the writer making in the fourth paragraph?

1. Humans have an inborn ability to read and write.
2. Reading can be done using many different mediums.
3. Writing systems make unexpected demands on the brain.
4. Some brain circuits adjust to whatever is required of them.

4 According to Mark Edmundson, the attitude of college students

1. has changed the way he teaches.
2. has influenced what they select to read.
3. does not worry him as much as it does others.
4. does not match the views of the general public.

Questions 5 – 9

Studies on Digital screen use

There have been many studies on digital screen use, showing some 5………………… trends. Psychologist Anne Mangen gave high-school students a short story to read, half using digital and half using print mediums. Her team then used a question-and-answer technique to find out how 6………………… each group’s understanding of the plot was. The findings showed a clear pattern in the responses, with those who read screens finding the order of information 7………………… to recall.

Studies by Ziming Liu show that students are tending to read 8………………… words and phrases in a text to save time. This approach, she says, gives the reader a superficial understanding of the 9………………… content of material, leaving no time for thought.

1. fast
2.  isolated
3. emotional
4. Worrying
5.  many
6. hard
7. combined
8. thorough

 Questions 10 – 13

10. The medium we use to read can affect our choice of reading content.
11. Some age groups are more likely to lose their complex reading skills than others.
12. False information has become more widespread in today’s digital era.
13. We still have opportunities to rectify the problems that technology is presenting.

Changes in Reading Habits – IELTS Reading Answers with Location and Explanations

Let’s now review the answers to the questions from the passage in the reading section, Changes in Reading Habits - IELTS Reading Answers, and assess your improvement for a high IELTS Reading band score.

1 Answer: A

Question type: Multiple-choice questions
Answer location: Paragraph
Answer Explanation: The first paragraph mentions that the author provides some compelling examples of how we use technology in our daily lives. Then in lines 4-5, the text states, “Unbeknown to most of us, an invisible, game-changing transformation connects everyone in this picture…” In this context, “Unbeknown to most of us, an invisible, game-changing transformation” refers to a hidden effect. Therefore, the answer is A: Our use of technology is having a hidden effect on us.

2 Answer: C

Question type: Multiple-choice questions
Answer location: Paragraph 3
Answer explanation: The reference to Sherry Turkle is in paragraph 3. Specifically, in lines 3-5 it states: “…In this hinge moment between print and digital cultures, society needs to confront what is diminishing in the expert reading circuit, what our children and older students are not developing, and what we can do about it.” The final lines here imply that we should be attentive to what might be lost or diminished as innovation takes place. Therefore, the answer is B: We should pay attention to what might be lost when innovation occurs.

3 Answer: D

Question type: Multiple-choice questions
Answer location: Paragraph 4
Answer explanation: The answer is found in the opening lines of paragraph 4, where the author states: “We know from research that the reading circuit is not given to human beings through a genetic blueprint like vision or language; it needs an environment to develop. Further, it will adapt to that environment’s requirements – …” In this context, “the reading circuit” refers to some brain circuits, and “it will adapt to that environment’s requirements” means these circuits adjust to whatever is required of them. Therefore, the answer is D: Some brain circuits adjust to whatever is required of them.

4 Answer: B

Question type: Multiple choice questions
Answer location: Paragraph 5
Answer explanation: The answer is located in paragraph 5. Specifically, lines 2-4 state: “…English literature scholar and teacher Mark Edmundson describes how many college students actively avoid the classic literature of the 19th and 20th centuries in favor of something simpler as they no longer have the patience to read longer, denser, more difficult texts…” In this excerpt, “college students actively avoid classic literature” implies that the attitude of college students has influenced what reading materials they select. Therefore, the answer is B: The attitude of college students has influenced what they select to read.

5 Answer: D

Question type: Summary Completion
Answer location: Paragraph 6
Answer explanation: In paragraph 6, lines 1-2 state: “Multiple studies show that digital screen use may be causing a variety of troubling downstream effects on reading comprehension in older high school and college students…” In this excerpt, “Multiple studies” refers to many studies, and “troubling downstream effects” indicates worrying trends. Therefore, the answer is D: worrying.

6 Answer: H

Question type: Summary Completion
Answer location: Paragraph 6
Answer explanation: In paragraph 6, lines 3-6, the author explains: “…In Stavanger, Norway, psychologist Anne Mangen and her colleagues studied how high school students comprehend the same material in different mediums. Mangen’s group asked subjects questions about a short story whose plot had universal student appeal; half of the students read the story on a tablet, the other half in paperback…” In this excerpt, “how high school students comprehend” refers to how thorough each group’s understanding of the plot was. “Half of the students read the story on a tablet” means half used a digital medium, and “other half in paperback” means the other half used print. “Asked subjects questions” refers to using a question-and-answer technique. Therefore, the answer is H: thorough.

7 Answer: F

Question type: Summary Completion
Answer location: Paragraph 6
Answer explanation:  The answer is in paragraph 6, lines 6-8: “…Results indicated that students who read on print were superior in their comprehension to screen-reading peers, particularly in their ability to sequence detail and reconstruct the plot in chronological order.” In this excerpt, “students who read on print were superior in their comprehension to screen-reading peers” means those who read screens found the order of information hard to recall. Therefore, the answer is F: hard.

8 Answer: B

Question type: Summary Completion
Answer location: Paragraph 7
Answer explanation: In paragraph 7, lines 1-5 state: “Ziming Liu from San Jose State University has conducted a series of studies which indicate that the ‘new norm’ in reading is skimming, involving word-spotting and browsing through the text. Many readers now use a pattern when reading in which they sample the first line and then word-spot through the rest of the text. When the reading brain skims like this, it reduces time allocated to deep reading processes…” In this excerpt, “word-spot through the rest of the text” means reading isolated words and phrases, and “it reduces time” refers to saving time. Therefore, the answer is B: isolated.

9 Answer: C

Question type: Summary Completion
Answer location: Paragraph 7
Answer explanation: In paragraph 7, lines 5-6 state: “…In other words, we don’t have time to grasp complexity, to understand another’s feelings, to perceive beauty, and to create thoughts of the reader’s own.” In this excerpt, “we don’t have time to grasp complexity” refers to superficial understanding, and “understand another’s feelings” means understanding the emotional content of material. Therefore, the answer is C: emotional.

10 Answer: Yes

Question type: True/ False/ Not Given
Answer location: Paragraph 8
Answer explanation: In paragraph 8, lines 3-4 state: “…It is about how we all have begun to read on various mediums and how that changes not only what we read, but also the purposes for which we read…” In this excerpt, “how that changes not only what we read” means the medium we use to read can affect our choice of reading content. Therefore, the answer is YES.

11 Answer: No

Question type: Yes/ No/ Not Given
Answer location:  Paragraph 9
Answer explanation: The first line of paragraph 9 provides the answer: “There’s an old rule in neuroscience that does not alter with age: use it or lose it…” In this excerpt, “does not alter with age” means it is equal for all age groups, and “use it or lose it” refers to using reading skills or losing them. Therefore, the answer is NO.

12 Answer: Not Given

Question type: Yes/ No/ Not Given
Answer location: NA
Answer explanation: The final paragraph does not provide any information about whether false information has become more or less widespread in the digital era today. Therefore, the answer is NOT GIVEN.

13 Answer: Yes

Question type: Yes/ No/ Not Given
Answer location: NA
Answer explanation: In lines 3-4 of the final paragraph, the author states: “…The story of the changing reading brain is hardly finished. We possess both the science and the technology to identify and readdress the changes in how we read before they become entrenched…” In this excerpt, “hardly finished” means there are still opportunities, and “readdress the changes” refers to rectifying the problems. Therefore, the answer is YES.

Tips for Answering the Question Types in the Changes in Reading Habits – IELTS Reading Answers

Let us check out some quick IELTS Exam Preparation Tips for Band Score of 8+ to answer the three types of questions in the Reading Answers.

Multiple Choice Questions

IELTS Reading Multiple Choice Question requires identifying the correct answer from a list of options. Here are 5 tips for answering them effectively:

1. Read the question stem carefully and predict the answer before looking at the options.
2. Skim the text to locate the paragraph where the answer is found. Don’t read it in detail yet.
3. Read the options and eliminate any that are clearly incorrect.
4. Now read the relevant paragraph in detail to identify the answer.
5. If unsure between two options, re-read the question stem and determine which option answers it best. Don’t leave any question unattempted.

Summary Completion

IELTS Reading Summary Completion questions require completing a summary of the passage using words from a box. Here are 5 tips:

1. Read the incomplete summary to understand what it is about.
2. Skim the passage to find the sections summarizing its main ideas.
3. Read these sections carefully and match the main points to the gaps in the summary.
4. Eliminate any clearly mismatching words from the box.
5. Select the remaining words that appropriately fill in the blanks. Read the completed summary to ensure it makes sense. Attempt all gaps

True / False/ Not Given

IELTS Reading TRUE/FALSE/Not Given questions require determining if a statement is true, false, or not mentioned in the passage. Here are 5 tips:

1. Read the statement attentively and try to predict true, false, or not given before looking at the text.
2. Scan the passage to locate the relevant section. Don’t read it closely yet.
3. Carefully read the key sentences to check if they match or contradict the statement.
4. Choose true if the statement agrees with the text, false if it contradicts the text.
5. Select not given if there is no clear information in the passage to verify the statement as true or false. Leave no question unanswered.

Mastering passages like “Changes in Reading Habits - IELTS Reading Answers” can significantly boost your Reading IELTS band score. Regular practice with real exam-style questions not only improves speed and accuracy but also builds your confidence. Keep exploring different IELTS Reading passages and refine your techniques to ensure success on test day.

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