Insight or evolution?: reading answers and analysis
The writers argue that discovery is more like evolution than genius: ideas mutate, and the useful ones survive. Nicholson's wrong theory inspired Bohr's atom, an injured jockey's uneven stirrups turned out to help on bends, and a weak glue met a bookmark problem to create the Post-It note. Thorndike's Law of Effect, like natural selection, needs no end goal.
Questions 27-40 · 14 marks · 3 question blocks
Where the answers sit
The multiple choice (27-31) goes paragraph by paragraph from the first to the acey-deucy story. YES / NO / NOT GIVEN (32-36) covers the last four paragraphs. The summary (37-40) recaps the whole argument.
Questions 27-31
These ask about purpose. The first paragraph outlines the popular view, and the second criticises it. The third treats Darwin and Einstein as exceptions to the general rule. Nicholson's wrong idea laid the ground for Bohr. The stirrup story matters because it began with a simple injury, not research.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 27 | D | — |
| 28 | A | — |
| 29 | A | — |
| 30 | C | — |
| 31 | A | — |
Questions 32-36
Calling people geniuses only labels innovation without explaining it, so the first statement is NO. The Law of Effect involves no end objective (YES), and the raw material it works on is 'not as clearly known' (NO). The passage gives no historical motive for the law's discovery and says nothing about what other scientists are doing now.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 32 | NO | — |
| 33 | NOT GIVEN | — |
| 34 | YES | — |
| 35 | NO | — |
| 36 | NOT GIVEN | — |
Questions 37-40
Each gap names one theme of the argument: the sudden flash the traditional view relies on, what Nicholson's proto-elements were, what brought the Post-It together, and what natural selection and the Law of Effect lack. 'Invention' and 'experiments' are the leftover traps.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 37 | F | — |
| 38 | D | — |
| 39 | E | — |
| 40 | B | — |
The questions most people get wrong
NOT GIVEN. The writers want science to abandon 'genius' and 'intelligent design', but they never say whether other scientists already are.
A. Setting aside such greats' contributions, the writers argue innovation is usually trial and error, so Darwin and Einstein are exceptions to that rule, not models.
D (mistakes). Nicholson was wrong: proto-elements don't exist. His error still led somewhere useful.
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The full Cambridge 17 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 17, 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.