The Value of Handwriting Reading Answers

Dec 8, 2023

The Value of Handwriting Reading Answers is a general reading topic. The Value of Handwriting Reading Answers have a total of 13 IELTS questions in total. The specified topic generates 2 question types: no more than 2 words, and true, false, not given. 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 The Value of Handwriting Reading Answers. Candidates can use IELTS reading answers to enhance their performance in the reading section.

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Section 1

Read the below passage to answer the questions.

The Value of Handwriting Reading Answers

THE VALUE OF HANDWRITING

A
‘When I was in school in the I 970s,’ says Tammy Chou, ‘my end-of-term report included Handwriting as a subject alongside Mathematics and Physical Education, yet, by the time my brother started, a decade later, it had been subsumed into English. I learnt two scripts: printing and cursive, *while Chris can only print.’

The 2013 Common Core, a curriculum used throughout most of the US, requires the tuition of legible writing (generally printing) only in the first two years of school; thereafter, teaching keyboard skills is a priority.

B
‘I work in recruitment,’ continues Chou. ‘Sure, these days, applicants submit a digital CV and cover letter, but there’s still information interviewees need to fill out by hand, and I still judge them by the neatness of their writing when they do so. Plus there’s nothing more disheartening than receiving a birthday greeting or a condolence card with a scrawled message.’

C
Psychologists and neuroscientists may concur with Chou for diﬀerent reasons. They believe children learn to read faster when they start to write by hand, and they generate new ideas and retain information better. Karin James conducted an experiment at Indiana University in the US in which children who had not learnt to read were shown a letter on a card and asked to reproduce it by tracing, by drawing it on another piece of paper, or by typing it on a keyboard. Then, their brains were scanned while viewing the original image again. Children who had produced the freehand letter showed increased neural activity in the left fusiform gyrus, the inferior frontal gyrus, and the posterior parietal cortex – areas activated when adults read or write, whereas all other children displayed significantly weaker activation of the same areas.

James speculates that in handwriting, there is variation in the production of any letter, so the brain has to learn each personal font – each variant of ‘F’, for example, that is still ‘F’. Recognition of variation may establish the eventual representation more permanently than recognising a uniform letter printed by computer.

Victoria Berninger at the University of Washington studied children in the first two grades of school to demonstrate that printing, cursive, and keyboarding are associated with separate brain patterns. Furthermore, children who wrote by hand did so much faster than the typists, who had not been taught to touch type. Not only did the typists produce fewer words but also the quality of their ideas was consistently lower. Scans from the older children’s brains exhibited enhanced neural activity when their handwriting was neater than average, and, importantly, the parts of their brains activated are those crucial to working memory.

Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer have shown in laboratories and live classrooms that tertiary students learn better when they take notes by hand rather than inputting via keyboard. As a result, some institutions ban laptops and tablets in lectures and prohibit smartphone photography of lecture notes. Mueller and Oppenheimer also believe handwriting aids contemplation as well as memory storage.

D
Some learners of English whose native script is not the Roman alphabet have difficulty in forming several English letters: the lower case ‘b’ and ‘d’, ‘p’ and ‘q’, ‘n’ and ‘u’, ‘m’ and ‘w’ may be confused. This condition aﬀects a tiny minority of first-language learners and suﬀerers of brain damage. Called dysgraphia, it appears less frequently when writers use cursive instead of printing, which is why cursive has been posited as a cure for dyslexia.

E
Berninger is of the opinion that cursive, endangered in American schools, promotes self-control, which printing may not, and which typing – especially with the ‘delete’ function – unequivocally does not. In a world saturated with texting, where many have observed that people are losing the ability to filter their thoughts, a little more restraint would be a good thing.

A rare-book and manuscript librarian, Valerie Hotchkiss, worries about the cost to our heritage as knowledge of cursive fades. Her library contains archives from the literary giants Mark Twain, Marcel Proust, HG Wells, and others. If the young generation does not learn cursive, its ability to decipher older documents may be compromised, and culture lost.

F
Paul Bloom, from Yale University, is less convinced about the long-term benefits of handwriting. In the 1950s – indeed in Tammy Chou’s idyllic 1970s – when children spent hours practicing their copperplate, what were they doing with it? Mainly copying mindlessly. For Bloom, education, in the complex digital age, has moved on.

* A style of writing in which letters are joined, and the pen is lifted oﬀ the paper at the end of a word.

Section 2

Answer and Explanation
Questions 1-5
Passage 1 on the following page has six sections: A-F.
Choose the correct heading for sections B-F from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

Handwriting and a more active brain
The disgrace of dysgraphia
A school subject
Handwriting has had its day
Handwriting raises academic performance
Handwriting reduces typing ability
The medium is the message?
Cursive may treat a reading disorder
The social and cultural advantages of handwriting

Section B
Answer: vii
Supporting statement: “..... but there’s still information interviewees need to fill out by hand, and I still judge them by the neatness of their writing when they do so......”
Keywords: hand, judge
Keyword Location: para B, line 3
Explanation: It is given that the letters or information written are judged by the handwriting on them. It can be said that the medium which means the writing is the message for the reader.
Section C
Answer: i
Supporting statement: “......They believe children learn to read faster when they start to write by hand, and they generate new ideas and retain information better......”
Keywords: children, retain
Keyword Location: para C, line 1
Explanation: It is given that the children learn faster when they start writing it on paper. Writing is related to the brain functioning so that mind can retain more information.
Section D
Answer: viii
Supporting statement: “..... it appears less frequently when writers use cursive instead of printing, which is why cursive has been posited as a cure for dyslexia........”
Keywords: writers, printing
Keyword Location: para D, line 4
Explanation: It is given that disorders like dyslexia and reading problems can be resolved by writing in cursive.
Section E
Answer: ix
Supporting statement: “......Her library contains archives from the literary giants Mark Twain, Marcel Proust, HG Wells, and others. If the young generation does not learn cursive, its ability to decipher older documents may be compromised, and culture lost.......”
Keywords: giants, decipher
Keyword Location: para E, line 7
Explanation: It is given that the library had archives from people such as Mark Twain and many famous writers. They meant that the young generation should learn to write in cursive because it had been done in the culture.
Section F
Answer: iv
Supporting statement: “......1970s – when children spent hours practicing their copperplate, what were they doing with it? Mainly copying mindlessly. For Bloom, education, in the complex digital age, has moved on.......”
Keywords: hours, complex
Keyword Location: para F, line 3
Explanation: It is given that today's kids are in the digital age and not much focus is given to the children on writing. Hence it can be said that handwriting had its day.

Questions 6-9
Look at the following statements and list of people below.
Match each statement with the correct person: A, B, C, or D.
Write the correct letter A, B, C, or D, in boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet.

According to him/ her/ them, education is now very sophisticated, so handwriting is unimportant.
Answer: D
Supporting statement: “......Mainly copying mindlessly. For Bloom, education, in the complex digital age, has moved on.......”
Keywords: complex, digital
Keyword Location: para F, line 3
Explanation: It is given that modern education is very complex and not much focus is given to handwriting.
He/ She/ They found children who wrote by hand generated more ideas.
Answer: B
Supporting statement: “.....shown in laboratories and live classrooms that tertiary students learn better when they take notes by hand rather than inputting via keyboard.......”
Keywords: tertiary, keyboard
Keyword Location: para C, part 4, line 1
Explanation: It is given that the test has shown that students learn better when they tend to write things down. Hence they generate more ideas.
Universities have stopped students using electronic devices in class due to his/ her/ their research.
Answer: C
Supporting statement: “.....As a result, some institutions ban laptops and tablets in lectures and prohibit smartphone photography of lecture notes.......”
Keywords: some, lectures
Keyword Location: para C, part 4, line 3
Explanation: It was found that students learn better when they write things down. Hence some institutions have stopped using laptops and tablets in lectures.
He/ She/ They may assess character by handwriting.
Answer: A
Supporting statement: “.....but there’s still information interviewees need to fill out by hand, and I still judge them by the neatness of their writing when they do so.......”
Keywords: judge, neatness
Keyword Location: para B, line 2
Explanation: It is given that the person who was going to interview was judged by the handwriting. Hence it can be concluded that the character is judged by handwriting.

List of people

Tammy Chou
Victoria Berninger
Paul Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer
Paul Bloom

Questions 10-14
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-H, below.
Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 10-14 on your answer sheet.

correlation
dispute
essentially
evidence
inevitable
proponents
psychologists
teachers

The value of handwriting
Educators in the US have decided that handwriting is no longer worth much curriculum time. Printing, not cursive, is usually taught. Some 10_________ and neuroscientists 11_________ this decision as there seems to be a(n) 12_________ between early reading and handwriting. Children with the best handwriting produce the most neural activity and the most interesting schoolwork. 13_________ of cursive consider it more useful than printing. However, not all academics believe in the necessity of handwriting. In the digital world, perhaps keyboarding is 14 _________

Answer: G
Supporting statement: “......Psychologists and neuroscientists may concur with Chou for diﬀerent reasons.......”
Keywords: concur, reasons
Keyword Location: para C, line 1
Explanation: It is given that the psychologists and neuroscientists were concurring with Chou for some factors
Answer: B
Supporting statement: “......Psychologists and neuroscientists may concur with Chou for diﬀerent reasons......”
Keywords: concur, reasons
Keyword Location: para C, line 1
Explanation: It is given that the psychologists and neuroscientists were not happy with Chou’s statement and hence the dispute started.
Answer: A
Supporting statement: “.....believe children learn to read faster when they start to write by hand, and they generate new ideas and retain information better........”
Keywords: faster, generate
Keyword Location: para C, line 2
Explanation: It is given that there is a relation between reading and writing. Kids who have a habit of writing things down have a good understanding of what they are reading.
Answer: F
Supporting statement: “.....Called dysgraphia, it appears less frequently when writers use cursive instead of printing, which is why cursive has been posited as a cure for dyslexia.......”
Keywords: frequent, cursive
Keyword Location: para D, line 4
Explanation: It is given that the writers mostly use cursive instead of printing. They think it is more useful than printing.
Answer: E
Supporting statement: “.....Mainly copying mindlessly. For Bloom, education, in the complex digital age, has moved on........”
Keywords: complex, digital
Keyword Location: para F, line 3
Explanation: It is said that modern education comprises of use of laptops and tablets to take notes rather than writing.