The Need to Belong - IELTS Reading Sample With Explanation

The IELTS reading section examines a candidate’s comprehending skills within the stipulated amount of time. The IELTS reading section comprises passages followed with different kinds of questions to holistically judge a student’s grasping abilities while reading.

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This particular IELTS reading practice test has a passage on-The Need to Belong. Its is an IELTS reading academic topic and consists of the following types of questions:

1. Complete the summary
2. Flow Chart questions
3. Choose the correct option

IELTS reading practice papers contain a variety of sample passages with different kinds of questions which will equip a student with all the possible dimensions of this section. These practice papers should be taken with utmost seriousness to perform brilliantly on the D-Day.

Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

The Need to Belong IELTS Reading Sample 

1. No one likes to feel left out, ignored by colleagues at meetings, or not be invited to the big party that everyone is talking about. Imagine not being part of a joke, or worse still, if the joke is on you. For most people, living the life of an outsider can have a negative effect on self­-esteem and mood. It can even lead to negative behaviour. The pull to belong is extremely strong. Scientists believe that, in part, there is an evolutionary explanation for why we have this need to belong.
2. In the past, people hunted and cooked together in tribes and each member of the group would be assigned a role. As each member had a purpose, it meant that in the event of the loss of one person, the group as a whole would suffer. For this reason, they had a vested interest in protecting each other. To our prehistoric ancestors, membership of a group meant the difference between survival and death. Those who were rejected and excluded from joining a group had to fend for themselves and struggled to stay alive alone in the wild. Apart from protection, being part of a group also ensured that genes could be passed on to future generations. Although it is very different now from the way our primitive ancestors lived, our brains have not had time to evolve to fit today’s lifestyles. In this day and age, it is no longer a matter of survival to be affiliated to a tribe or group, but the evolutionary instinct to find protection still lingers.
3. This inherent feeling of security that comes with being part of a group is powerful enough to make people employ both conscious and unconscious strategies to gain membership. One obvious way people try to be accepted into a group is self-presentation, which is the act of portraying yourself in the best possible light. An individual will attempt to outwardly display the characteristics which are important to the group’s advancement. At the same time, they will conceal any parts of their personality that may be seen as undesirable or not useful to a group. An example of self-presentation is the job application process. A candidate applying for a job will promote themselves as motivated, but is likely to hide the fact that they are disorganised. These conscious tactics that people use are not a surprise to anyone, but we also use other strategies unknowingly.
4. Psychologists Jessica Larkin, Tanya Chartrand and Robert Arkin suggested that people often resort to automatic mimicry to gain affiliation into groups, much like our primitive ancestors used to do. Before humans had the ability to speak, physical imitation was a method of begging for a place in the group. Most will be unaware they are doing it Larkin and her co-workers decided to test this hypothesis. They took a group of student volunteers and had them play a game called Cyberball, a ball­tossing arcade game that resembled American football. The volunteers were led to believe they were all playing against each other, but in actual fact, they were not. The computer was manipulating the game by passing the ball to some volunteers and excluding others.
5. The ‘accepted’ and ‘rejected’ students were then asked if they enjoyed the game and about their opinions of the other players. Participants were then put alone in a room and their natural foot movements were filmed. Then a female entered the room under the pretence of conducting a fake photo description task. The female deliberately moved her foot during the task, but not in a way that would be noticeable to the volunteer. It turned out that the rejected students mimicked the female’s foot movements the most. This revealed that after the exclusion, people will automatically mimic to affiliate with someone new.
6. However, Larkin and her colleagues wanted to go further. They believed that more often than not, in the real world, we actually know the people that reject us. How do we behave towards the group that we know has excluded us? The experiment was repeated with this question in mind. In the second experiment, only female volunteers played the Cyberball game, during which they experienced rejection by either men or women. Then each volunteer did the fake photo task, but this time with a man and then a woman. The results clearly indicated that the female students that felt rejected would unconsciously make more of an effort to mimic members of their own in-group – that is, other women – rather than men. This deep-wired instinct to mimic was not only directed towards random people, as initially thought, but targeted to specific groups, the particular group that did the rejecting in the first place.
7. To some, it is inconceivable why people will go to great lengths to be accepted into one of life’s social groups or clubs, enduring rejection and sometimes humiliation in order to be accepted. You only have to look at college campuses, which are notorious for strict initiations inflicted on candidates desperately seeking membership. But it happens and will continue to happen because the desire to belong is a very powerful force and a fundamental part of human nature.

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Section 2

Solution and Explanation
Questions 1-5:
Complete the summary:
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer:

Modern man’s basic need to belong to clubs and groups dates back to early history. Each person within the group had a 1____________________________ to play and was considered integral to the entire groups dynamics and success. For an individual, belonging to a group could affect their chances of 2_______________________________ In those times, few could avoid death living alone in 3_________________________. Living with other humans offered 4_________________________ from danger. Staying in a group also meant that 5____________________________ could be passed down to descendants.

Question 1.

Answer: role

Supporting sentence: In the past, people hunted and cooked together in tribes and each member of the group would be assigned a role.

Keywords: early history, need to belong, group

Keyword Location: 2nd paragraph, 1st line

Explanation: This is the correct answer because in the 2nd paragraph the writer mentions how the modern man’s need to belong can be traced back to our past where in a tribe people were assigned a role individually and that ensured the smooth dynamism of the group.

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Question 2.

Answer: survival

Supporting sentence: To our prehistoric ancestors, membership of a group meant the difference between survival and death.

Keywords: membership, prehistoric, group, chances

Keyword Location: 2nd paragraph, 4th line

Explanation:This is the correct answer because it is clearly mentioned that belonging to a group guarantees an individual’s life as the individual plays a role in the group and his/her survival is important for the smooth functioning of the group.

Question 3.

Answer: wild

Supporting sentence: Those who were rejected and excluded from joining a group had to fend for themselves and struggled to stay alive alone in the wild.

Keywords: death, living alone, rejected, excluded, group

Keyword Location: 2nd paragraph, 5th line

Explanation: This is the correct answer because it is clearly mentioned that those who are not accepted in a group were forced to stay alone and staying alone increased their risk of being killed in the wild without any protection.

Question 4.

Answer: protection

Supporting sentence: As each member had a purpose, it meant that in the event of the loss of one person, the group as a whole would suffer. For this reason, they had a vested interest in protecting each other.

Keywords: danger, group, suffer, vested interest

Keyword Location: 2nd paragraph, 2nd line

Explanation: This is the correct option because it is explicitly mentioned that living in a group gives the individual protection as the group members wouldn’t want to lose any of its members or else the entire group will have to suffer the consequences.

Question 5.

Answer: genes

Supporting sentence: Apart from protection, being part of a group also ensured that genes could be passed onto future generations.

Keywords: group, generations, passed down, descendants

Keyword Location: 2nd paragraph, 6th line

Explanation: This is the correct answer because it is mentioned in the 2nd paragraph that belonging to a group also meant that genes could be passed down, otherwise that possibility is eliminated if one stays alone without a group.

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Questions 6-10:

Complete the flowchart below:
Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
THE PROCEDURE FOR LARKIN’S EXPERIMENT:

Question 6. Volunteers believed they were playing a computer game, similar to 6. American football

Answer: American football

Supporting sentence: They took a group of student volunteers and had them play a game called Cyberball, a ball tossing arcade game that resembled American football.

Keywords: Volunteers, computer game, Larkin’s experiment

Keyword Location: 5th paragraph, 1st line

Explanation: This is the correct answer because Larkin's experiment required the volunteers to play a computer game which mimicked the American football game. This is clearly mentioned in the 5th paragraph and the name of the game is Cyberball.

Question 7. The computer was controlling the gameplay, 7. passing the ball to some and not others.

Answer: passing the ball

Supporting sentence: The computer was manipulating the game by passing the ball to some volunteers and excluding others.

Keywords: computer, controlling, gameplay, manipulating, excluding

Keyword Location: 5th paragraph, 3rd line

Explanation: This is the correct answer because the writer has mentioned the constraints of the game which were deliberately fed into the system for the sake of the experiment, which meant that the computer manipulated the moves by passing the ball to only a few, making some feel excluded without them knowing the real reason.

Question 8. The volunteers gave their 8. opinions after the game.

Answer: opinions

Supporting sentence: The ‘accepted’ and ‘rejected’ students were then asked if they enjoyed the game and about their opinions of the other players.

Keywords: game, volunteers, experiment, after

Keyword Location: 6th paragraph, 1st line

Explanation: This is the correct answer because as per the experiment once the game is over, everyone is asked about their opinion on the game and other players.

Question 9. Each volunteer first sat on their own in a room and had their foot movements 9. filmed

Answer: filmed

Supporting sentence: Participants were then put alone in a room and their natural foot movements were filmed.

Keywords: volunteer, foot movement, filmed, experiments.

Keyword Location: 6th paragraph, 2nd line

Explanation: This is the correct answer because as a part of the experiment after playing the game and being asked their opinions, the volunteers were required to go and sit in a room where their natural foot movements were documented.

Question 10. The volunteer took part in a task with a woman who 10. moved her foot on purpose

Answer: moved her feet

Supporting sentence: The female deliberately moved her foot during the task, but not in a way that would be noticeable to the volunteer. It turned out that the rejected students mimicked the female’s foot movements the most.

Keywords: woman, on purpose, volunteers, experiment

Keyword Location: 6th paragraph, 4th line

Explanation: This is the correct answer because in the course of the experiment, to show whether humans mimic behaviour to gain acceptance, this was a part of the procedure where a woman goes in the room and deliberately moved her foot with the intention of not getting noticed, but the volunteer mimicked it instantly, which goes to prove Larkin’s theory.

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Questions 11-13:

Choose the correct letter A,B,C or D:

Question 11. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the first paragraph?

A- one experts view on evolution
B- the consequences of being excluded
C- being made fun of by the people around you
D- a social event that people are eagerly awaiting

Answer: A

Supporting sentence: No one likes to feel left out, ignored by colleagues at meetings or not be invited to the big party that everyone is talking about. Imagine not being part of a joke, or worse still, if the joke is on you.

Keywords: exclusion, made fun of, social event

Keyword Location: 1st paragraph, 1st line

Explanation: This is the correct option because in the 1st paragraph, the author clearly mentions how there is a negative effect on being excluded or made fun of or not getting invited to a big social event. But there is no mention of any expert's view on evolution.

Question 12. According to the article, which method do people consciously use to obtain membership into their chosen group?

A- They tell the group they are strongly motivated.
B- They convey the best parts of their personality to the group.
C- They show how the group will be important to their lives.
D- They alter aspects of their personality to suit others.

Answer: B

Supporting sentence: One obvious way people try to be accepted into a group is self-presentation, which is the act of portraying yourself in the best possible light.

Keywords: conscious, membership, chosen group, acceptance

Keyword Location: 3rd paragraph, 2nd line

Explanation: This is the correct option because people consciously portray their best self to be accepted to a group, the other options are subset to this one point, ways in which they can show their best self. This is clearly mentioned in the 3rd paragraph.

Question 13. The writer's main purpose in writing this article is to

A- explain how people feel when they face rejection.
B- encourage people to go it alone and not be part of a group.
C- show the unconscious drive behind the need to belong.
D- compare how the modern lifestyle is different to the past.

Answer: C

Supporting sentence: But it happens and will continue to happen, because the desire to belong is a very powerful force and a fundamental part of human nature.

Keywords: main purpose, writer, desire, need to belong

Keyword Location: Last paragraph, last line

Explanation: This is the correct option because throughout the passage the writer tried to convey one thing repeatedly: how humans need to belong to some group and how they do many things unconsciously to gain membership. The writer even demonstrated it with Larkin’s experiment.