Undoing our emotions IELTS Reading Answers

Jul 3, 2023

Undoing our emotions IELTS Reading Answers is a general reading subject that explores the struggle with population topics in depth. Undoing our emotions IELTS Reading Answers have a total of thirteen questions. The specified topic generates a single type of question: 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 themes such as Undoing our emotions IELTS Reading Answers. Candidates can use IELTS reading answers to enhance their performance in the reading section.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

Undoing our Emotions IELTS Reading Answers

Three generations ago, 180 young women wrote essays describing why they wanted to join a convent (a religious community of nuns). Years later, a team of psychological researchers came across these autobiographies in the convent’s archives. The researchers were seeking material to confirm earlier studies hinting at a link between having a good vocabulary in youth and a low risk of Alzheimer’s disease in old age. What they found was even more amazing. The researchers found that, although the young women were in their early twenties when they wrote their essays, the emotions expressed in these writings were predictive of how long they would live: those with upbeat autobiographies lived more than ten years longer than those whose language was more neutral. Deborah Danner, a psychologist at the University of Kentucky who spearheaded the study, noted that the results were particularly striking because all members of the convent lived similar lifestyles, eliminating many variables that normally make it difficult to interpret longevity studies. It was a phenomenal finding’, she says. ‘A researcher gets a finding like that maybe once in a lifetime.’ However, she points out that no one has been able to determine why positive emotions might have such life-extending effects.
Barbara Fredrickson, Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, believes that part of the answer is the ‘undo effect’. According to this theory, positive emotions help you live longer by shutting down the effects of negative ones. Fredrickson’s theory begins with the observation that negative emotions, like fear and stress, enhance our flight-or-fight response to very real threats. However, even when the emergency is gone, negative emotions produce lingering effects. Brooks Gump, a stress researcher at the State University of New York, explains that one of these effects is excessive cardiovascular reactivity. Behaviourally, Gump says, this reactivity is related to excessive vigilance: the state of being constantly on guard for potential dangers. Not only is it physically draining to live in a perpetual state of high vigilance, but high cardiovascular reactivity could be linked to increased chances of a heart attack.
Fredrickson believes positive emotions work their magic by producing a rapid unwinding of pent-up tension, restoring the system to normal. People who quickly bounce back from stress often speed the process by harnessing such emotions as amusement, interest, excitement, and happiness, she says. To test her theory, Fredrickson told a group of student volunteers that they had only a few minutes to prepare a speech that would be critiqued by experts. After letting the students get nervous about that, Fredrickson then told them they wouldn’t actually have to deliver their speeches. She monitored heart rates and blood pressure. Not surprisingly, all students got nervous about their speeches, but those who viewed the experiment with good-humored excitement saw their heart rates return to normal much more quickly than those who were angry about being fooled. In a second experiment, Fredrickson reported that even those who normally were slow to bounce back could be coached to recover more quickly by being told to view the experiment as a challenge, rather than a threat.
Fredrickson believes that positive emotions make people more flexible and creative. Negative emotions, she says, give a heightened sense of detail that makes us hypersensitive to minute clues related to the source of a threat. But that also produces ‘tunnel vision’ in which we ignore anything unrelated to the danger. Fredrickson speculated that just as positive emotions can undo the cardiovascular effects of negative ones, they may also reverse the attention-narrowing effects of negative feelings: broadening our perspectives.
To verify her theory, Fredrickson showed a group of students some film clips- some saw frightening clips, some saw humorous ones or peaceful ones. They then did a matching test in which they were shown a simple drawing and asked which of two other drawings it most resembled. The drawings were designed so that people would tend to give one answer if they focused on details, and another answer if they focused on the big picture. The results confirmed Fredrickson’s suspicion that positive emotions affect our perceptions. Students who had seen the humorous or peaceful clips were more likely to match objects according to broad impressions.
This fits with the role that positive emotions might have played in early human tribes, Fredrickson says. Negative emotions provided focus, which was important for surviving in life-or-death situations, but the ability to feel positive emotions was of long-term value because it opened the mind to new ideas. Humour is a good example of this. She says: ‘The emotions are transient, but the resources are durable. If you building a friendship through being playful, that friendship is a lasting resource.’ So while the good feelings may pass, the friendship remains. On an individual level, Fredrickson’s theory also says that taking time to do things that make you feel happy isn’t simply self-indulgent. Not only are these emotions good for the individual, but they are also good for society.
Other researchers are intrigued by Fredrickson’s findings. Susan Folkman, of the University of California, has spent two decades studying how people cope with long-term stresses such as bereavement, or caring for a chronically ill child. Contrary to what one might expect, she says, these people frequently experience positive emotions. ‘These emotions aren’t there by accident’, she adds. ‘Mother Nature doesn’t work that way, I think that they give a person time out from the intense stress to restore their resources and keep going. This is very consistent with Fredrickson’s work.’

Section 2

Solution and explanation

Reading Passage has seven sections, A-G.

Which section contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

Conclusion that it is possible to train people to deal with anxiety conclusive evidence that lifespan can be influenced by emotions.

Answer: C
Supporting statement: “... Fredrickson believes positive emotions work their magic by producing a rapid unwinding of pent-up tension, restoring the system to normal….”
Keywords: emotions, tension
Keyword location: para C, line 1-2
Explanation: It is given that Fredrickson allowed the pupils to become anxious about it before reassuring them that they wouldn't actually have to give their presentations. She kept an eye on her blood pressure and pulse rate.

an explanation of the way negative emotions affect what people concentrate on

Answer: A
Supporting statement: “... those with upbeat autobiographies lived more than ten years longer than those whose language was more neutral.….”
Keywords: upbeat, language
Keyword location: para A, line 10-11
Explanation: The author clearly means that the people who live an excited life or an energetic life have more chances of living longer than the people who life a neutral or normal life.

an experiment that showed how a positive outlook can help people adjust to

Answer: D
Supporting statement: “...Fredrickson speculated that just as positive emotions can undo the cardiovascular effects of negative ones….”
Keywords: positive, effects
Keyword location: para D, line 5-6
Explanation: In the D paragraph it is given that, Fredrickson hypothesised that, just as positive emotions might counteract negative ones' cardiovascular consequences, they may likewise counteract negative feelings' attention-narrowing effects: widening our viewpoints.

a stressful situation faster than others

Answer: C
Supporting statement: “...Fredrickson reported that even those who normally were slow to bounce back could be coached to recover more quickly by being told to view the experiment as a challenge, rather
than a threat.….”
Keywords: experiment, challenge
Keyword location: para C, line 9-10
Explanation: It is said that Fredrickson found that people were able to perform better when they were stressed or challenged in some manner rather than generally asked to do it.

a discovery beyond what researchers were investigating

Answer: A
Supporting statement: “...‘A researcher gets a finding like that maybe once in a lifetime.’ However, she points out that no one has been able to determine why positive emotions might have such life-extending
effects..….”
Keywords:
Keyword location: para A, line 11-12
Explanation: Positive emotions having such a great effect that it could increase a person's life was a great achievement and discovery by the researchers. It was actually beyond what they were expecting.

an experiment where the nature of a material seen by participants affected the way they performed a task

Answer: E
Supporting statement: “...The results confirmed Fredrickson’s suspicion that positive emotions affect our perceptions. Students who had seen the humorous or peaceful clips were more likely to match
objects according to broad impressions….”
Keywords: suspicion, humorous
Keyword location: para E, line 5-6
Explanation: The outcome of Fredrickson's experiment showed that positive emotions, induced by watching humorous or peaceful film clips, influenced the students' perceptions.

QUESTIONS 7-10

Look at the following statements (Questions 7-10) and the list of researchers below.

Match each statement with the correct researcher, A-D.

Write the correct letter, A-D, in boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet.

NB: You may use any letter more than once.

List of Researchers

A Deborah Danner

B Barbara Fredrickson

C Brooks Gump

D Susan Folkman

People whose daily lives are stressful often have surprisingly positive emotions.

Answer: D
Supporting statement: “...Contrary to what one might expect, she says, these people frequently experience positive emotions….”
Keywords: Contrary, experience
Keyword location: para G, line 3 - 4
Explanation: Susan Folkman was working with people who had a lot of stress and checking how they coped with it. She found that most people under stress get a wave of positive emotions.

The body’s reaction to a crisis may trigger a life-threatening event.

Answer: C
Supporting statement: “...However, even when the emergency is gone, negative emotions produce lingering effects. Brooks Gump, a stress researcher at the State University of New York….”
Keywords:
Keyword location: para B, line 6-7
Explanation: Brooks Gump is a stress researcher who was researching on the people, and worked on how people will behave in crises or highly stressful situations.

It is unusual to have a study group whose circumstances were very alike.

Answer: A
Supporting statement: “...results were particularly striking because all members of the convent lived similar lifestyles, eliminating many variables that normally make it difficult to interpret longevity ….”
Keywords: convent, longevity
Keyword location: para A, line 12-13
Explanation: Mr Danner found that the people who wrote the essays more vividly and energetically were supposed to have a longer lifespan than the people who wrote a normal essay. Most of the people had a similar kind of essay.

The reasons for a link between positive emotions and a longer life have not been established.

Answer: A
Supporting statement: “...results were particularly striking because all members of the convent lived similar lifestyles, eliminating many variables that normally make it difficult to interpret longevity….”
Keywords: convent, longevity
Keyword location: para A, line 12-13
Explanation: Mr Danner found out that people who have positive emotions most of the time are supposed to live longer. But he could not find out why this was the case. Complete the sentences below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

In early tribes, negative emotions gave humans the 11_____ that they needed to deal with emergencies.

Answer: FOCUS
Supporting statement: “...with the observation that negative emotions, like fear and stress, enhance our flight-or-fight response to very real threats.….”
Keywords: observation, emotions
Keyword location: para B, line 4-5
Explanation: It is said by Fredrickson that the negative emotions of the people had a lingering effect. People used to gain more focus when they were afraid or stressed.

Fredrickson believes that a passing positive emotion can lead to an enduring asset such as a 12_____which is useful in times to come.

Answer: FRIENDSHIP
Supporting statement: “....If you building a friendship through being playful, that friendship is a lasting resource….”
Keywords: friendship, lasting
Keyword location: para F, line 6-7
Explanation: Frederickson has many instances in the passage where he mentions that positive emotion can help a person make a good friendship. And these friendships tend to last longer.

Fredrickson also believes that both individuals and 13____ benefit from positive emotions.

Answer: SOCIETY
Supporting statement: “....Not only are these emotions good for the individual, but they are also good for society.….”
Keywords: emotions, individual
Keyword location: para F, line 9-10
Explanation: It is rightly said in paragraph F that positive emotions are good for the society as well. People will have more empathy towards other if they have a positive mindset.

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