The Brain And Intelligence Reading Answers
The IELTS Reading analyzes how proficient students are in their reading abilities in English. With the IELTS exam, candidates' skills are tested in reading, writing, speaking and listening. The IELTS reading section questions are based on a passage for which different types of questions are asked that they need to respond to. The IELTS Academic reading section of the IELTS tests students’ effectiveness in reading skills through the given passage and their accurate response to the questions followed by questions. Candidates can consider preparing using IELTS Reading Sample Papers for the IELTS test. The Brain And Intelligence Reading Answers is for candidates to practice for their reading skills which includes the following types of questions:
- Classify the statements
- Use no more than three words
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Section 1
Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions
The Brain And Intelligence Reading Answers
- Human intelligence is an elusive quality. We all think we know it when we see it but try to pin down that quality to a firm, testable definition and suddenly, even for the most experienced researchers, the concept disappears. But now a team of British and German scientists believe they have firmly nailed down at least part of the notion of intelligence. They claim to have found a location for intelligence, whatever it is, in the brain.
- For many years researchers have believed that intelligence is a quality which is spread throughout the whole human brain. Traditional psychologists such as Benjamin Martin believe that this accounts for incidences where physical damage to the brain need not affect intelligence at all. By using advanced scanning equipment, however, researchers led by John Duncan of the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge now think that it is much more localised and at the front of the brain in particular.
- Duncan and his team have attempted to link intelligence to the activity of nerve cells in the brain by giving subjects a series of problem solving tests. These tests are of the standard sort used to test and measure intelligence. They resemble puzzles where sequences of numbers or letters have to be rearranged or continued, or patterns of shapes have to be inverted. While subjects are carrying out these intelligence tasks, their heads are scanned to see where electrical activity and blood flow in the brain are concentrated. It turns out that activity was concentrated in the frontal cortex and so, Duncan and his team presume, intelligence is situated there too.
- This new idea has not been met with universal acceptance, however. The usual definition of "intelligence" was set by Charles Spearman 100 years ago. This was the quality that allows some people to be very good at a whole variety of things - music, mathematics, practical problem solving and so on - while others are not. He called this quality general intelligence or the "g" factor for short. It was a contentious idea even at the time but still no-one has come up with a better definition. Nonetheless, because the notion of intelligence is imprecisely defined, the idea that there is a fixed location for intelligence has to be questioned.
- The questioning comes in an article in the prestigious journal Science, the same edition as Duncan's own article. Yale psychologist Robert Stemberg points out that many people, who are clearly intelligent, such as leading politicians and lawyers, do very badly in intelligence tests. Conversely, one might argue, there are plenty of academics who are good at intelligence tests but who cannot even tie their own shoe laces! Sternberg implies that the idea, that being a successful politician or lawyer does not require intelligence, flies in the face of reason. Rather more likely is the idea that so-called intelligence tests can have little to do with many practical manifestations of intelligence. The skills of verbal and mathematical analysis measured by these tests can tell us very little about the skills of social interaction and people handling which are equally essential for success and are, therefore, equally valid qualities of intelligence.
- Sternberg makes a further criticism of the conclusions drawn by Duncan's team. The mental-atlas approach really does not tell us anything about intelligence. The fact that we know a computer's "intelligence" is produced by a computer chip and that we can say where this chip is, does not tell us anything about the computer's intelligence or ability. We could easily move the location of the chip and this would not change the computer's "intelligence". As Benjamin Martin points out, this may be what happens in reality when following physical damage to one area of the brain, knowledge and ability appear able to relocate.
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Section 2
Solution With Explanation
Questions 1-8:
Reading Passage has three sections, A-C.
Choose the correct option for each question from the list of statements below.
Write the correct number A to E on your answer sheet.
Question 1-8:
Classify the following statements as referring to
- John Duncan
- Charles spearman
- Benjamin martin
- Robert Sternberg
- The writer of the Article
For example, physical damage to the brain need not affect intelligence.
Answer: C
- Intelligence can be located throughout the brain.
- Intelligence makes people excellent at various things.
- Intelligence tests examine limited skills.
- The intelligence of humans is located in the frontal part of the brain.
- It is very hard to describe what intelligence can be.
- Intelligence testing methods can be a bad measurement for measuring the intellect of professionals.
- Intelligence and other capabilities can dislocate the following injury to the brain.
- Intelligence is a feature required by those doing well in legal and political professions.
Question 1:
Answer: C
Supporting sentence: For many years researchers have believed that intelligence is a quality which is spread throughout the whole human brain.
Keywords: researchers, intelligence is a quality, human brain
Keyword Location: Para D, lines 4-5
Explanation: The cerebella-parietal part and the frontal part were significantly correlated with intelligence. The parietal and frontal regions were each separately correlated with intelligence by maintaining structural networks inside the cerebellum and the temporal region, respectively.
Question 2:
Answer: B
Supporting sentence: This is the quality that allows some people to be very good at a whole variety of things - music, mathematics, practical problem solving and so on - while others are not.
Keywords: quality, music, mathematics, practical problem solving
Keyword Location: Para D, lines 3-4
Explanation: Intelligence is the capability to think, learn from experience, solve problems, and adapt to new circumstances. Intelligence is important because it has a severe effect on many human behaviors.
Question 3:
Answer: D
Supporting sentence: The skills of verbal and mathematical analysis measured by these tests can tell us very little about the skills of social interaction and people handling which are equally essential for success and are, therefore, equally valid qualities of intelligence.
Keywords: verbal and mathematical analysis, social interaction, qualities of intelligence
Keyword Location: Para E, lines 6-10
Explanation: The intelligence test explains a method with an approximately normal distribution, which means that many people will get numbers near the middle of the distribution of scores. Scores drop off quickly in an amount in either direction from the center of the distribution.
Question 4:
Answer: A
Supporting sentence: By using advanced scanning equipment, however, researchers led by John Duncan of the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge now think that it is much more localised and at the front of the brain in particular.
Keywords: advanced scanning equipment
Keyword Location: Para B, lats 3 lines
Explanation: The frontal lobes are a part of the brain mammals located at the frontal part of each cerebral hemisphere, and are thought to be a critical point for high-level intelligence.
Question 5:
Answer: E
Supporting sentence: Human intelligence is an elusive quality. We all think we know it when we see it but try to pin down that quality to a firm, testable definition and suddenly, even for the most experienced researchers, the concept disappears.
Keywords: Human intelligence, elusive quality, testable definition, experienced researchers
Keyword Location: Para A, lines 1-3
Explanation: explaining and categorising intelligence is extremely complex. Theories of intelligence darts from having one general intelligence (g), to certain primary mental abilities, and to multiple category-specific bits of intelligence.
Question 6:
Answer: D
Supporting sentence: more likely is the idea that so-called intelligence tests can have little to do with many practical manifestations of intelligence.
Keywords: intelligence tests, practical manifestations
Keyword Location: Para E, lines 7-8
Explanation: IQ tests tools are often limited for being culturally biased and are not proper indicators of scale and cannot be considered effective enough to test the intelligence of people
Question 7:
Answer: C
Supporting sentence: As Benjamin Martin points out, this may be what happens in reality when following physical damage to one area of the brain, knowledge and ability appear able to relocate.
Keywords: reality, physical damage, knowledge and ability
Keyword Location: Para F, last 3 lines
Explanation: Brain injury of humans can affect many cognitive abilities of the brains of mammals that make it more complex for a person to learn new pieces of information. However, most of the time, it does not change a person's overall intellectual level.
Question 8:
Answer: D
Supporting sentence: Yale psychologist Robert Stemberg points out that many people, who are clearly intelligent, such as leading politicians and lawyers
Keywords: Yale psychologist, clearly intelligent, leading politicians and lawyers
Keyword Location: Para E, lines 2-3
Explanation: Intelligence is measured on three levels: strategic (sometimes called national), tactical, and counterintelligence. The highest of these levels is strategic intelligence, which requires information processing about the capabilities and intentions of foreign countries. Tactical intelligence is also sometimes called operational or combat intelligence. It is the information required by military field commanders.
Question 9-13:
- Spearman’s suggested that intelligence was the ability to be good at……
- The idea that all politicians and lawyers are unintelligent is……………
- Spearman’s ideas about intelligence are not…………
- Sternberg suggests that in addition to academic ability, intelligence includes……….
- Sternberg also believes that intelligence is not affected by where…….
Question 9:
Answer: variety of things
Supporting sentence: This is the quality that allows some people to be very good at a whole variety of things - music, mathematics, practical problem solving and so on - while others are not.
Keywords: quality, music, mathematics, practical problem solving
Keyword Location: Para D, lines 2-4
Explanation: the quality of intelligence suggested by Spearman states that it allows people to be good at a variety of things like music, mathematics, practical problems, etc.
Question 10:
Answer: Contentious
Supporting sentence: Yale psychologist Robert Stemberg points out that many people, who are clearly intelligent, such as leading politicians and lawyers, do very badly in intelligence tests.
Keywords: politicians and lawyers, intelligence tests
Keyword Location: Para E, lines
Explanation: Yale psychologist stated that many argue that leading politicians and lawyers do very badly in intelligence tests because they are unintelligent
Question 11:
Answer: Conventional
Supporting sentence: It was a contentious idea even at the time but still no-one has come up with a better definition.
Keywords: contentious idea, better definition
Keyword Location: Para D, lines 5-6
Explanation: the line states that the ideas about intelligence are not conventional and rather is a contentious idea
Question 12:
Answer: Social interaction
Supporting sentence: The skills of verbal and mathematical analysis measured by these tests can tell us very little about the skills of social interaction and people handling which are equally essential for success and are, therefore, equally valid qualities of intelligence.
Keywords: verbal and mathematical analysis, social interaction, people handling
Keyword Location: Para E, last three lines
Explanation: the analysis of skills done by intelligence tests tell very little about the social interaction skills which people have which are equally valid qualities for intelligence hence, social interaction being the correct answer.
Question 13:
Answer: It is located
Supporting sentence: The fact that we know a computer's "intelligence" is produced by a computer chip and that we can say where this chip is, does not tell us anything about the computer's intelligence or ability. We could easily move the location of the chip and this would not change the computer's "intelligence".
Keywords: computer's "intelligence", location of the chip
Keyword Location: Para F, 2-5
Explanation: the statement implies that if the movement of the chip does affect the intelligence of the computer it does not matter where the chip is located.
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