How to make wise decisions: reading answers and analysis
Research by Igor Grossmann suggests wisdom isn't a rare trait but depends heavily on the situation. Wise reasoning means intellectual humility, seeing wider perspectives, expecting change and seeking compromise. The most reliable trick is to step back and view your problem as an outsider would, which made both job-seeking graduates and arguing couples reason more wisely.
Questions 27-40 · 14 marks · 3 question blocks
Where the answers sit
The multiple choice (27-30) covers the first five paragraphs. The summary (31-35) is in the fourth and fifth paragraphs. TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN (36-40) covers the two experiments and the final paragraph.
Questions 27-30
The first paragraph challenges the assumption that only a few people are wise. Grossmann says context matters more than previously imagined, so its importance was underestimated. The third paragraph says wisdom changes with the situation. The fifth recommends the third-person view as a strategy.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 27 | B | — |
| 28 | C | — |
| 29 | B | — |
| 30 | D | — |
Questions 31-35
Match the four characteristics and the strategy: intellectual humility becomes modesty, wider perspectives become other people's opinions, a broad view, and then looking at scenarios with objectivity. The third-person view makes us focus on justice and impartiality, which is fairness.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 31 | D | — |
| 32 | A | — |
| 33 | C | — |
| 34 | F | — |
| 35 | G | — |
Questions 36-40
The students were assigned a perspective, not given a choice (FALSE). In both experiments the outsider view gave wiser reasoning (TRUE), and the link with intelligence is only 'small' (TRUE). Whether couples knew the study's aim, and whether relationship length mattered, are never discussed.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 36 | FALSE | — |
| 37 | NOT GIVEN | — |
| 38 | NOT GIVEN | — |
| 39 | TRUE | — |
| 40 | TRUE | — |
The questions most people get wrong
FALSE. The students 'were instructed' to imagine their career one way or the other, and were assigned to groups. They didn't choose.
G (fairness). The observer viewpoint focuses on 'justice and impartiality'. Objectivity is already the answer to question 34.
C. Contextual factors are 'even more powerful ... than previously imagined', meaning their importance was underestimated. A describes Grossmann's finding about situations, not people.
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The full Cambridge 16 Test 2 reading paper: all three passages, 60 minutes, marked the second you finish with a review of every answer. Already done it? Take it again and see if the same traps still get you.
Cambridge IELTS 16, Test 2, Reading Passage 3. The passage name belongs to Cambridge University Press. No passage text or question wording is reproduced on this page. The answers are published for self-marking, and the analysis is our own.