Pictures and Learning to Read: reading answers and analysis
The writer blames falling literacy on picture books. Illustrations have grown while text has shrunk, pictures stop children forming their own mental images, and older students struggle with text-only books, even at Oxford and Cambridge. Studies by Dale Willows and Jay Samuels found pictures slow reading, mislead readers, and reduce the words children learn.
Questions 14-26 · 13 marks · 4 question blocks
Where the answers sit
The multiple choice (14-17) covers D, I, F and J. YES / NO / NOT GIVEN (18-21) covers B, D and F. The paragraph matching (22-25) needs C, F, I and J. Question 26 is about the whole passage.
Questions 14-17
'Barking at text' means reading aloud without understanding. Willows found pictures slow reading. The universities are worried about a rapid decline in undergraduate literacy. Children who ignore pictures and look at the words learn more.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | D | — |
| 15 | B | — |
| 16 | D | — |
| 17 | C | — |
Questions 18-21
The accepted tradition is to use pictures (NO to 'few pictures'). Teachers aim at recognition and meaning (YES), and older children turn away from books without pictures (YES). The conferences' effect on literacy isn't reported.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | NO | — |
| 19 | YES | — |
| 20 | YES | — |
| 21 | NOT GIVEN | — |
Questions 22-25
F shows the decline in every age and ability group, and C says current practice goes against the research. J has the children who ignored pictures learning more, and I has pictures misleading readers about a word's meaning.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | F | — |
| 23 | C | — |
| 24 | J | — |
| 25 | I | — |
Question 26
Every paragraph builds the case that pictures damage learning to read. Decline and research are parts of that argument, not its topic.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 26 | C | — |
The questions most people get wrong
C. Children who ignored the pictures and pointed at the words learned more than those who looked at pictures, though still fewer than those shown no pictures at all.
NO. Teachers using picture books are following a long-established tradition, so pictures, not their absence, are what's traditionally accepted.
F. The least intelligent are most vulnerable, even intelligent children are affected, and it reaches undergraduates, so every age and ability is covered.
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Cambridge IELTS 2, Test 4, Reading Passage 2. 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.