Among the 14 different kinds of questions in the IELTS reading section, short answer types are scoring and quite frequently asked. With proper strategies and tips, you can get a great score on the IELTS reading short answer questions. The blog covers everything about the different types of short answer questions along with a few samples and examples. In addition to that, it also covers effective tips and strategies that will help you achieve 8+ bands.
Table of Contents
The IELTS reading short answer questions are asked in both IELTS Academic and IELTS General reading tests. In this type, you will be given a passage followed by a few questions. The student will then be required to locate words (usually in one or two words) or numbers from the text. Besides, to answer this kind you will be required to skim the text for the meaning and identify keywords and specific information.
The short answer questions IELTS reading evaluates a candidate’s ability to locate, comprehend understanding specific details or information within the text. However, to properly answer the question, you must first be able to understand the type of question.
The short answer questions IELTS reading has mainly six types of questions that appear in the exam. These include. Understanding the type of question is essential before solving it.
1. Specific Information (Factual Questions)
These questions ask for specific details mentioned in the passage. The answer will be a direct and precise piece of information in the text. These include name, date, location, or figure.
2. Descriptions or Definitions
In this kind of question, you will be asked to identify or describe a concept. The question may even be “define a term” from the passage. Thus, you must briefly answer what is asked.
3. Process or Sequence
Process or sequence questions ask for you to answer related to the sequence of events or the order of processes described in the text.
4. Purpose or Function
These questions ask why something is done or the purpose of a particular action or event described in the text.
5. Causes or Effects
In this kind of question, you will be inquired about the reasons behind an event or the effects of an action or situation.
6. Examples or Evidence
This kind of question might ask you to find examples or pieces of evidence that support a claim made in the passage.
You might encounter any of the above-mentioned types of IELTS reading short answer questions in the exam. For better understanding, you must practice sample questions.
This section covers IELTS reading short answer questions samples for your reference.
Here is one of the IELTS reading short answer questions sample for short answer questions that will help you get a higher IELTS band score in the exam.
IELTS Reading Passage - Why Risks Can Go Wrong
A. People make terrible decisions about the future. The evidence is all around, from their investments in the stock markets to the way they run their businesses. In fact, people are consistently bad at dealing with uncertainty, underestimating some kinds of risk and overestimating others. Surely there must be a better way than using intuition?
B. In the 1960s a young American research psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, became interested in people's inability to make logical decisions. That launched him on a career to show just how irrationally people behave in practice. When Kahneman and his colleagues first started work, the idea of applying psychological insights to economics and business decisions was seen as rather bizarre. But in the past decade, the fields of behavioral finance and behavioral economics have blossomed, and in 2002 Kahneman shared a Nobel prize in economics for his work. Today he is in demand by business organizations and international banking companies. But, he says, there are plenty of institutions that still fail to understand the roots of their poor decisions. He claims that, far from being random, these mistakes are systematic and predictable.
C. One common cause of problems in decision-making is over-optimism. Ask most people about the future, and they will see too much blue sky ahead, even if past experience suggests otherwise. Surveys have shown that people's forecasts of future stock market movements are far more optimistic than past long-term returns would justify. The same goes for their hopes of ever-rising prices for their homes or doing well in games of chance. Such optimism can be useful for managers or sportsmen and sometimes turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy. But most of the time it results in wasted effort and dashed hopes. Kahneman's work points to three types of over-confidence. First, people tend to exaggerate their own skill and prowess; in polls, far fewer than half the respondents admit to having below-average skills in, say, driving. Second, they overestimate the amount of control they have over the future, forgetting about luck and chalking up success solely to skill. And third, in competitive pursuits such as dealing on shares, they forget that they have to judge their skills against those of the competition.
D. Another source of wrong decisions is related to the decisive effect of the initial meeting, particularly in negotiations over money. This is referred to as the 'anchor effect'. Once a figure has been mentioned, it takes a strange hold over the human mind. The asking price quoted in a house sale, for example, tends to become accepted by all parties as the 'anchor' around which negotiations take place. Much the same goes for salary negotiations or mergers and acquisitions. If nobody has much information to go on, a figure can provide comfort - even though it may lead to a terrible mistake.
E. In addition, mistakes may arise due to stubbornness. No one likes to abandon a cherished belief, and the earlier a decision has been taken, the harder it is to abandon it. Drug companies must decide early to cancel a failing research project to avoid wasting money, but may find it difficult to admit they have made a mistake. In the same way, analysts may have become wedded early to a single explanation that colored their perception. A fresh eye always helps.
F. People also tend to put a lot of emphasis on things they have seen and experienced themselves, which may not be the best guide to decision-making. For example, somebody may buy an overvalued share because a relative has made thousands on it, only to get his fingers burned. In finance, too much emphasis on information close at hand helps to explain the tendency by most investors to invest only within the country they live in. Even though they know that diversification is good for their portfolio, a large majority of both Americans and Europeans invest far too heavily in the shares of their home countries. They would be much better off spreading their risks more widely.
G. More information is helpful in making any decision but, says Kahneman, people spend proportionally too much time on small decisions and not enough on big ones. They need to adjust the balance. During the boom years, some companies put as much effort into planning their office party as into considering strategic mergers.
H. Finally, crying over spilled milk is not just a waste of time; it also often colors people's perceptions of the future. Some stock market investors trade far too frequently because they are chasing the returns on shares they wish they had bought earlier.
I. Kahneman reckons that some types of businesses are much better than others at dealing with risk. Pharmaceutical companies, which are accustomed to many failures and a few big successes in their drug-discovery programs, are fairly rational about their risk-taking. But banks, he says, have a long way to go. They may take big risks on a few huge loans but are extremely cautious about their much more numerous loans to small businesses, many of which may be less risky than the big ones. The research has implications for governments too. They face a whole range of sometimes conflicting political pressures, which means they are even more likely to make irrational decisions.
Questions for Reading Passage - Why Risks Can Go Wrong
Questions 1-3
Answer the questions below, using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.
1. Which two occupations may benefit from being over-optimistic?
2. Which practical skill are many people over-confident about?
3. Which type of business has a generally good attitude to dealing with uncertainty?
Here are the answers along with their explanation for the above-mentioned IELTS reading short answer questions.
Answer 1: Managers (and/or) sportsmen
Explanation: As per the 5th line of paragraph C, managers, and sportsmen are two occupations that benefit from being over-optimistic. “Such optimism can be useful for managers or sportsmen, and sometimes turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Answer 2: Driving
Explanation: In the 7th line of paragraph C, it is stated that people tend to exaggerate skills and power in driving. “First, people tend to exaggerate their own skill and prowess; in polls, far fewer than half the respondents admit to having below-average skills in, say, driving.”
Answer 3: Pharmaceutical (companies)
Explanation: “Pharmaceutical companies, which are accustomed to many failures and a few big successes in their drug-discovery programs, are fairly rational about their risk-taking.”
Here is a short answer IELTS reading questions sample for your reference. This type of sample can help you achieve 8+ bands on the IELTS exam.
IELTS Reading Passage- What Do Whales Feel
1. Some of the senses that we and other terrestrial mammals take for granted are either reduced or absent in cetaceans or fail to function well in water. For example, it appears from their brain structure that toothed species are unable to smell. Baleen species, on the other hand, appear to have some related brain structures but it is not known whether these are functional. It has been speculated that, as the blowholes evolved and migrated to the top of the head, the neural pathways serving sense of smell may have been nearly all sacrificed. Similarly, although at least some cetaceans have taste buds, the nerves serving these have degenerated or are rudimentary.
2. The sense of touch has sometimes been described as weak too, but this view is probably mistaken. Trainers of captive dolphins and small whales often remark on their animals’ responsiveness to being touched or rubbed, and both captive and free-ranging cetacean individuals of all species (particularly adults and calves, or members of the same subgroup) appear to make frequent contact. This contact may help to maintain order within a group, and stroking or touching are part of the courtship ritual in most species. The area around the blowhole is also particularly sensitive and captive animals often object strongly to being touched there.
3. The sense of vision is developed to different degrees in different species. Baleen species studied at close quarters underwater - specifically a grey whale calf in captivity for a year, and free-ranging right whales and humpback whales studied and filmed off Argentina and Hawaii - have obviously tracked objects with vision underwater, and they can apparently see moderately well both in water and in air. However, the position of the eyes so restricts the field of vision in baleen whales that they probably do not have stereoscopic vision.
4. On the other hand, the position of the eyes in most dolphins and porpoises suggests that they have stereoscopic vision forward and downward. Eye position in freshwater dolphins, which often swim on their side or upside down while feeding, suggests that what vision they have is stereoscopic forward and upward. By comparison, the bottlenose dolphin has extremely keen vision in water. Judging from the way it watches and tracks airborne flying fish, it can apparently see fairly well through the air-water interface as well. And although preliminary experimental evidence suggests that their in-air vision is poor, the accuracy with which dolphins leap high to take small fish out of a trainer’s hand provides anecdotal evidence to the contrary.
5. Such variation can no doubt be explained with reference to the habitats in which individual species have developed. For example, vision is obviously more useful to species inhabiting clear open waters than to those living in turbid rivers and flooded plains. The South American boutu and Chinese beiji, for instance, appear to have very limited vision, and the Indian susus are blind, their eyes reduced to slits that probably allow them to sense only the direction and intensity of light.
6. Although the senses of taste and smell appear to have deteriorated, and vision in water appears to be uncertain, such weaknesses are more than compensated for by cetaceans’ well-developed acoustic sense. Most species are highly vocal, although they vary in the range of sounds they produce, and many forage for food using echolocation1. Large baleen whales primarily use the lower frequencies and are often limited in their repertoire. Notable exceptions are the nearly song-like choruses of bowhead whales in summer and the complex, haunting utterances of the humpback whales. Toothed species in general employ more of the frequency spectrum and produce a wider variety of sounds, than baleen species (though the sperm whale apparently produces a monotonous series of high-energy clicks and little else). Some of the more complicated sounds are clearly communicative, although what role they may play in the social life and ‘culture’ of cetaceans has been more the subject of wild speculation than of solid science.
Questions for Reading Passage- What Do Whales Feel
Questions 1-5
1. Which of the senses is described here as being involved in mating?
2. Which species swims upside down while eating?
3. What can bottle-nose dolphins follow from under the water?
4. Which type of habitat is related to good visual ability?
5. Which of the senses is best developed in cetaceans?
Here are the answers along with their explanation for the above-mentioned short answer questions task.
Answer 1: Touch/ Sense of Touch
Explanation: The description of the sense of touch is mentioned in the last few lines of the second paragraph. In this, the writer states, that this contact may help to maintain order within a group, and stroking or touching are part of the courtship ritual in most species. Here, the words touching and stroking mean a sense of touch. In addition, the courtship ritual denotes the word mating. Hence, as per these lines, the answer is touch/ sense of touch.
Answer 2: Freshwater Dolphin(s)/ the Freshwater Dolphin(s)
Explanation: According to the second line of the fourth paragraph, eye position in freshwater dolphins, which often swim on their side or upside down while feeding, suggests an upward. Here, the word feeding means eating and talks about freshwater dolphins. So, as per this, the answer is the freshwater dolphin(s)/ the freshwater dolphin(s).
Answer 3: Airborne Flying Fish
Explanation: The 4-7 lines of the fourth paragraph state, by comparison, the bottlenose dolphin has extremely keen vision in water. Judging from the way it watches and tracks airborne flying fish, it and as well. Here, the words tracks and watches mean follow from under the water. According to this, the bottle-nose dolphin follows the airborne flying fish under the water. So, the answer is airborne flying fish.
Answer 4: Clear (Open) Water(s)
Explanation: In the second and third lines of the fifth paragraph, it is mentioned, for example, that vision is obviously more useful to species inhabiting clear open waters and flooded plains. Here, the word inhabiting means habitat and useful vision relates to the ability to see things. Hence, here, the answer is clear (open) water(s).
Answer 5: (The) Acoustic Sense
Explanation: The starting lines of the sixth paragraph state, that although the senses of taste and smell appear to have deteriorated, and vision in water appears to be uncertain, such weaknesses are more than compensated for by cetaceans’ well-developed acoustic sense. Here, the word well-developed means best developed. Therefore, the answer to the asked question is acoustic sense.
Explore 100+ IELTS Reading Practice Tests with Answers to Prepare for Reading Section
You can check out a list of examples below for the IELTS reading short answer questions and practice well.
These are a few examples of the IELTS reading practice test for your reference. Besides, it is vital to strategies well before appearing for the IELTS exam. Thus, here are a few tips and strategies that will help you achieve 8+ bands.
Summing up, the blog covered everything about IELTS reading short answer questions. It also covers two sample passages and a few other examples for your reference on the topic. You can practice them before appearing for the IELTS exam. In addition to that, the write-up also covers several tips and strategies to achieve a great score on the exam. With consistent practice and utilizing these tips and strategies, you can ace the test. Moreover, it will help you get familiar with all the IELTS reading questions that may appear in the exam. Further, you may even seek professional help from Gradding experts. They provide excellent IELTS coaching, study material, and practice tests.
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