Bovids, Twin study: Two of a kind, The significant role of mother tongue language in education – IELTS Reading Answers

The Reading Module of the IELTS can be the top-scoring category, with diligent practice. To achieve the best results in this section, you must understand how to approach and answer the different Question types in the Reading Module. By solving and reviewing Sample Reading Questions from past IELTS papers, you can ensure that your Reading skills are up to the mark.

In the Academic Reading practice test, “Bovids, Twin study: Two of a kind, The significant role of mother tongue language in education” there are 40 questions of various question types. We at IELTSMaterial.com would urge every IELTS aspirant to time this test as in the real exam and find the answers without looking at the key. If you have scored 40/40, then we wish you all the best. If you haven’t, then we would earnestly advise you to take one of our IELTS reading practice tests. 

Here are question types in this reading test:

Reading Passage 1 (Bovids)

• Multiple Choice Question 
• Matching Features
• Short Answer Questions 

Reading Passage 2 (Twin study: Two of a kind)

• Matching Information 
• Summary Completion 
• Multiple Choice Question 

Reading Passage 3 (The significant role of mother tongue language in education )

• Multiple Choice Question 
• Summary Completion
• Yes/ No/ Not Given

Reading Passage 1

Bovids

A. The family of mammals called bovids belongs to the Artiodactyl class, which also includes giraffes. Bovids are highly diverse group consisting of 137 species, some of which are man’s most important domestic animals.

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B. Bovids are well represented in most parts of Eurasia and Southeast Asian islands, but they are by far the most numerous and diverse in the latter Some species of bovid are solitary, but others live in large groups with complex social structures. Although bovids have adapted to a wide range of habitats, from arctic tundra to deep tropical forest, the majority of species favour open grassland, scrub or desert. This diversity of habitat is also matched by great diversity in size and form: at one extreme is the royal antelope of West Africa, which stands a mere 25 cm at the shoulder; at the other, the massively built bisons of North America and Europe, growing to a shoulder height of 2.2m.

C. Despite differences in size and appearance, bovids are united by the possession of certain common features. All species are ruminants, which means that they retain undigested food in their stomachs, and regurgitate it as necessary. Bovids are almost exclusively herbivorous: plant-eating “incisors: front teeth herbivorous. 

D. Typically their teeth are highly modified for browsing and grazing: grass or foliage is cropped with the upper lip and lower incisors** (the upper incisors are usually absent), and then ground down by the cheek teeth. As well as having cloven, or split, hooves, the males of ail bovid species and the females of most carry horns. Bovid horns have bony cores covered in a sheath of horny material that is constantly renewed from within; they are unbranched and never shed. They vary in shape and size: the relatively simple horns of a large Indian buffalo may measure around 4 m from tip to tip along the outer curve, while the various gazelles have horns with a variety of elegant curves.

E. Five groups, or sub-families, may be distinguished: Bovinae, Antelope, Caprinae, Cephalophinae and Antilocapridae. The sub-family Bovinae comprises most of the larger bovids, including the African bongo, and nilgae, eland, bison and cattle. Unlike most other bovids they are all non-territorial. The ancestors of the various species of domestic cattle banteng, gaur, yak and water buffalo are generally rare and endangered in the wild, while the auroch (the ancestor of the domestic cattle of Europe) is extinct.

F. The term ‘antelope 1 is not a very precise zoological name _ it is used to loosely describe a number of bovids that have followed different lines of development. Antelopes are typically long-legged, fast-running species, often with long horns that may be laid along the back when the animal is in full flight. There are two main sub-groups antelope: Hippotraginae, which includes the oryx and the addax, and Antilopinae, which generally contains slighter and more graceful animals such as gazelle and the springbok. Antelopes are mainly grassland species, but many have adapted to flooded grasslands: pukus, waterbucks and lechwes are all good at swimming, usually feeding in deep water, while the sitatunga has long, splayed hooves that enable it to walk freely on swampy ground.

G. The sub-family Caprinae includes the sheep and the goat, together with various relatives such as the goral and the tahr. Most are woolly or have long hair. Several species, such as wild goats, chamois and ibex, are agile cliff 一 and mountain-dwellers. Tolerance of extreme conditions is most marked in this group: Barbary and bighorn sheep have adapted to arid deserts, while Rocky Mountain sheep survive high up in mountains and musk oxen in arctic tundra.

H. The duiker of Africa belongs to the Cephalophinae sub-family. It is generally small and solitary, often living in thick forest. Although mainly feeding on grass and leaves, some duikers – unlike most other bovids -are believed to eat insects and feed on dead animal carcasses, and even to kill small animals.

I. the pronghorn is the sole survivor of a New World sub-family of herbivorous ruminants, the Antilocapridae in North America. It is similar in appearance and habits to the Old World antelope. Although greatly reduced in numbers since the arrival of Europeans, and the subsequent enclosure of grasslands, the pronghorn is still found in considerable numbers throughout North America, from Washington State to Mexico. When alarmed by the approach of wolves or other predators, hairs on the pronghorn’s rump stand erect, so showing and emphasising the white patch there. At this signal, the whole herd gallops off at speed of over 60 km per hour.

 Questions 1-3

1 In which region is the biggest range of bovids to be found?

A Africa

B Eurasia

C North America

D South-east Asia

2 Most bovids have a preference for living in

A isolation

B small groups

C tropical forest

D wide open spaces

3 Which of the following features do all bovids have in common?

A Their homs are shot

B They have upper incisors

C They store food in the body

D Their hooves are undivided

Questions 4-8

4 can endure very harsh environments

5 includes the ox and the cow

6 may supplement its diet with meat

7 can usually move at speed

8 does not defend a particular area of land

Question 9-13

9 What is the smallest species of Bovid called?

10 Which species of Boviae has now died out?

11 What facilitates the movement of the sitatunga over wetland?

12 What sort of terrain do barbary sheep live in?

13 What is the only living member of the Antilocapridae sub-family?

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Reading Passage 2

Twin study: Two of a kind

A. The scientific study of twins goes back to the late 19th century, when Francis Galton, an early geneticist, realized that they came in two varieties: identical twins born from one egg and non-identical twins that had come from two. That insight turned out to be key, although it was not until 1924 that it was used to formulate what is known as the twin rule of pathology, and twin studies really got going.

B. The twin rule of pathology states that any heritable disease will be more concordant (that is, more likely to be jointly present or absent) in identical twins than in non-identical twins—and, in turn, will be more concordant in non-identical twins than in non-siblings. Early work, for example, showed that the statistical correlation of skin-mole counts between identical twins was 0.4, while non-identical twins had a correlation of only 0.2. (A score of 1.0 implies perfect correlation, while a score of zero implies no correlation.) This result suggests that moles are heritable, but it also implies that there is an environmental component to the development of moles, otherwise the correlation in identical twins would be close to 1.0.

C. Twin research has shown that whether or not someone takes up smoking is determined mainly by environmental factors, but once he does so, how much he smokes is largely down to his genes. And while a person’s religion is clearly a cultural attribute, there is a strong genetic component to religious fundamentalism. Twin studies are also unraveling the heritability of various aspects of human personality. Traits from neuroticism and anxiety to thrill- and novelty-seeking all have large genetic components. Parenting matters, but it does not determine personality in the way that some had thought.

D. More importantly, perhaps, twin studies are helping the understanding of diseases such as cancer, asthma, osteoporosis, arthritis and immune disorders. And twins can be used, within ethical limits, for medical experiments. A study that administered vitamin C to one twin and a placebo to the other found that it had no effect on the common cold. The lesson from all today’s twin studies is that most human traits are at least partially influenced by genes. However, for the most part, the age-old dichotomy between nature and nurture is not very useful. Many genetic programs are open to input from the environment, and genes are frequently switched on or off by environmental signals. It is also possible that genes themselves influence their environment. Some humans have an innate preference for participation in sports. Others are drawn to novelty. Might people also be drawn to certain kinds of friends and types of experience? In this way, a person’s genes might shape the environment they act in as much as the environment shapes the actions of the genes.

E. In the past, such research has been controversial. Josef Mengele, a Nazi doctor working at the Auschwitz extermination camp during the Second World War, was fascinated by twins. He sought them out among arrivals at the camp and preserved them from the gas-chambers for a series of brutal experiments. After the war, Cyril Burt, a British psychologist who worked on the heredity of intelligence, tainted twin research with results that appear, in retrospect, to have been rather too good. Some of his data on identical twins who had been reared apart were probably faked. In any case, the prevailing ideology in the social sciences after the war was Marxist, and disliked suggestions that differences in human potential might have underlying genetic causes. Twin studies were thus viewed with suspicion.

F. the ideological pendulum has swung back; however, as the human genome project and its aftermath have turned genes from abstract concepts to real pieces of DNA. The role of genes in sensitive areas such as intelligence is acknowledged by all but a few die-hards. The interesting questions now concern how nature and nurture interact to produce particular bits of biology, rather than which of the two is more important. Twin studies, which are a good way to ask these questions, are back in fashion, and many twins are enthusiastic participants in this research.

G. Research at the Twinsburg festival began in a small way, with a single stand in 1979. Gradually, news spread, and more scientists began turning up. This year, half a dozen groups of researchers were lodged in a specially pitched research tent. In one comer of this tent, Paul Breslin, who works at the Monell Institute in Philadelphia, watched over several tables where twins sat sipping clear liquids from cups and making notes. It was the team’s third year at Twinsburg. Dr Breslin and his colleagues want to find out how genes influence human perception, particularly the senses of smell and taste and those (warmth, cold, pain, tingle, itch and so on) that result from stimulation of the skin. Perception is an example of something that is probably influenced by both genes and experience. Even before birth, people are exposed to flavours such as chocolate, garlic, mint and vanilla that pass intact into the bloodstream, and thus to the fetus. Though it is not yet clear whether such pre-natal exposure shapes taste-perception, there is evidence that it shapes preferences for foods encountered later in life.

H. However, there are clearly genetic influences at work, as well-for example in the ability to taste quinine. Some people experience this as intensely bitter, even when it is present at very low levels. Others, whose genetic endowment is different, are less bothered by it. Twin studies make this extremely clear. Within a pair of identical twins, either both, or neither, will find quinine hard to swallow. Non-identical twins will agree less frequently.

I. On the other side of the tent Dennis Drayna, from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, in Maryland, was studying hearing. He wants to know what happens to sounds after they reach the ear. It is not clear, he says, whether sound is processed into sensation mostly in the ear or in the brain. Dr Drayna has already been involved in a twin study which revealed that the perception of musical pitch is highly heritable. At Twinsburg, he is playing different words, or parts of words, into the left and right ears of his twinned volunteers. The composite of the two sounds that an individual reports hearing depends on how he processes this diverse information and that, Dr Drayna believes, may well be influenced by genetics.

J. Elsewhere in the marquee, Peter Miraldi, of Kent State University in Ohio, was trying to find out whether genes affect an individual’s motivation to communicate with others. A number of twin studies have shown that personality and sociability are heritable, so he thinks this is fertile ground. And next to Mr. Miraldi was a team of dermatologists from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. They are looking at the development of skin diseases and male-pattern baldness. The goal of the latter piece of research is to find the genes responsible for making men’s hair fall out.

K. The busiest part of the tent, however, was the queue for forensic-science research into fingerprints. The origins of this study are shrouded in mystery. For many months, the festival/’s organisers have been convinced that the Secret Service – the American government agency responsible for, among other things, the safety of the president – is behind it. When The Economist contacted the Secret Service for more information, we were referred to Steve Nash, who is chairman of the International Association for Identification (IAI), and is also a detective in the scientific investigations section of the Marin County Sheriff’s Office in California. The IAI, based in Minnesota, is an organisation of forensic scientists from around the world. Among other things, it publishes the Journal of Forensic Identification.

Questions 14-18

14 Mentioned research conducted in Ohio

15 Medical contribution to the researches for twins.

16 Research situation under life threatening conditions

17 Data of similarities of identical twins

18 Reasons that make one study unconvincing

Questions 19-20

The first one that conducted research on twins iscalled ……………….. 19………………… He separated twins into two categories: non identical and identical twins. The twin research was used in medical application in as early as the year of………………………………… 20………………

Questions 21-23

Please choose THREE research fields that had been carried out in Ohio, Maryland and Twinsburgh?

A Sense

B Cancer

C Be allergic to Vitamin D

D Mole heredity

E Sound

F Baldness of men

Questions 24-26

Please choose THREE results that had been verified in this passage.

A Non identical twins come from different eggs.

B Genetic relation between identical twins is closer than non-identical ones.

CVitamin C has evident effect on a cold.

D Genetic influence to smoking is superior to environment’s

E If a pregnant woman eats too much sweet would lead to skin disease.

F Hair loss has been found to be connected with skin problem.

Reading Passage 3

The significant role of mother tongue language in education

A. One consequence of population mobility is an increasing diversity within schools. To illustrate, in the city of Toronto in Canada, 58% of kindergarten pupils come from homes where English is not language of communication. Schools in Europe and North America have experienced this diversity for years, but educational policies and practices vary widely between countries and even within countries. Some political parties and groups search for ways to solve the problem of diverse communities and their integration in schools and society. They see few positive consequences for the host society and worry that diversity threaten the identity of the host society .Consequently, they promote unfortunate educational policies that will make the “problem” disappear. If students retain their culture and language, they are viewed as less capable of identifying with the mainstream culture and learning the mainstream language of the society.

B. The challenge for educators and policy-makers is to shape the evolution of national identity in such a way that the rights of all citizens (including school children) are respected, and the cultural, linguistic, and economic resources of the nation are maximized. To waste the resources of the nation by discouraging children from developing their mother tongues is quite simply unintelligent from the point of view of national self-interest. A first step in Providing an appropriate education for culturally and linguistically diverse children is to examine what the existing research says about the role of children’s mother tongues in their educational development.

C. In fact, the research is very clear. When children continue to develop their abilities in two or more languages throughout their primary school, they gain a deeper understanding of language and how to use it effectively. They have more practice in processing language, especially when they develop literacy in both. More than 150 research studies conducted during the past 35 years strongly support what Goethe, the famous eighteenth-century German philosopher, once said： that the person who knows only one language does not truly know that language. Research suggests that bilingual children may also develop more flexibility in their thinking as a result of processing information through two different languages.

D. The level of development of children’s mother tongue is a strong predictor of their second language development. Children who come to school with a solid foundation in their mother tongue develop stronger literacy abilities in the school language. When parents and other caregivers (e.g. grandparents) are able to spend time with their children and tell stories or discuss issues with them in a way that develops their mother tongue, children come to school well-prepared to learn the school language and succeed educationally. Children’s knowledge and skills transfer across languages from the mother tongue to the school language. Transfer across languages can be two-way: both languages nurture each other when the educational environment permits children access to both languages.

E. Some educators and parents are suspicious of mother tongue-based teaching programs because they worry that they take time away from the majority language. For example, in a bilingual program where 50% of the time is spent teaching through children’s home language and 50% through the majority language, surely children’s won’t progress as far in the letter? One of the most strongly established findings of educational research, however, is that well-implemented bilingual programs can promote literacy and subject- matter knowledge in a minority language without any negative effects on children’s development in the majority language. Within Europe, the Foyer program in Belgium, which develops children’s speaking and literacy abilities in three languages (their mother tongue, Dutch and French), most clearly illustrates the benefits of bilingual and trilingual education (see Cummins, 2000).

F. It is easy to understand how this happens. When children are learning through a minority language, they are learning concepts and intellectual skills too. Pupils who know how to tell the time in their mother tongue understand the concept of telling time. In order to tell time in the majority language they do not need to re-learn the concept. Similarly, at more advanced stages, there is transfer across languages in other skills such as knowing how to distinguish the main idea from the supporting details of a written passage or story, and distinguishing fact from opinion, Studies of secondary school pupils are providing interesting findings in this area, and it would be worth extending this research.

G. Many people marvel at how quickly bilingual children seem to “pick up” conversational skills in the majority language at school (although it takes much longer for them to catch up to native speakers in academic language skills). However, educators are often much less aware of how quickly children can lose their ability to use their mother tongue, even in the home context. The extent and rapidity of language loss will vary according to the concentration of families from a particular linguistic group in the neighborhood. Where the mother tongue is used extensively in the community, then language loss among young children will be less. However, where language communities are not concentrated in particular neighborhoods, children can lose their ability to communicate in their mother tongue within 2-3 years of starting school. They may retain receptive skills in the language but they will use the majority language in speaking with their peers and siblings and in responding to their parents. By the time children become adolescents, the linguistic division between parents and children has become an emotional chasm. Pupils frequently become alienated from the cultures of both home and school with predictable results.

Questions 27-30

27 What point the writer making in the second paragraph?

A Some present studies on children’s mother tongues are misleading

B A culturally rich education programme benefits some children more than others.

C bilingual children can make a valuable contribution to the wealth of a country

D The law on mother tongue use at school should be strengthened.

28 Why does the writer refer to something that Goethe said?

A to lend weight his argument

B to contradict some research

C to introduce a new concept

D to update current thinking

29 The writer believes that when young children have a firm grasp of their mother tongue

A they can teach older family members what they learn at school

B they go on to do much better throughout their time at school

C they can read stories about their cultural background

D they develop stronger relationships with their family than with their peers.

30 Why are some people suspicious about mother tongue-based teaching programmes?

A They worry that children will be slow to learn to read in either language

B They think that children will confuse words in the two languages.

C They believe that the programmes will make children less interested in their lessons

D They fear that the programmes will use up valuable time in the school day.

Questions 31-35

Bilingual children

It was often recorded that Bilingual Children acquire the 31 ………………………………………. to converse in the majority language remarkable quickly. The fact that the mother tongue can disappear at a similar 32……………………………………. is less well understood. This phenomenon depends to a certain extent, on the proposition of people with the same linguistic background that have settled in a particular 33 ………………………………..; If this is limited, children are likely to lose the active use of their mother tongue. And thus no longer employ it even with 34………………………………. although they may still understand it. It follows that teenager children in these circumstances experience a sense of 35……………………………………………. in relation to all aspects of their lives.

Questions 36-40

36 Less than half the children who attend kindergarten in Toronto have English as their Mother tongue.

37 Research proves that learning the host country language at school can have an adverse effect on a child’s mother tongue.

38 the foyer Program is to be accepted by the French education system.

39 Bilingual children are taught to tell the time earlier than monolingual children.

40 Bilingual children can eventually apply reading comprehension strategies acquired in one language when reading in the other.

Answers

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