Cambridge ielts 1-15 series reading answers explained

 
30. Answer: B Participants exchanged roles.
Keywords: San Diego, upset, exchanged roles, friends, unable
A study from San Diego is described in paragraph 4. The words in the passage: “each student in the 
study” refers to the participants. In the study, specifically, participants “took a turn at being teased by 
the others”. As the act of “taking a turn” means that participants “exchange roles” with each other, 
statement B shows how the study was conducted, so B is the answer. 
 
31. Answer: D High-status individuals can always be identified by their way of laughing
Keywords: fifth paragraph, dominant laugh, submissive laughs, similar, identified
At the end of paragraph 5, it is stated that “high-status individuals were rated as high-status whether 
they produced their natural dominant laugh or tried to do a submissive one”. It can then be understood 
that, with whatever their way of laughing, the high-status individuals were always identified. As a 
result, D is the answer. 
 
 

---

499 
QUESTIONS 32 – 36: COMPLETE THE SUMMARY USING THE 
LIST OF WORDS, A-H, BELOW. 
32. Answer: F
Key words: Australian National University, three videos, different kind
A study conducted by researchers from Australian National University is explained in paragraph 6. In 
the study, participants were assigned to watch randomly one of three videos, which “elicit either 
“humour, contentment, or neutral feelings”. 

generate = elicit 

emotion = feelings 
Therefore, the videos were designed to generate different kinds of emotion, so F is the answer. 
 
33. Answer: H
Key words: persisted, tried harder
The result of the study is revealed in paragraph 7. After watching one of the videos, the groups were 
given a second task “requiring persistence”. It was found that those who watched the 
Mr. Bean
video 
ended up persisting with the task longer (“spending significantly more time working on the task”) and 
tried harder (“making twice as many predictions as the other two groups”). Among the given words, 
“amusing” best describes the 
Mr. Bean
video, so H is the answer.