Cambridge IELTS 1 · Academic · Test 2 · Passage 1
Right And Left-handedness In Humans — IELTS Reading Answers
All 12 answers for Right And Left-handedness In Humans, Cambridge IELTS 1 Academic Reading Test 2 Passage 1, with the passage evidence and an explanation for each.
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Right And Left-handedness In Humans answer key at a glance
Questions 1–12. Tap an answer to see the evidence.
What this passage tests
This passage is tested with Matching Features (Q1–7), Table Completion (Q8–10), One Choice (Q11–12). Each section below gives the strategy for that question type, the answers, and the sentence that proves them.
Questions 1–7: Matching Features
Strategy: Match the statement to the named person or thing. Names can repeat, so check each option against what that person actually says.
Options for Questions 1–7
- ADr Broca
- BDr Brinkman
- CGeschwind and Galaburda
- DCharles Moore
- EProfessor Turner
Human beings started to show a preference for right-handedness when they first developed language.
“Dr Brinkman, a brain researcher at the Australian National University in Canberra, has suggested that evolution of speech went with right-handed preference”
Dr Brinkman suggested that evolution of speech went with right-handed preference, linking the development of language to right-handedness.
Society is prejudiced against left-handed people.
“Subliminally he says, language tells people to think that anything on the right can be trusted while anything on the left is dangerous or even sinister”
Charles Moore argues language tells people anything on the right can be trusted while anything left is dangerous or sinister, i.e. prejudice.
Boys are more likely to be left-handed.
“It should be no surprise then that among mathematicians and architects, left-handers tend to be more common and there are more left-handed males than females”
Geschwind and Galaburda are the researchers cited where the text notes there are more left-handed males than females.
After a stroke, left-handed people recover their speech more quickly than right-handed people.
“According to Brinkman, most left-handers have left hemisphere dominance but also some capacity in the right hemisphere. She has observed that if a left-handed person is brain-damaged in the left hemisphere,”
Brinkman observed that left-handers brain-damaged in the left hemisphere often recover speech better because their speech function is more bilateral.
People who suffer strokes on the left side of the brain usually lose their power of speech.
“In the 1860s the French surgeon and anthropologist, Dr Paul Broca, made the remarkable finding that patients who had lost their powers of speech as a result of a stroke (a blood clot in the brain) had paralysis of the right half of their body.”
Dr Broca found stroke patients who lost speech had right-side paralysis, meaning the damage must have been in the left hemisphere.
The two sides of the brain develop different functions before birth.
“Two American researchers, Geschwind and Galaburda, studied the brains of human embryos and discovered that the left-right asymmetry exists before birth”
Geschwind and Galaburda studied human embryos and discovered that the left-right asymmetry exists before birth.
Asymmetry is a common feature of the human body.
“Professor Bryan Turner at Deakin University has studied the research literature on left-handedness and found that handedness goes with sidedness. So nine out of ten people are right-handed and eight are right-footed. He noted that this distinctive asymmetry in the human population is itself systematic”
Professor Turner found handedness goes with sidedness, nine in ten right-handed and eight right-footed, showing a systematic asymmetry.
Questions 8–10: Table Completion
Strategy: Work row by row. The row label tells you where to look; the column heading tells you what kind of word you need.
“With one right and one left-handed parent, 15 to 20 per cent of the offspring will be left-handed”
The table needs the percentage for one right- and one left-handed parent; the text gives 15 to 20 per cent of offspring.
“However, among two left-handed parents, perhaps 40 per cent of the children will also be left-handed”
The table needs the percentage for two left-handed parents; the text says perhaps 40 per cent of the children will be left-handed.
“in fact about 6 per cent of children with two right-handed parents will be left-handed”
The table needs the percentage for two right-handed parents; the text says about 6 per cent of children will be left-handed.
Questions 11–12: One Choice
Strategy: Read the question stem and predict the answer before looking at the options. Wrong options often repeat passage words while the correct one paraphrases them.
A study of monkeys has shown that
- Amonkeys are not usually right-handed.
- Bmonkeys display a capacity for speech.
- Cmonkey brains are smaller than human brains.
- Dmonkey brains are asymmetric.correct
“Brinkman claims to have discovered a trend in monkeys towards the asymmetry that is evident in the human brain”
Brinkman claims to have discovered a trend in monkeys towards the asymmetry evident in the human brain, so monkey brains are asymmetric.
According to the writer, left-handed people
- Awill often develop a stammer.
- Bhave undergone hardship for years.correct
- Care untrustworthy.
- Dare good tennis players.
“The results of this research may be some consolation to left-handers who have for centuries lived in a world designed to suit right-handed people”
The research may console left-handers who have for centuries lived in a world designed to suit right-handed people, implying long hardship.
Learn the question types in this passage
Frequently asked questions
Where does the Right And Left-handedness In Humans passage come from?
It is Passage 1 of Cambridge IELTS 1 Academic Reading Test 2, and it covers Questions 1–12.
What question types appear in Right And Left-handedness In Humans?
The passage is tested with Matching Features, Table Completion, One Choice. 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.