Cambridge IELTS 6 · Academic · Test 4 · Passage 1
Doctoring Sales — IELTS Reading Answers
All 13 answers for Doctoring Sales, Cambridge IELTS 6 Academic Reading Test 4 Passage 1, with the passage evidence and an explanation for each.
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Doctoring Sales answer key at a glance
Questions 1–13. Tap an answer to see the evidence.
What this passage tests
This passage is tested with Matching Headings (Q1–7), Yes / No / Not Given (Q8–13). Each section below gives the strategy for that question type, the answers, and the sentence that proves them.
Questions 1–7: Matching Headings
Strategy: Read the paragraph first and summarise its main idea in five words. Choose the heading that matches the whole paragraph, not a repeated keyword.
Paragraph A
“'The last rep offered me a trip to Florida. What do you have?' the physician asked”
Paragraph A opens with a physician asking a rep, 'The last rep offered me a trip to Florida. What do you have?' — heading v.
Paragraph B
“But on any given day, what Schaefer can offer is typical for today's drugs rep - a car trunk full of promotional gifts and gadgets, a budget that could buy lunches and dinners for a small country,”
Paragraph B lists what Schaefer can offer: promotional gifts, lunches and dinners, free samples, $200 payments and $1,000 honoraria — heading vi.
Paragraph C
“businesses won't use strategies that don't work, so are doctors to blame for the escalating extravagance of pharmaceutical marketing? Or is it the industry's responsibility to decide the boundaries”
Paragraph C asks whether doctors or the industry should be blamed for marketing extravagance, weighing responsibility — heading iii.
Paragraph D
“Salespeople provide much-needed information and education to physicians. In many cases the glossy brochures, article reprints and prescriptions they deliver are primary sources of drug education for healthcare givers”
Paragraph D defends reps, saying they provide 'much-needed information and education' and are 'primary sources of drug education' — heading ix.
Paragraph E
“'I've been the recipient of golf balls from one company and I use them, but it doesn't make me prescribe their medicine,' says one doctor. 'I tend to think I'm not influenced by what they give me.'”
Paragraph E quotes a doctor insisting gifts like golf balls do not influence his prescribing — heading i.
Paragraph F
“Though few comprehensive studies have been conducted, one by the University of Washington investigated how drug sample availability affected what physicians prescribe.”
Paragraph F cites the University of Washington study showing sample availability led doctors to prescribe drugs 'different from their preferred drug choice' — heading vii.
Paragraph G
“And patients are the ones who pay - in the form of sky-rocketing prescription prices - for every pen that's handed out, every free theatre ticket, and every steak dinner eaten”
Paragraph G says patients ultimately pay through 'sky-rocketing prescription prices' for every pen, ticket and steak dinner — heading x.
Questions 8–13: Yes / No / Not Given
Strategy: These test the writer's opinions, not facts. Look for evaluative language, and treat 'may' or 'could' as weaker than the question's claim.
Sales representatives like Kim Schaefer work to a very limited budget.
“what Schaefer can offer is typical for today's drugs rep - a car trunk full of promotional gifts and gadgets, a budget that could buy lunches and dinners for a small country,”
Schaefer's budget 'could buy lunches and dinners for a small country', so it is far from very limited.
Kim Schaefer's marketing technique may be open to criticism on moral grounds.
“Selling pharmaceuticals is a daily exercise in ethical judgement. Salespeople like Schaefer walk the line between the common practice of buying a prospect's time with a free meal, and bribing doctors to prescribe their drugs”
Selling pharmaceuticals is 'a daily exercise in ethical judgement', walking the line between buying a prospect's time and 'bribing doctors'.
The information provided by drug companies is of little use to doctors.
“Salespeople provide much-needed information and education to physicians. In many cases the glossy brochures, article reprints and prescriptions they deliver are primary sources of drug education for healthcare givers”
Reps provide 'much-needed information and education', often the 'primary sources of drug education' — so it is useful, not of little use.
Evidence of drug promotion is clearly visible in the healthcare environment.
“Rarely do patients watch a doctor write with a pen that isn't emblazoned with a drug's name, or see a nurse use a tablet not bearing a pharmaceutical company's logo”
Patients rarely see a pen or tablet without a drug name or company logo, so promotion is clearly visible in the healthcare environment.
The drug companies may give free drug samples to patients without doctors' prescriptions.
“Salespeople hand out hundreds of dollars' worth of samples each week - $7.2 billion worth of them in one year. Though few comprehensive studies have been conducted, one by the University of Washington investigated how drug sample availability affected what physicians prescribe”
Samples are handed out by salespeople, but the passage never says companies give them directly to patients without doctors' prescriptions.
It is legitimate for drug companies to make money.
“the fact remains that pharmaceutical companies have every right to make a profit”
'Pharmaceutical companies have every right to make a profit', so making money is legitimate.
Learn the question types in this passage
Frequently asked questions
Where does the Doctoring Sales passage come from?
It is Passage 1 of Cambridge IELTS 6 Academic Reading Test 4, and it covers Questions 1–13.
What question types appear in Doctoring Sales?
The passage is tested with Matching Headings, Yes / No / Not Given. Each type is explained on this page, alongside the answers.
Are these reading answers reliable?
Every answer is paired with the sentence that proves it, so you can check each one against the passage yourself. Use the page after a timed attempt, not instead of one.
Cambridge IELTS is published by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Band9Prep is not affiliated with Cambridge. This page is an independent study aid: it gives the answer key, the passage evidence and an explanation so you can review an attempt you have already made.