Highs and Lows Reading Answers

Dec 17, 2022

Highs and Lows Reading Answers in the IELTS reading passage topics highlights the impact of surroundings and hormones on the moods of human beings. This IELTS reading passage also discusses the impacts of weather on our mood. Highs and Lows Reading Answers comprises a total of 15 questions. The question types included in this IELTS reading passage are; choose the correct option, and true/false/not given. Highs and Lows Reading Answers has been referenced from the book Cambridge 16 IELTS academic reading test 1. To gain accuracy, candidates can practice from more such IELTS reading practice tests that are available throughout the internet.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

Highs and Lows Reading Answers

Hormone levels - and hence our moods -may be affected by the weather. Gloomy weather can cause depression, but sunshine appears to raise the spirits. In Britain, for example, the dull weather of winter drastically cuts down the amount of sunlight that is experienced which strongly affects some people. They become so depressed and lacking in energy that their work and social life are affected. This condition has been given the name SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Sufferers can fight back by making the most of any sunlight in winter and by spending a few hours each day under special, full-spectrum lamps. These provide more ultraviolet and blue-green light than ordinary fluorescent and tungsten lights. Some Russian scientists claim that children learn better after being exposed to ultraviolet light. In warm countries, hours of work are often arranged so that workers can take a break, or even a siesta, during the hottest part of the day. Scientists are working to discover the links between the weather and human beings' moods and performance.
It is generally believed that tempers grow shorter in hot, muggy weather. There is no doubt that 'crimes against the person' rise in the summer, when the weather is hotter and fall in the winter when the weather is colder. Research in the United States has shown a relationship between temperature and street riots. The frequency of riots rises dramatically as the weather gets warmer, hitting a peak around 27-30°C. But is this effect really due to a mood change caused by the heat? Some scientists argue that trouble starts more often in hot weather merely because there are more people in the street when the weather is good.
Psychologists have also studied how being cold affects performance. Researchers compared divers working in icy cold water at 5°C with others in water at 20°C (about swimming pool temperature). The colder water made the divers worse at simple arithmetic and other mental tasks. But significantly, their performance was impaired as soon as they were put into the cold water - before their bodies had time to cool down. This suggests that the low temperature did not slow down mental functioning directly, but the feeling of cold distracted the divers from their tasks.
Psychologists have conducted studies showing that people become less sceptical and more optimistic when the weather is sunny However, this apparently does not just depend on the temperature. An American psychologist studied customers in a temperature-controlled restaurant. They gave bigger tips when the sun was shining and smaller tips when it wasn't, even though the temperature in the restaurant was the same. A link between weather and mood is made believable by the evidence for a connection between behaviour and the length of the daylight hours. This in turn might involve the level of a hormone called melatonin, produced in the pineal gland in the brain. The amount of melatonin falls with greater exposure to daylight. Research shows that melatonin plays an important part in the seasonal behaviour of certain animals. For example, food consumption of stags increases during the winter, reaching a peak in February/ March. It falls again to a low point in May, then rises to a peak in September, before dropping to another minimum in November. These changes seem to be triggered by varying melatonin levels.
In the laboratory, hamsters put on more weight when the nights are getting shorter and their melatonin levels are falling. On the other hand, if they are given injections of melatonin, they will stop eating altogether. It seems that time cues provided by the changing lengths of day and night trigger changes in animals' behaviour - changes that are needed to cope with the cycle of the seasons. People's moods too, have been shown to react to the length of the daylight hours. Sceptics might say that longer exposure to sunshine puts people in a better mood because they associate it with the happy feelings of holidays and freedom from responsibility. However, the belief that rain and murky weather make people more unhappy is borne out by a study in Belgium, which showed that a telephone counselling service gets more telephone calls from people with suicidal feelings when it rains.
When there is a thunderstorm brewing, some people complain of the air being 'heavy' and of feeling irritable, moody and on edge. They may be reacting to the fact that the air can become slightly positively charged when large thunderclouds are generating the intense electrical fields that cause lightning flashes. The positive charge increases the levels of serotonin (a chemical involved in sending signals in the nervous system). High levels of serotonin in certain areas of the nervous system make people more active and reactive and, possibly, more aggressive. When certain winds are blowing, such as the Mistral in southern France and the Fohn in southern Germany, mood can be affected - and the number of traffic accidents rises. It may be significant that the concentration of positively charged particles is greater than normal in these winds. In the United Kingdom, 400,000 ionizers are sold every year. These small machines raise the number of negative ions in the air in a room. Many people claim they feel better in negatively charged air.

Section 2

Solution With Explanation
Question 1-3
Choose the appropriate letters A—D and write them in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.
Question 1. Why did the divers perform less well in colder conditions?

They were less able to concentrate.
Their body temperature fell too quickly.
Their mental functions were immediately affected by the cold.
They were used to swimming pool conditions.

Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: “The colder water made the divers worse at simple arithmetic and other mental tasks. But significantly, their performance was impaired as soon as they were put into the cold water - before their bodies had time to cool down. This suggests that the low temperature did not slow down mental functioning directly, but the feeling of cold distracted the divers from their tasks.”
Keywords: ‘divers.’
Keyword location: Paragraph 3, line no.-4
Explanation: Divers perform poorly in colder situations as a result of their brains becoming distracted by the cold or low temperature.

Question 2. The number of daylight hours

affects the performance of workers in restaurants.
influences animal feeding habits.
makes animals like hamsters more active.
prepares humans for having greater leisure time.

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: “food consumption of stags increases during the winter, reaching a peak in February/ March. It falls again to a low point in May, then rises to a peak in September, before dropping to another minimum in November. These changes seem to be triggered by varying melatonin levels.”
Keywords: ‘Melatonin’
Keyword location: Paragraph 4, line no-7
Explanation: In the pineal gland of the brain, a hormone by the name of Melatonin is created. With more exposure to light, it lowers. The quantity of daylight hours and food consumption are inversely correlated. Food intake rises with more sunshine, and falls with more darkness.

Question 3. Human irritability may be influenced by

how nervous and aggressive people are.
reaction to certain weather phenomena.
the number of ions being generated by machines.
the attitude of people to thunderstorms

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: ‘When there is a thunderstorm brewing, some people complain of the air being 'heavy' and of feeling irritable, moody, and on edge. more aggressive’
Keywords: “Feeling irritable”
Keyword location: Paragraph 6, line no- 1
Explanation: Weather events have an impact on our moods. We become gloomy, angry, or heavy during the thunderstorm.

Questions 4-9

Do the following statements agree with the information in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 4-9 on your answer sheet write

TRUE if the statement is true according to the passage
FALSE if the statement is false according to the passage
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

Question 4. Seasonal Affective Disorder is disrupting children’s education in Russia.

Answer: NOT GIVEN
Explanation: There has been no mention of the information with relevance to the mentioned question in the reading passage.

Question 5. Serotonin is an essential cause of human aggression

Answer : False
Supporting Sentence: “The positive charge increases the levels of serotonin (a chemical involved in sending signals in the nervous system). High levels of serotonin in certain areas of the nervous system make people more active and reactive and, possibly, more aggressive.”
Keywords: “Serotonin”
Keyword location: Paragraph 6, line no- 3
Explanation: Chemicals like serotonin are used to communicate with the neurological system. People that have a lot of this tend to be neither active nor reactive, and occasionally even more aggressive.

Question 6. Scientific evidence links ‘happy associations with weather’ to human mood.

Answer: False
Supporting Sentence: “Hormone levels - and hence our moods -may be affected by the weather. Gloomy weather can cause depression, but sunshine appears to raise the spirits”
Keywords: “Sunshine raise spirit, gloomy cause depression”
Keyword location: Paragraph 1, line no- 1
Explanation: Our mood has been impacted by weather in many ways. We feel melancholy in bad weather, yet refreshed in bright weather.

Question 7. A link between depression and the time of year has been established.

Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: “ Scientists are working to discover the links between the weather and human beings' moods and performance.”
Keywords: “link between weather and human moods”
Keyword location: Paragraph- 1, last line
Explanation: In order to learn more about how the weather affects people's emotions, tests are being conducted continuously.

Question 8. Melatonin levels increase at certain times of the year.

Answer: True
Supporting Sentence:“The amount of melatonin falls with greater exposure to daylight”
Keywords: ‘melatonin, falls, with greater, exposure of light’
Keyword location: Para 4 line 5
Explanation: The presence of light has an impact on melatonin production. Melatonin levels decrease as daytime hours increase.

Question 9. Positively charged ions can influence eating habits.

Answer: Not Given
Explanation: There has been no mention of the information with relevance to the mentioned question in the reading passage.

Questions 10-12

According to the text which THREE of the following conditions have been scientifically proven to have a psychological effect on humans?

Choose THREE letters A—G and write them in boxes 10-12 on your answer sheet.

lack of negative ions
rainy weather
food consumption
high serotonin levels
sunny weather
freedom from worry
lack of counselling facilities

Question 10.

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: “the belief that rain and murky weather make people more unhappy”
Keywords: ‘Rainy’
Keyword location: Paragraph 5 line 6
Explanation: A research conducted in Belgium has shown that organisations offering telephone counselling services get more calls from persons who are considering suicide.

Question 11.

Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: “The positive charge increases the levels of serotonin”
Keywords: Serotonin
Keyword location: para 6 line 3
Explanation: The air becomes positively charged during huge thunderclouds, and this positively charged air raises the body's serotonin levels. People become much more responsive and energetic as a result.

Question 12.

Answer: E
Supporting Sentence: “people become less skeptical and more optimistic when the weather is sunny”
Keywords: sunny weather
Keyword location: paragraph 4 line 1
Explanation: In bright conditions, people become more upbeat and less pessimistic. They typically leave larger tips. Long daylight hours cause the melatonin hormone to decline, which is why summertime food consumption rises.

Questions 13-15:
Complete each of the following statements with the best ending from the box below.
Write the appropriate letters A-G in boxes 13-15 on your answer sheet.

A	daylight
B	hot weather
C	melatonin
D	moderate temperatures
E	poor coordination
F	time cues
G	impaired performance

Question 13. It has been established that social tension increases significantly in the United States during

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: “Research in the United States has shown a relationship between temperature and street riots.”
Keywords: United States
Keyword location: Paragraph 2, line no.- 2
Explanation: Street riots are more frequent in the US when the temperature reaches 27 to 30 degrees Celsius.

Question 14. Research has shown that a hamster’s body weight increases according to its exposure to

Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: “hamsters put on more weight when the nights are getting shorter and their melatonin levels are falling”
Keywords: hamster, weights
Keyword location: paragraph 5, line 1
Explanation: When the melatonin level is declining because the nights are getting shorter, hamsters put on weight. They gain weight because when the amount of melatonin drops with more daylight, they eat more and consume more calories.

Question 15. Animals cope with changing weather and food availability because they are influenced by

Answer: F
Supporting Sentence: “It seems that time cues provided by the changing lengths of day and night trigger changes in animals' behavior”
Keywords: ‘time cues’
Keyword location: Paragraph 5, line 2
Explanation: The shifts in day and night lengths serve as temporal signals that cause changes in animal behaviour. These are the adjustments that animals need to make in order to adapt to the seasonal cycle.

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