What is Meaning Reading Answers

Jan 21, 2023

What is Meaning Reading Answers comprises a total of 14 questions. This IELTS reading passage has been referenced from the book IELTS Barron, Practice Test 4. The IELTS academic reading topic: What is Meaning Reading Answers requires candidates to answer the mentioned number of questions within a time limit of 20 minutes.

This IELTS reading topic What is Meaning Reading Answers requires candidates to read the passage carefully and understand the scenarios presented. To practice more such reading passage candidates can refer to the IELTS reading practice papers.

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Section 1

Read the passage to answer the following questions

What is Meaning Reading Answers

Why do we respond to words and symbols in the ways we do?

Semantics, in general, is the subdivision of linguistics concerned with meaning. Semantics attempts the systematic study of the assignment of meanings to minimal meaning-bearing elements and the combination of these in the production of more complex meaningful expressions. Elementary word groups may be combined in a relationship of content, forming thematic groups and semantic and lexical “fields”. For example, all the means of expressing the concept of joy in a given language constitute the lexical-semantic field “joy”. Because of the trained patterns of response, people listen more respectfully to the health advice of someone who has “MD” after his name than to that of someone who hasn’t. A “pattern of reactions”, then, is the sum of the ways we act in response to events, to words, and to symbols.

Words and word meanings are one of the most important information cues used in speaking and understanding, as well as in reading. Indeed, a person’s life experience and cultural experience (even reading comic strips) are most relevant to the development of linguistic “meaning making” in any language, which is very important in the communication process. Words from a person’s native language and culture perspective can carry special associations. For instance, the Spanish words for hammock, tobacco, and potato are derived from Tamo words for these items. Therefore, when people’s semantic habits are reasonably similar to those of most people around them, they are regarded as “normal” or perhaps “dull”. If their semantic habits are noticeably different from those of others, they are regarded as “individualistic” or “original”, or, if the differences are disapproved of or viewed with alarm, as “crazy”.

A definition states the meaning of a word using other words. It is clear that to define a word, as a dictionary does, is simply to explain the word with more words. However,defining words with more words usually gets people (especially children) at once into what mathematicians call an “infinite regress”, an infinite series of occurrences or concepts. For example, it can lead people into the kind of run-around that people sometimes encounter when they look up “impertinence” and find it defined as “impudence”, so they look up “impudence” and find it defined as “impertinence”. Yet—and here we come to another common reaction pattern— people often act as if words can be explained fully with more words. To a person who asked for a definition of jazz, Louis Armstrong is said to have replied, “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know”, proving himself to be an intuitive semanticist as well as a great trumpet player.

Semantics, then, seeks the “operational” definition instead of the dictionary Bridgman, the 1946 Nobel Prize winner and physicist, once wrote, “The true meaning of a term is to be found by observing what a man does with it, not by what he says about it.” He made an enormous contribution to science by showing that the meaning of a scientific term lies in the operations, the things done, that establish its validity, rather than in verbal definitions. An example of operational definition of the term “weight” of an object, operationalized to a degree, would be the following: “weight is the numbers that appear when that object is placed on a weighing scale”. According to it, when one starts reading the numbers on the scale, it would more fully make an operational definition. But if people say—and revolutionists have started uprisings with just this statement “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains!”—what operations could we perform to demonstrate its accuracy or inaccuracy?

Next, if this suggestion of “operationalism” is pulled outside the physical sciences where Bridgman applied it, what “operations” are people expected to perform as the result of both the language they use and the language other people use in communicating to them? Here is a personnel manager studying an application form. He comes to the words “Education: Harvard University”, and drops the application form in the wastebasket (that’s the “operation”) because, as he would say if you asked him, “I don’t like Harvard men”. This is an instance of “meaning” at work—but it is not a meaning that can be found in dictionaries.

So far as we know, human beings are the only creatures that have, over and above that biological equipment which we have in common with other creatures, the additional capacity for manufacturing symbols and systems of symbols. When we react to a flag, we are not reacting simply to a piece of cloth, but to the meaning with which it has been symbolically endowed. When we react to a word, we are not reacting to a set of sounds, but to the meaning with which that set of sounds has been symbolically endowed. As a matter of fact, how sound symbolism is processed in our brains has not yet been fully explained in the field.

Simply put, the key point of semantics lies in, not the words definition, but our own semantic reactions, which occur when we respond to things the way they “should” be, rather than to the way they are. If a person was to tell a shockingly obscene story in Arabic or Hindustani or Swahili before an audience that understood only English, no one would blush or be angry; the story would be neither shocking nor obscene— indeed, it would not even be a story. Likewise, the value of a dollar bill is not in the bill, but in our social agreement to accept it as a symbol of value. If that agreement were to break down through the collapse of our government, the dollar bill would become only a scrap of paper. We do not understand a dollar bill by staring at it long and hard. We understand it by observing how people act with respect to it. We understand it by understanding the social mechanisms and the loyalties that keep it meaningful. Therefore, semantics belongs to social studies and potentially underpins the integrity of the social sciences.

Section 2

Solution and Explanation

Questions 27 – 31

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

Write your answers in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

What point is made in the first paragraph?

The aim of education is to teach people to read.
Semantics focuses on the definition of words.
Printed words only carry meaning to those who have received appropriate ways to respond.
Writers should ensure their works satisfy a variety of readers.

Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: A “pattern of reactions”, then, is the sum of the ways we act in response to events, to words, and to symbols
Keyword : response, act
Keyword Location: 1st paragraph, last sentence
Explanation: The author in the first paragraph says that the systematic study of the assignment of meanings to minimal meaning-bearing elements is semantics. aHe also mentions that reactions are how we respond. Hence, the option C is correct.

According to the second paragraph, people are judged by

their level of education.
the closely-related people around them.
how conventional their responses are.
complex situations.

Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: If their semantic habits are noticeably different from those of others, they are regarded as “individualistic” or “original”, or, if the differences are disapproved of or viewed with alarm, as “crazy”.
Keyword : semantics, different
Keyword Location: 2nd paragraph, last sentence
Explanation: The author says that if the semantics are different from others, they are viewed as crazy. This means people are judged by their own convention. If they understand the response, which is their convenient position, they will not disapprove them.

What point is made in the third paragraph?

Standard ways are incapable of defining words precisely.
A dictionary often provides clear definitions of words.
Infinite regress is a common occurrence in a dictionary.
Mathematicians could define words accurately.

Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: However,defining words with more words usually gets people (especially children) at once into what mathematicians call an “infinite regress”, an infinite series of occurrences or concepts.
Keyword : words, defining
Keyword Location: 3rd paragraph, 3rd sentence
Explanation: The author in the first two sentences says that one can define words with other words. However, in the third sentence he says that defining words with other words gets to people especially children. Hence, these standard words are not capable to define a word precisely.

What does the writer suggest about Louis Armstrong?

He is a language expert.
He demonstrated there are similarities between music and language.
He provided insights into how words are defined.
His good skill in music helped him do research in other fields.

Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: To a person who asked for a definition of jazz, Louis Armstrong is said to have replied, “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know”, proving himself to be an intuitive semanticist as well as a
great trumpet player.
Keyword : intuitive semanticist
Keyword Location: 3rd paragraph, last sentence
Explanation: The author says if someone asked Louis Armstrong on a definition of a jazz, he replied saying that if he has to ask, he will never know. This proves he was intuitive semanticist. He provided insights on how they are defined.

What does the writer intend to show with the example of the “personnel manager”?

The manager hates applicants from Harvard University.
Meaning can be unique to one person.
The manager has a bad memory of Harvard University.
People’s behaviour usually doesn’t agree with their words.

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: This is an instance of “meaning” at work—but it is not a meaning that can be found in dictionaries.
Keyword : meaning, manager
Keyword Location: 5th paragraph, last sentence
Explanation: The supporting sentence in the paragraph says that all meanings cannot be found in dictionaries. They can be unique to one person. The way one understands a meaning, the other might not.

Questions 32-35

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage?
In boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say that the writer thinks about this

Some statements are incapable of being proved or disproved.

Answer: Yes
Supporting Sentence: If their semantic habits are noticeably different from those of others, they are regarded as “individualistic” or “original”, or, if the differences are disapproved of or viewed with alarm, as “crazy”.
Keyword : proved
Keyword Location: 2nd paragraph, last sentence
Explanation: The author directly says that semantic habits are different. If so, they are regarded as “individualistic” or “original”, or, if the differences are disapproved of or viewed with alarm, as “crazy”. Hence, every statement cannot be proved or disproved.

Meaning that is unique to an individual is less worthy of study than shared meanings.

Answer: Not Given
Explanation: There is no such information in the passage

Flags and words are both elicited responses.

Answer: Yes
Supporting Sentence: When we react to a flag, we are not reacting simply to a piece of cloth, but to the meaning with which it has been symbolically endowed.
Keyword : symbolically, flag
Keyword Location: 6th paragraph, 2nd sentence
Explanation: The author says that when reacting to a flag, we are reacting how symbolically it was endowed. The same goes with words. We are not reacting to a set of sounds, but to the meaning with which that set of sounds has been symbolically endowed.

A story can be entertaining without being understood.

Answer: No
Supporting Sentence: If a person was to tell a shockingly obscene story in Arabic or Hindustani or Swahili before an audience that understood only English, no one would blush or be angry; the story would be neither
shocking nor obscene— indeed, it would not even be a story.
Keyword : understood, not even a story
Keyword Location: last paragraph, 2nd sentence
Explanation: The author says if someone does not understand a language, then the story has no effect on that person. It cannot be entertaining. Hence, the answer is no.

Questions 36 – 40

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, below.

Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet.

is meaningless.
can have a lasting effect on human behaviour.
is a symbol that has lost its meaning.
can be understood only in its social context.
can provide only an inadequate definition of meaning.
reflects the variability of human behaviours.
emphasizes the importance of analyzing how words were used .
suggests that certain types of behaviour carry more meaning than others.

A comic strip

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: Indeed, a person’s life experience and cultural experience (even reading comic strips) are most relevant to the development of linguistic “meaning making” in any language, which is very important in
the communication process.
Keyword : experience, comic, strip
Keyword Location: 2nd paragraph, 2nd sentence
Explanation: Reading comic strips are very important in developing the lingusistics. This is very important for the human behaviour which provides a lasting effect.

A dictionary

Answer: E
Supporting Sentence: It is clear that to define a word, as a dictionary does, is simply to explain the word with more words.
Keyword : dictionary, explain
Keyword Location: 3rd paragraph, 2nd sentence
Explanation: The author states that a dictionary explains a word with more words. It does not provide enough meaning of theword. Hence, E is the correct answer.

Bridgman

Answer: G
Supporting Sentence: He made an enormous contribution to science by showing that the meaning of a scientific term lies in the operations, the things done, that establish its validity, rather than in verbal definitions.
Keyword : Bridgman
Keyword Location: 4th paragraph, 2nd sentence
Explanation: The author clearly states that according to Bridgman, one should understand the usage of words and not the verbal definitions. They should establish the validity. Hence, G is the correct answer.

A story in a language the audience cannot understand

Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: If a person was to tell a shockingly obscene story in Arabic or Hindustani or Swahili before an audience that understood only English, no one would blush or be angry; the story would be neither
shocking nor obscene— indeed, it would not even be a story.
Keyword : understood, not even a story
Keyword Location: last paragraph, 2nd sentence
Explanation: The author says if someone does not understand a language, then the story has no effect on that person. It cannot be entertaining. They need to understand the context and the language of it. This makes D the correct answer.

A dollar bill without public acceptance

Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: Likewise, the value of a dollar bill is not in the bill, but in our social agreement to accept it as a symbol of value.
Keyword : dollar, bill
Keyword Location: last paragraph, 3rd sentence
Explanation: The paragraph states that the value of the bill lies in the social acceptance and not in the bill itself. Everyone accepts that it costs 1 dollar. The paper with which it is made is not one dollar.