Hormone Levels Reading Answers

Nov 15, 2023

Hormone Levels Reading Answers is an academic reading topic. Hormone Levels Reading Answers have a total of 13 IELTS questions in total. The specified topic generates two question types: no more than three words, and choose correct letter. Candidates should read the IELTS Reading passage thoroughly in order to recognize synonyms, identify keywords, and answer the questions below. IELTS reading practice papers, which feature topics such as Hormone Levels Reading Answers. Candidates can use IELTS reading answers to enhance their performance in the reading section.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

Hormone Levels Reading Answers

Hormone levels - and hence our moods -may be affected by the weather. Gloomy Weather can cause depression, but sunshine appears to raise spirits. In Britain, for example, the dull weather of winter drastically cuts down the amount of sunlight that is experience 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 skeptical and more optimistic when the weather is sunny. However, this apparently does not just depending 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 behavior 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 behavior 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' behavior - 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. Skeptics 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 counseling 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 theMistral 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 and Explanation

Questions 26-28

Choose the appropriate letters A-D.

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 statement: “......The colder water made the divers worse at simple arithmetic and other mental tasks.....”
Keywords: colder, mental
Keyword Location: para 4, line 3
Explanation: It is given that the researchers have found out that in the cold water, the divers could not even solve simple mathematics questions. This clearly indicates that they could not focus.

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 statement: “.....food consumption of stags increases during the winter, reaching a peak in February/ March.....”
Keywords: food, reaching
Keyword Location: para 5, line 6
Explanation: It is given that the stags eat more during the winter. This eating habits increases the most during the february time

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 statement: “.....Scientists are working to discover the links between the weather and human beings' moods and performance.......”
Keywords: discover, weather
Keyword Location: para 2, line 7
Explanation: the weather has been found to have an influence on the moods of human beings. Scientists have been working to find a link between them.

Questions 29-34

Do the following statements agree with the information in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 29-34 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

Seasonal Affective Disorder is disrupting children's education in Russia.

Answer: NOT GIVEN
Explanation: There has been no instance of S.A.D which is disrupting education in Russia.

Serotonin is an essential cause of human aggression.

Answer: FALSE
Supporting statement: “.....High levels of serotonin in certain areas of the nervous system make people more active and reactive and, possibly, more aggressive. ......”
Keywords: serotonin, active
Keyword Location: para 9, line 1
Explanation: It is given that serotonin affects certain areas of the nervous system. It is responsible for an increase in the aggression and reactiveness of people.

Scientific evidence links 'happy associations with weather' to human mood.

Answer: FALSE
Supporting statement: “......A link between weather and mood is made believable by the evidence for a connection between behavior and the length of the daylight hours......”
Keywords: weather, evidence
Keyword Location: para 5, line 1
Explanation: It is given that scientists have found out various link between weather and the mood of the people. It is given opposite in the statement.

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

Answer: TRUE
Supporting statement: “..... 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.......”
Keywords: sunlight, work
Keyword Location: para 1, line 3
Explanation: It is given that the dull weather affects the mood of people. The people who get less sunlight become depressed and affect their social life.

Melatonin levels increase at certain times of the year.

Answer: TRUE
Supporting statement: “.....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: peak, melatonin
Keyword Location: para 6, line 7
Explanation: It is mentioned that the hunger or appetite of the animals changes during the year. It is also given that the changes occur because of change in melatonin levels.

Positively charged ions can influence eating habits.

Answer: NOT GIVEN
Explanation: There has been no mention of the positively charged ions that can affect eating habits.

Questions 35-37

According to the text which THREE of the following conditions have been scientifically proved to have a psychological effect on humans? Choose THREE letters A-G and write them in boxes 35-37 on your answer sheet.

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

Ques. 35

Answer: B
Supporting statement: “.... a telephone counseling service gets more telephone calls from people with suicidal feelings when it rains........”
Keywords: telephone, suicidal
Keyword Location: para 8, line 5
Explanation: It is given that during the rain time the counseling services centers get more calls from depressed people than on a normal day.

Ques. 36

Answer: D
Supporting statement: “.....High levels of serotonin in certain areas of the nervous system make people more active and reactive and, possibly, more aggressive.......”
Keywords: serotonin, reactive
Keyword Location: para 10, line 1
Explanation: It is given that the high levels of serotonin affects the human nervous system. It makes people more reactive and aggressive.

Ques. 37

Answer: E
Supporting statement: “.....Psychologists have conducted studies showing that people become less skeptical and more optimistic when the weather is sunny. ......”
Keywords: skeptical, weather
Keyword Location: para 5, line 1
Explanation: It is given that people become more optimistic when there is sunny weather. Scientists have proved this.

Questions 38-40

Complete each of the following statements with the best ending from the box below. Write the appropriate letters A-G in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet.

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

Answer: B
Supporting statement: “.....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.......”
Keywords: trouble, merely
Keyword Location: para 3, line 6
Explanation: It is given that there are more riots occurring in USA in the summertime. Because more people are in the street when the weather is good.

Research has shown that a hamster's body weight increases according to its exposure to

Answer: A
Supporting statement: “....In the laboratory, hamsters put on more weight when the nights are getting shorter and their melatonin levels are falling........”
Keywords: hamster, melatonin
Keyword Location: para 7, line 1
Explanation: It is given that the hamsters lose some weight in the sunny time and gain weight during the night. It has been proven by the scientist by conducting experiments.

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

Answer: F
Supporting statement: “.....It seems that time cues provided by the changing lengths of day and night trigger changes in animals' behavior - changes that are needed to cope with the cycle of the seasons......”
Keywords: cues, trigger
Keyword Location: para 7, line 3
Explanation: It is given that the time cues are an influencing factor for weather and food availability of the animals.