The Benefits of Being Bilingual Reading Answers

Jan 27, 2023

The Benefits of Being Bilingual Reading Answers contains sample answers about benefits of being bilingual. The Benefits of Being Bilingual Reading Answers comprising 14 different types of questions. IELTS The Benefits of Being Bilingual Reading Answers contains three types of questions, namely- complete the table, yes/no/not given and identify the paragraph. Candidates are required to read the IELTS Reading passage thoroughly and identify the paragraph that contains the given statement. Candidates are required to complete the table using no more than two words. Candidates are supposed to answer whether the given statement agrees with the claim of the writer or not, write not given if it is not stated in the passage. To gain proficiency, candidates can practise from the IELTS Reading practice papers

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Section 1:

The IELTS Academic Reading: Cambridge Reading Sample; ‘The Benefits of Being Bilingual’ with answers. The post will discuss the answers to questions 27-40.

The Benefits of Being Bilingual

According to the latest figures, the majority of the world’s population is now bilingual or multilingual, having grown up speaking two or more languages. In the past, such children were considered to be at a disadvantage compared with their monolingual peers. Over the past few decades, however, technological advances have allowed researchers to look more deeply at how bilingualism interacts with and changes the cognitive and neurological systems, thereby identifying several clear benefits of being bilingual.

Research shows that when a bilingual person uses one language, the other is active at the same time. When we hear a word, we don’t hear the entire word all at once: the sounds arrive in sequential order. Long before the word is finished, the brain’s language system begins to guess what that word might be. If you hear ‘can’, you will likely activate words like ‘candy’ and ‘candle’ as well, at least during the earlier stages of word recognition. For bilingual people, this activation is not limited to a single language; auditory input activates corresponding words regardless of the language to which they belong. Some of the most compelling evidence for this phenomenon, called ‘language co-activation’, comes from studying eye movements. A Russian-English bilingual asked to ‘pick up a marker’ from a set of objects would look more at a stamp than someone who doesn’t know Russian, because the Russian word for ‘stamp’, marka, sounds like the English word he or she heard, ‘marker’. In cases like this, language co-activation occurs because what the listener hears could map onto words in either language.

Having to deal with this persistent linguistic competition can result in difficulties, however. For instance, knowing more than one language can cause speakers to name pictures more slowly, and can increase ‘tip-of-the-tongue states’, when you can almost, but not quite, bring a word to mind. As a result, the constant juggling of two languages creates a need to control how much a person accesses a language at any given time. For this reason, bilingual people often perform better on tasks that require conflict management. In the classic Stroop Task, people see a word and are asked to name the color of the word’s font. When the color and the word match (i., the word ‘red’ printed in red), people correctly name the color more quickly than when the color and the word don’t match (i., the word ‘red’ printed in blue). This occurs because the word itself (‘red’) and its font color (blue) conflict. Bilingual people often excel at tasks such as this, which tap into the ability to ignore competing perceptual information and focus on the relevant aspects of the input. Bilinguals are also better at switching between two tasks; for example, when bilinguals have to switch from categorizing objects by color (red or green) to categorizing them by shape (circle or triangle), they do so more quickly than monolingual people, reflecting better cognitive control when having to make rapid changes of strategy.

It also seems that the neurological roots of the bilingual advantage extend to brain areas more traditionally associated with sensory processing. When monolingual and bilingual adolescents listen to simple speech sounds without any intervening background noise, they show highly similar brain stem responses. When researchers play the same sound to both groups in the presence of background noise, however, the bilingual listeners’ neural response is considerably larger, reflecting better encoding of the sound’s fundamental frequency, a feature of sound closely related to pitch perception.

Such improvements in cognitive and sensory processing may help a bilingual person to process information in the environment, and help explain why bilingual adults acquire a third language better than monolingual adults master a second language. This advantage may be rooted in the skill of focussing on information about the new language while reducing interference from the languages they already know.

Research also indicates that bilingual experience may help to keep the cognitive mechanisms sharp by recruiting alternate brain networks to compensate for those that become damaged during aging. Older bilinguals enjoy improved memory relative to monolingual people, which can lead to real-world health benefits. In a study of over 200 patients with Alzheimer’s disease, a degenerative brain disease, bilingual patients reported showing initial symptoms of the disease an average of five years later than monolingual patients. In a follow-up study, researchers compared the brains of bilingual and monolingual patients matched on the severity of Alzheimer’s symptoms. Surprisingly, the bilinguals’ brains had more physical signs of disease than their monolingual counterparts, even though their outward behavior and abilities were the same. If the brain is an engine, bilingualism may help it to go farther on the same amount of fuel.

Furthermore, the benefits associated with bilingual experience seem to start very early. In one study, researchers taught seven-month-old babies growing up in monolingual or bilingual homes that when they heard a tinkling sound, a puppet appeared on one side of a screen. Halfway through the study, the puppet began appearing on the opposite side of the screen. In order to get a reward, the infants had to adjust the rule they’d learned; only the bilingual babies were able to successfully learn the new rule. This suggests that for very young children, as well as for older people, navigating a multilingual environment imparts advantages that transfer far beyond language.

Section 2:

Questions 27-31

Complete the table below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

Test	Findings
Observing the 1 of Russian- English bilingual people when asked to select certain objects	Bilingual people engage both languages simultaneously: a mechanism known as 2
A test called the 3 , focusing on naming colors	Bilingual people are more able to handle tasks involving a skill called 4
A test involving switching between tasks	When changing strategies, bilingual people have superior 5

Q27. Observing the 1 ___ of Russian- English bilingual people when asked to select certain objects.

Answer: eye movements
Supporting Sentence: Some of the most compelling evidence for this phenomenon, called ‘language co-activation’, comes from studying eye movements. A Russian-English bilingual asked to ‘pick up a marker’ from a set of objects would
look more at a stamp than someone who doesn’t know Russian, because the Russian word for ‘stamp’, marka, sounds like the English word he or she heard, ‘marker’.
Keywords: compelling, evidence, language co-activation
Keyword Location: B
Explanation:The supporting sentence for this 'linguistic co-activation' phenomenon is given in paragraph B. It results from research on eye movements. When asked to "pick up a marker" from a collection of items, a Russian-English bilingual would look more closely at a stamp than a non-Russian speaker would. As the English term they heard, "marker," sounded similar to the Russian word for "stamp," marka.

Q28. Bilingual people engage both languages simultaneously: a mechanism known as

2 ___

Answer: language co-activation
Supporting Sentence: A Russian-English bilingual asked to ‘pick up a marker’ from a set of objects would look more at a stamp than someone who doesn’t know Russian, because the Russian word for ‘stamp’, marka, sounds like the English word he or she heard, ‘marker’. In cases like this, language co-activation occurs because what the listener hears could map onto words in either language.
Keywords: Russian-English, bilingual, language co-activation
Keyword Location: B
Explanation:A multilingual person who was asked to "choose up a marker" from a collection of things in paragraph B reportedly paid more attention to a stamp. As opposed to a person who is not familiar with Russian. Due to the similarity between the Russian term for "stamp," marka, and the English word they knew, "marker,". Language co-activation takes place in situations like this because what the listener hears may map into words in either language.

Q29. A test called the 3_____ , focusing on naming colors

Answer: stroop task
Supporting Sentence: In the classic Stroop Task, people see a word and are asked to name the color of the word’s font.
Keywords: word’s font, Stroop Task
Keyword Location: C
Explanation: As per paragraph C, in the traditional Stroop Task, participants are asked to identify the colour of the word's font after seeing it. Thus, the stroop task is an effort to name colours by looking at the font of words.

Q30. Bilingual people are more able to handle tasks involving a skill called 4 __

Answer: conflict management
Supporting Sentence: As a result, the constant juggling of two languages creates a need to control how much a person accesses a language at any given time. For this reason, bilingual people often perform better on tasks that require conflict management.
Keywords: juggling, languages, bilingual people
Keyword Location: C
Explanation: The ongoing juggling of two languages creates a need to limit how much a person accesses a language at any given time, as per paragraph C. Due to this, bilingual individuals frequently excel at tasks that call for effective dispute resolution.

Q31. When changing strategies, bilingual people have superior 5 __

Answer: cognitive control
Supporting Sentence: Bilinguals are also better at switching between two tasks; for example, when bilinguals have to switch from categorizing objects by color (red or green) to categorizing them by shape (circle or triangle), they do so more quickly than monolingual people, reflecting better cognitive control when having to make rapid changes of strategy.
Keywords: bilinguals, switch, monolingual people, cognitive control
Keyword Location: C
Explanation:Bilinguals are also better at moving between two tasks, as stated in paragraph C. For instance, when bilinguals must go from classifying objects based on colour (red or green) to classifying them based on shape (circle or triangle). As a result of having superior cognitive control while making sudden adjustments in strategy, they do it more swiftly than monolingual people.

Questions 32-36

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage?

In boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet, write:-

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

Q32. Attitudes towards bilingualism have changed in recent years.

Answer: Yes
Supporting Sentence: In the past, such children were considered to be at a disadvantage compared with their monolingual peers. Over the past few decades, however, technological advances have allowed researchers to look more deeply at how bilingualism interacts with and changes the cognitive and neurological systems, thereby identifying several clear benefits of being bilingual.
Keywords: monolingual peers, bilingualism interacts, technological advances
Keyword Location: A
Explanation: As per paragraph A, these kids used to be seen as being at a disadvantage compared to their monolingual peers. The ability to examine how multilingual affects and modifies the cognitive and neurological processes, however, has improved due to innovations. Thus, various distinct advantages of being multilingual are shown.

Q33. Bilingual people are better than monolingual people at guessing correctly what words are before they are finished.

Answer: Not Given
Explanation:The relevant information regarding the statement is not given in the passage.

Q34. Bilingual people consistently name images faster than monolingual people.

Answer: No
Supporting Sentence: For instance, knowing more than one language can cause speakers to name pictures more slowly, and can increase ‘tip-of-the-tongue states’, when you can almost, but not quite, bring a word to mind.
Keywords: consistently, name images, faster
Keyword Location: C
Explanation: As per paragraph C, speaking more than one language can make speakers name pictures more slowly. It can worsen "tip-of-the-tongue states," in which you are almost able to recall a word.

Q35. Bilingual people’s brains process single sounds more efficiently than monolingual people in all situations.

Answer: No
Supporting Sentence: When monolingual and bilingual adolescents listen to simple speech sounds without any intervening background noise, they show highly similar brain stem responses.
Keywords: brains process, single sounds, monolingual people
Keyword Location: D
Explanation: The author notes that monolingual and multilingual teenagers exhibit strikingly similar brain stem reactions in paragraph D. Particularly when they hear plain speech sounds without any background noise in the way. There is evidence of one situation, then. Both monolingual and bilingual individuals' brain processing times are "nearly the same" in the absence of background noise.

Q36. Fewer bilingual people than monolingual people suffer from brain disease in old age.

Answer: Not Given
Explanation:The relevant information regarding the statement is not given in the passage.

Questions 37-40

Reading Passage has Seven Paragraphs, A-G.

Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet.

Q37. an example of how bilingual and monolingual people’s brains respond differently to a certain type of non-verbal auditory input

Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: When monolingual and bilingual adolescents listen to simple speech sounds without any intervening background noise, they show highly similar brain stem responses.
Keywords: monolingual, bilingual, intervening
Keyword Location: D
Explanation: We learn a little bit about brain responses in paragraph D. In paragraph D, it is claimed that teenagers who are monolingual and multilingual show remarkably similar brain stem reflexes. Particularly when they hear sounds of clear speech that are free of any distracting background noise.

Q38. a demonstration of how a bilingual upbringing has benefits even before we learn to speak

Answer: G
Supporting Sentence: Furthermore, the benefits associated with bilingual experience seem to start very early. In one study, researchers taught seven-month-old babies growing up in monolingual or bilingual homes that when they heard a tinkling sound, a puppet appeared on one side of a screen.
Keywords: bilingual experience, seven-month-old, monolingual or bilingual
Keyword Location: G
Explanation: The advantages of multilingual experience seem to start quite early, as per paragraph G. One study involved teaching either monolingual or bilingual seven-month-old babies. They showed students how to recognise a puppet on one side of a screen when they heard a tinkling sound.

Q39. a description of the process by which people identify words that they hear

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: When we hear a word, we don’t hear the entire word all at once: the sounds arrive in sequential order. Long before the word is finished, the brain’s language system begins to guess what that word might be.
Keywords: entire word, brain’s language system
Keyword Location: B
Explanation:As per paragraph B, we don't hear a word in its entirety at once; rather, the sounds come to us one after the other. The brain's language system starts to make predictions about the word's meaning before it is fully formed.

Q40. reference to some negative consequences of being bilingual

Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: For instance, knowing more than one language can cause speakers to name pictures more slowly, and can increase ‘tip-of-the-tongue states’, when you can almost, but not quite, bring a word to mind.
Keywords: one language, tip-of-the-tongue states
Keyword Location: C
Explanation: Speaking more slowly when speaking can be a result of multilingualism, as per paragraph C. It can worsen "tip-of-the-tongue states," in which you are almost able to recall a word.

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