Weather and Mood: reading answers and analysis
Weather affects mood and performance: winter gloom causes SAD, crime and riots rise with heat, cold water distracts divers, and sunny days bring bigger tips. Daylight controls melatonin, which drives seasonal eating in stags and hamsters. Rain increases calls to a suicide helpline, and positively charged air before storms may raise serotonin and irritability.
Questions 26-40 · 15 marks · 4 question blocks
Where the answers sit
The multiple choice (26-28) covers the divers, daylight, and storms and winds. TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN (29-34) and the choose-THREE (35-37) need the whole passage. The endings (38-40) come from the riots and hamster paragraphs.
Questions 26-28
The divers did worse before their bodies had cooled, so the cold distracted them rather than slowing their brains. Daylight affects melatonin and therefore feeding in animals. Irritability before storms is a reaction to charged air, a weather phenomenon.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 26 | A | — |
| 27 | B | — |
| 28 | B | — |
Questions 29-34
Be strict about what counts as proof. Serotonin 'possibly' makes people aggressive, so calling it an essential cause is FALSE. Happy holiday associations are only what sceptics might say (FALSE). SAD links depression with the season (TRUE), and melatonin changes with daylight through the year (TRUE). Russian children and ion-driven eating are never reported.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 29 | NOT GIVEN | — |
| 30 | FALSE | — |
| 31 | FALSE | — |
| 32 | TRUE | — |
| 33 | TRUE | — |
| 34 | NOT GIVEN | — |
Questions 35-37
Choose only effects backed by research: rain (the Belgian helpline study), high serotonin (people become more active and reactive), and sunny weather (bigger tips, more optimism). Negative ions are only what ionizer users claim.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 35-37 | B and D and E(in either order) | — |
Questions 38-40
US riots peak in hot weather, hamsters gain weight as daylight grows (nights shortening), and animals adjust to the seasons because of time cues from day length.
| Question | Answer | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| 38 | B | — |
| 39 | A | — |
| 40 | F | — |
The questions most people get wrong
A. Performance dropped as soon as the divers entered the cold water, before their bodies cooled, so the feeling of cold was a distraction.
FALSE. High serotonin makes people more active and 'possibly' more aggressive. That is far from an essential cause.
A tempts because 400,000 ionizers are sold a year, but only 'many people claim' to feel better. That isn't scientific proof.
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Cambridge IELTS 3, Test 3, 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.