The World’s Expanding Waistline IELTS Reading Answers

The IELTS Reading Module offers a fantastic chance to achieve excellent scores. It assesses a candidate’s reading comprehension skills in English. You must comprehend the various question types in order to perform at your best in this area. Ideally, you should not spend more than 20 minutes on a passage.

The Academic passage, The World’s Expanding Waistline reading answers appeared in an IELTS Test. It contains some of the IELTS reading question types. If you are interested in familiarizing yourself with all the question types, don’t hesitate to take an IELTS reading practice test.

Now, let’s see how easy this passage is for you and if you’re able to make it in 20 minutes.

The question types found in this passage are:

• Yes/No/Not Given (Q.1-8)
• Summary Completion (Q. 9-15; 16-19)

Reading Passage

The World’s Expanding Waistline

When the world was a simpler place, the rich were fat, the poor were thin, and people worried about how to feed the hungry. Now, in much of the world, the rich are thin, the poor are fat, and people are worrying about obesity.

‘Thanks to rising agricultural productivity, famine is rarer all over the globe. According to the UN, the number of people short of food fell from 920m in 1980 to 798m in 2000, even though the world’s population increased by 16 billion over the period. But the consequence of this prosperity brings a new problem and with it a host of interesting policy dilemmas.

Obesity is the world’s biggest public-health issue today, the main cause of heart disease, which kills more people these days than AIDS, malaria, war; the principal risk factor in diabetes; heavily implicated in cancer and other diseases. Since the World Health Organisation labelled obesity an “epidemic” in 2000, there have been many reports on its fearful consequences.

Will public-health warnings, combined with media pressure, persuade people to get thinner, just as they finally put them off tobacco? There is now agreement among doctors that governments should do something to help.

Diet by command?

There’s nothing new about the idea that governments should intervene in the food business. One of the earliest examples was in 1202, when King John of England first banned the adulteration of bread. Governments and people seem to agree that ensuring the safety and stability of the food supply is part of the state’s job. But obesity is a more complicated issue than food safety. It is not about ensuring that people don’t get poisoned; it is about changing their behaviour. Should governments be trying to do anything about it at all?

‘There is a bad reason for doing something, and a couple of good ones. The bad reason is that governments should help citizens look after themselves. People, the argument goes, are misled by their bodies, which are constantly trying to store a few more calories in case of hunger in the near future. ‘Governments should help guide them towards better eating habits. But that argument is weaker in the case of food than it is for tobacco — nicotine is addictive, chocolate is not — people have a choice of being sensible or silly. People should choose, not governments.

Get them young?

A better argument for intervention is that dietary habits are established early in childhood. Once people get fat, it is hard for them to get thin; once they are used to breakfasting on chips and Coke, it’s hard to change. The state, which has some responsibility for shaping young people, should try to ensure that its small citizens aren’t overdosing on sugar at primary school. Britain’s government is talking about tough restrictions on advertising junk food to children. It seems unlikely that it will have much effect. Sweden already bans advertising to children, and its young people are as fat as those in comparable countries. Other moves, such as banning junk food from schools, might work better.

The cost of obesity

A second plausible argument for intervention is that thin people subsidise fat people through health care. If everybody is forced to pay for the seriously fat, then everybody has an interest in seeing them slim down. This should not be a problem in insurance-financed health care systems, such as America’s. Insurance companies should be able to charge fat people more because they cost more. That leaves the question of what should happen in a state-financed health system. Why not tax fattening food – sweets, snacks and takeaways? That might discourage consumption of unhealthy food and also get back some of the costs of obesity.

It might; but it would also be too great an intrusion on liberty for the gain in equity and efficiency it might (or might not) represent. Society has a legitimate interest in fat because fat and thin people both pay for it. But it also has a legitimate interest in not having the government interfere in people’s private business. If people want to eat their way to grossness and an early grave, let them.

Question 1-8

1 Increasing world population has led to famine.

2 Obesity is one of the biggest killers in the world.

3 Doctors should advise people on how to lose weight.

4 Governments should try to prevent children from picking up bad eating habits.

5 Overweight people cost health systems more, and therefore should pay health insurance.

6 Overweight people should not smoke.

7 Banning advertisements of junk food aimed at children would change their eating habits.

8 Everyone has a right to eat what they like and as much as they like.

Questions 9-15

Farming today is much more productive than even twenty years ago, and it is due to this increase in 9.…………….. that famine in this time has become much less common in the world.

However, it has led to a new problem of obesity, which has become the most significant global 10………………………… concern.

It is generally agreed that the government should be responsible for protecting the 11…………………. of society’s food. However, obesity is a more complicated issue and it raises the question of whether governments should try to alter people’s 12………………. Many disagree that the duty of the government is to take care of society by encouraging 13……………………. Surely, people have a choice whether to eat healthily or not.

‘Those who favour government’s involvement in our food consumption think it is more effective to try to change people while they are still are at 14…………………. There should therefore be restrictions on junk food being advertised to children. The problem, though, is that this has already been tried in Sweden, and there is no difference between there and 15………………..

Question 16-19

At the moment, the extra cost of healthcare attributable to obese people is paid by 16…………….. In countries where health care is funded by insurance, this is not such a problem because overweight people can be charged higher premiums. However, in countries which have 17……………. funded medical services this is not possible. One possible solution would be the introduction of a 18.……………. on unhealthy food. Although this might work to reduce obesity, it is likely to be very unpopular – most people will see it as too great an interference in personal 19………………

Answers of The World’s Expanding Waistline IELTS Reading Answers with Explanations

1 Answer: No

Question type: Yes/No/Not Given

Answer location: Second Paragraph, 1st line

Answer explanation: The paragraph states that famine is rarer due to rising agricultural productivity, even though the world’s population increased by 16 billion. This indicates that increasing world population has not led to famine.

2 Answer: Yes

Question type: Yes/No/Not Given

Answer location: Third Paragraph, 1st line

Answer explanation:  The paragraph mentions that obesity is the world’s biggest public-health issue today and discusses its consequences, including being the main cause of heart disease and heavily implicated in other diseases.

3 Answer: Not Given

Question type: Yes/No/Not Given

Answer location: —

Answer explanation: The passage mentions that there is agreement among doctors that governments should do something to help combat obesity but it is not specified who should give the advice.

Tips for Answering the Question Types in The World’s Expanding Waistline IELTS Reading Answers

Let us check out some quick tips to answer the types of questions in ‘The World’s Expanding Waistline’ Reading Answers passage.

Yes/No/Not Given:

In IELTS Reading, ‘Yes/No/Not Given’ questions revolve around factual information. You’ll encounter a series of statements, and your task is to determine their accuracy by examining the text.

To tackle these questions effectively, employ the following strategies:

• Begin by scrutinizing the question and pinpointing the essential keywords. Before diving into the text, review your list of ‘Yes,’ ‘No,’ and ‘Not Given’ queries.
• Conduct a quick scan of the passage, paying attention to synonyms or paraphrased versions of the keywords you’ve identified. Rapidly read the text to locate these synonyms.
• Compare the highlighted words in the questions with their counterparts in the text. Once you’ve found matching sets of keywords, cross-reference them to deduce the answer.
• Determine the answer based on the match: If the facts align, the answer is ‘YES,’ and if they contradict, it’s ‘NO.’ If you cannot locate the answer or are uncertain, mark it as ‘NOT GIVEN.’

Summary Completion: 

Summary Completion is another IELTS reading question type where you must insert a missing word or phrase from the passage into a paragraph.

To navigate summary completion questions effectively, employ the following strategies:

• Carefully read the sentences in the paragraph: This will provide insights into the type of word or phrase required to fill the gap.
• Scan the passage for keywords: Identify the keywords in the sentence, as they can guide you toward the correct word or phrase in the text.
• Review the sentence with the missing word or phrase: Assess how the word or phrase fits contextually within the sentence.
• Verify your answer: Once you’ve inserted the missing element, ensure that it logically fits into the sentence’s context.

Also, check:

• How to complete IELTS Reading in less than 1 hour
• Useful IELTS Reading Website Resources & material for both Academic & General Training Module
• 101 IELTS Reading Past Papers With Answers PDF Download
• 15 Days’ Practice for IELTS Reading (PDF) with Answers (General And Academic)
• IELTS Reading Tips & Practice Test: Matching Headings to Paragraphs