Play is a Serious Business Reading Answers

Candidates can practice more to get a good band score. The IELTS Reading Practise Papers will help the candidates to prepare for the exam.

Play is a Serious Business Reading Answers checks the candidate’s proficiency in reading through questions relating to a passage. The IELTS Reading test helps students in improving their skills which includes reading, understanding, accessing and analysing. In this IELTS Reading Section, Play is a Serious Business Reading Answers, there are different types of questions each demanding the performance of a different type of task.

Section 2

Solution with Explanation
Questions 1-6:
Reading Passage has nine paragraphs labelled A-I.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-I in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
NB: You may use any letter more than once.

1. the way play causes unusual connections in the brain which are beneficial

Answer: H
Supporting Sentence: Siviy studied how bouts of play affected the brain’s levels of a particular chemical associated with the stimulation and growth of nerve cells. He was surprised by the extent of the activation.
Keyword: Insights, Recording, brain, play
Keyword Location: Para H, 6th and 7th line
Explanation: Siviy study showed that play affects the brains level of chemical association with the growth of nerve cells. Hence, the connections caused by brains are beneficial.

Read More IELTS Reading Reading Articles

2. insights from recording how much time young animals spend playing

Answer: F
Supporting Sentence: Other researchers have found that play in cats, rats and mice is at its most intense just as this ‘window of opportunity’ reaches its peak.
Keyword: play, peak, window
Keyword Location: Paragraph F, last line
Explanation: The paragraph states about how much time young animals spend playing. As per researchers, play in some animals is at its peak.

3. a description of the physical hazards that can accompany play

Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: For a start, play can even cost animals their lives. Eighty percent of deaths among juvenile fur seals occur because playing pups fail to spot predators approaching.
Keyword: lives, death
Keyword Location: Paragraph A, 4th and 5th line
Explanation: Playing can cost lives and 80% deaths are due to the play where young animals fail.

4. a description of the mental activities which are exercised and developed during play

Answer: H
Supporting Sentence: Not only is more of the brain involved in play than was suspected, but it also seems to activate higher cognitive processes.
Keyword: brain, active
Keyword Location: Paragraph H, 1st line
Explanation: The author states that playing can develop mental developments. The whole paragraph is all about brain activities involved in play.

5. the possible effects that a reduction in play opportunities will have on humans

Answer: I
Supporting Sentence: We already know that rat pups are denied the chance to grow smaller brain components and fail to develop the ability to apply social rules when they interact with their peers. With schooling beginning earlier and becoming increasingly exam-orientated, play is likely to get even less of a look-in.
Keyword: peers, schooling
Keyword Location: Paragraph I, 2nd and 3rd line
Explanation: Paragraph I speaks about the effects of reducing the playing time that will have on humans. If schooling and exam oriented mindset, the play is automatically designed to decrease. Hence, I is the correct answer.

6. the classes of animals for which play is important

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: Playfulness, it seems, is common only among mammals, although a few of the larger-brained birds also indulge. Animals at play often use unique signs – tail- wagging in dogs, for example – to indicate that activity superficially resembling adult behaviour is not really in earnest.
Keyword: Playfulness, among, animals
Keyword Location: Paragraph B, 4th and 5th line
Explanation: The second paragraph talks about animals for which play is important like dogs, cats etc. hence, the answer is correct.

Questions 7-9:
Choose THREE letters A-F.
Write your answers in boxes 7-9 on your answer sheet.
The list below gives some ways of regarding play.
Which THREE ways are mentioned by the writer of the text?

1. a rehearsal for later adult activities
2. a method animals use to prove themselves to their peer group
3. an activity intended to build up strength for adulthood
4. a means of communicating feelings
5. a defensive strategy
6. an activity assisting organ growth

Question 7:

Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: Animals at play often use unique signs – tail- wagging in dogs, for example – to indicate that activity superficially resembling adult behaviour is not really in earnest.
Keyword: adult behaviour
Keyword Location: Paragraph B, 5th line
Explanation: Unique signs used by animals resemble adult behaviour which is a rehearsal for later adult activities.

Question 8:

Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: Play may look like a carefree and exuberant way to pass the time before the hard work of adulthood comes along, but there’s much more to it than that.
Keyword: adulthood, before
Keyword Location: Paragraph A, 2nd line
Explanation: Play may look different but it is a rehearsal before the hard work of adulthood comes. It is an activity intended to build up strength for adulthood.

Question 9:

Answer: F
Supporting Sentence: Siviy studied how bouts of play affected the brain’s levels of a particular chemical associated with the stimulation and growth of nerve cells.
Keyword: growth, nerve cells
Keyword Location: Paragraph H, 6th line
Explanation: Play affects the growth of nerve cells, considered as an organ of the body. Hence, play is an an activity assisting organ growth

Questions 10-14:
Look at the following researchers (Questions 10-14) and the list of findings below.
Match each researcher with the correct finding.
Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 10-14 on your answer sheet.

10. Robert Barton

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: Robert Barton of Durham University believes that, because large brains are more sensitive to developmental stimuli than smaller brains, they require more play to help mould them for adulthood. ‘I concluded it’s to do with learning, and with the importance of environmental data to the brain during development,’ he says.
Keyword: environment
Keyword Location: Paragraph E, 5th line
Explanation: Robert Barton says that play develops the brain for environmental data or surroundings.

11. Marc Bekoff

Answer: G
Supporting Sentence: Not only is more of the brain involved in play than was suspected, but it also seems to activate higher cognitive processes. ‘There’s enormous cognitive involvement in play,’ says Bekoff. He points out that play often involves complex assessments of playmates, ideas of reciprocity and the use of specialised signals and rules.
Keyword: enormous, involvement
Keyword Location: Paragraph H, first 3 lines
Explanation: Marc Bekoff says that play involves higher cognitive processes, complex assessments of playmates, ideas of reciprocity and the use of specialised signals and rules.

12. John Byers

Answer: E
Supporting Sentence: ‘Even two or three per cent is huge,’ says John Byers of Idaho University. ‘You just don’t find animals wasting energy like that,’ he adds.
Keyword: training, fitness
Keyword Location: Paragraph A, last 3 lines
Explanation: Play is not a form of fitness for the future. John Byers says that animals does not seem to waste energy like that.

13. Sergio Pellis

Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: Earlier this year, Sergio Pellis of Lethbridge University, Canada, reported that there is a strong positive link between brain size and playfulness among mammals in general.
Keyword: brain size, playfulness
Keyword Location: Paragraph E, 1st line
Explanation: As per Sergio Pellis, there is a link between brain size and playfulness. Hence, animals with smaller brain size play less.

14. Stephen Siviy

Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: He believes that play creates a brain that has greater behavioural flexibility and improved potential for learning later in life. The idea is backed up by the work of Stephen Siviy of Gettysburg College.
Keyword: brain, play
Keyword Location: Paragraph H, 4th and 5th line
Explanation: The idea that play creates a brain that has greater behavioural flexibility and improved potential for learning later in life is backed by Stephen Siviy of Gettysburg College.