The Scientific Method - IELTS Reading Sample with Explanation

The IELTS reading section tests the proficiency of candidates through a passage and 40 questions. IELTS reading tests the understanding abilities of the candidate. This IELTS reading sample has been taken from Cambridge 11, Test 1, Reading Passage 2. This IELTS reading sample answer consists of two question types:

• Paragraph Match
• True/False/Not Given
• One Word

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Section1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

The Scientific Method IELTS Reading Sample

A - Karl Popper’s claim that the scientific method is hypothetico-deductive

‘Hypotheses,’ said Medawar in 1964, ‘are imaginative and inspirational in character’; they are ‘adventures of the mind’. He was arguing in favor of the position taken by Karl Popper in The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1972, 3rd edition) that the nature of scientific method is hypothetico-deductive and not, as is generally believed, inductive.

B

It is essential that you, as an intending researcher, understand the difference between these two interpretations of the research process so that you do not become discouraged or begin to suffer from a feeling of ‘cheating’ or not going about it the right way.

C - Explaining the inductive method

The myth of scientific method is that it is inductive: that the formulation of scientific theory starts with the basic, raw evidence of the senses - simple, unbiased, unprejudiced observation. Out of these sensory data - commonly referred to as ‘facts’ — generalizations will form. The myth is that from a disorderly array of factual information an orderly, relevant theory will somehow emerge. However, the starting point of induction is an impossible one.

D - The role of hypotheses in scientific research

There is no such thing as an unbiased observation. Every act of observation we make is a function of what we have seen or otherwise experienced in the past. All scientific work of an experimental or exploratory nature starts with some expectation about the outcome. This expectation is a hypothesis. Hypotheses provide the initiative and incentive for the inquiry and influence the method. It is in the light of an expectation that some observations are held to be relevant and some irrelevant, that one methodology is chosen and others discarded, that some experiments are conducted and others are not. Where is your naive, pure and objective researcher now?

E - The testing of hypotheses

Hypotheses arise by guesswork, or by inspiration, but having been formulated they can and must be tested rigorously, using the appropriate methodology. If the predictions you make as a result of deducing certain consequences from your hypothesis are not shown to be correct then you discard or modify your hypothesis. If the predictions turn out to be correct then your hypothesis has been supported and may be retained until such time as some further test shows it not to be correct. Once you have arrived at your hypothesis, which is a product of your imagination, you then proceed to a strictly logical and rigorous process, based upon deductive argument — hence the term ‘hypothetico-deductive’.

F - Anticipating results before data is collected

So don’t worry if you have some idea of what your results will tell you before you even begin to collect data; there are no scientists in existence who really wait until they have all the evidence in front of them before they try to work out what it might possibly mean. The closest we ever get to this situation is when something happens by accident; but even then the researcher has to formulate a hypothesis to be tested before being sure that, for example, a mold might prove to be a successful antidote to bacterial infection.

G - How research is done and how it is reported

The myth of the scientific method is not only that it is inductive (which we have seen is incorrect) but also that the hypothetico-deductive method proceeds in a step-by-step, inevitable fashion. The hypothetico-deductive method describes the logical approach to much research work, but it does not describe the psychological behavior that brings it about. This is much more holistic — involving guesses, reworkings, corrections, blind alleys and above all inspiration, in the deductive as well as the hypothetical component -than is immediately apparent from reading the final thesis or published papers. These have been, quite properly, organized into a more serial, logical order so that the worth of the output may be evaluated independently of the behavioral processes by which it was obtained. It is the difference, for example, between the academic papers with which Crick and Watson demonstrated the structure of the DNA molecule and the fascinating book The Double Helix in which Watson (1968) described how they did it.

From this point of view,‘scientific method’ may more usefully be thought of as a way of writing up research rather than as a way of carrying it out.

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Section 2

Solution With Explanation 

Questions 1-5. Reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-G.
Choose the most suitable headings for paragraphs C-G from the list of headings below.
Write the appropriate numbers i-x in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

1. The Crick and Watson approach to research
2. Antidotes to bacterial infection
3. The testing of hypotheses
4. Explaining the inductive method
5. Anticipating results before data is collected
6. How research is done and how it is reported
7. The role of hypotheses in scientific research
8. Deducing the consequences of hypotheses
9. Karl Popper’s claim that the scientific method is hypothetico-deductive
10. The unbiased researcher

Answer 1: Paragraph E

Supporting Sentence: Hypotheses arise by guesswork, or by inspiration, but having been formulated they can and must be tested rigorously, using the appropriate methodology & may be retained until such time as some further test shows it not to be correct

Keywords: tested, hypothesis, rigorously,

Keywords Location: First few lines and 11-13 lines

Explanation: In the paragraph it is clearly mentioned that may be retained until such time as some further test shows.

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Answer 2: Paragraph C

Supporting Sentence:The myth of scientific method is that it is inductive & However, the starting point of induction is an impossible one

Keyword: blind subject, part-I, experiment, writer found.

Keyword Location: First and last line

Explanation: As per the last line of paragraph the starting point of induction is an impossible one. So it clearly indicates that the paragraph explains the inductive method.

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Answer 3: Paragraph F

Supporting Sentence: what your results will tell you before you even begin to collect data

Keywords: anticipated, data, collect, result

Keywords Location: Beginning of first few lines.

Explanation: what your result will tell you before you even begin to collect data equal to the anticipated before data is collected.

Answer 4: Paragraph G

Supporting Sentence: ‘scientific method’ may more usefully be thought of as a way of writing up research rather than as a way of carrying it out.

Keywords: scientific method, research, reported, useful

Keywords Location: last line of the paragraph

Explanation: more usefully be thought of as a way of writing up research rather equal to how research is done and how it is reported

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Answer 5: Paragraph D

Supporting Sentence: Hypotheses provide the initiative and incentive for the inquiry and influence the method.

Keywords: role, equal to, hypothesis

Keywords Location: Line 9-11.

Explanation: Here hypothesis provides equal to the role of hypothesis.

Questions 6-7

In which TWO paragraphs in Reading Passage does the writer give advice directly to the reader? Write the TWO appropriate letters (A—G) in boxes 6-7 on your answer sheet.

Answer 6: B/F (in either order)

Supporting Sentence: It is essential that you, as an intending researcher, understand the difference between these two interpretations of the research process so that you do not become discouraged or begin to suffer from a feeling of ‘cheating’ or not going about it the right way.

Keywords: give advice, two paragraphs, to the reader, directly,

Keywords Location: first line of the paragraph

Explanation: Here in the question, it is essential that you, as an intending researcher, understand the difference between these two interpretations of the research process.

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Answer 7: B/F (in either order)

Supporting Sentence: So don’t worry if you have some idea of what your results will tell you before you even begin to collect data; there are no scientists in existence who really wait until they have all the evidence in front of them before they try to work out what it might possibly mean.

Keywords: give advice, two paragraphs, to the reader, directly,

Keywords Location: first line of the paragraph

Explanation: Here in the question, if you have some idea of what your results will tell you before you even begin to collect data.

Questions 8-11

Do the following statements reflect the opinions of the writer in the Reading Passage?
In boxes 8-11 on your answer sheet write

YES              if the statement reflects the opinion of the writer
NO                if the statement contradicts the opinion of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

Ques8. Popper says that the scientific method is hypothetico-deductive.

Answer 8: YES

Supporting Sentence: position taken by Karl Popper in The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1972, 3rd edition) that the nature of scientific method is hypothetico-deductive and not, as is generally believed, inductive.

Keywords: Scientific method, popper, hypothetico deductive

Keywords Location: Paragraph A line 5-8

Explanation: It is clearly mention on the passage that nature of scientific method is hypothetico-deductive

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Ques 9 If a prediction based on a hypothesis is fulfilled, then the hypothesis is confirmed as true.

Answer 9: No

Supporting Sentence: If the predictions turn out to be correct then your hypothesis has been supported and may be retained until such time as some further test shows it not to be correct.

Keywords: as true, fulfilled, hypothesis, if, prediction, is confirmed

Keywords Location: Paragraph E line 9-13

Explanation: If a prediction turn out to be true equal to the predictions of hypotheses is fulfilled

Ques 10 Many people carry out research in a mistaken way.

Answer 10: Not Given

Ques 11 The ‘scientific method’ is more a way of describing research than a way of doing it.

Answer 11: Yes

Supporting Sentence: From this point of view,‘scientific method’ may more usefully be thought of as a way of writing up research rather than as a way of carrying it out.

Keywords: research,than, more, scientific method, way of doing, way of describing

Keywords Location: Paragraph G last line

Explanation: Here many more thought usefully of a way of research equal to the scientific method is more of the way of describing research.

Questions 12

Choose the appropriate letter A-D and write it in box 12 on your answer sheet.
Which of the following statements best describes the writer’s main purpose in Reading Passage?

1. to advise Ph.D students not to cheat while carrying out research
2. to encourage Ph.D students to work by guesswork and inspiration
3. to explain to Ph.D students the logic which the scientific research paper follows
4. to help Ph.D students by explaining different conceptions of the research process

Answer 12: D

Keywords: best, described, Writer main purpose.

Explanation: all the different passages try to explain the different concepts of scientific method.