Table of Contents
BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 91
ACADEMIC READING TEST 91 – PASSAGE – 3
ACADEMIC READING TEST – 91
READING PASSAGE – 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
The idea that we are ignorant of our true selves surged in the 20th century and became common. It’s still a commonplace, but it’s changing shape. These days, the bulk of the explanation is done by something else: the ‘dual-process’ model of the brain. We now know that we apprehend the world in two radically opposed ways, employing two fundamentally different modes of thought: ‘System 1’ and ‘System 2’. System 1 is fast; it’s intuitive, associative and automatic and it can’t be switched off. Its operations involve no sense of intentional control, but it’s the “secret author of many of the choices and judgments you make” and it’s the hero of Daniel Kahneman’s alarming, intellectually stimulating book Thinking, Fast and Slow.
System 2 is slow, deliberate and effortful. Its operations require attention. (To set it going now, ask yourself the question “What is 13 x 27?”). System 2 takes over, rather unwillingly, when things get tricky. It’s “the conscious being you call ‘I’”, and one of Kahneman’s main points is that this is a mistake. You’re wrong to identify with System 2, for you are also and equally and profoundly System 1. Kahneman compares System 2 to a supporting character who believes herself to be the lead actor and often has little idea of what’s going on.
System 2 is slothful, and tires easily (a process called ‘ego depletion’) – so it usually accepts what System 1 tells it. It’s often right to do so, because System 1 is for the most part pretty good at what it does; it’s highly sensitive to subtle environmental cues, signs of danger, and so on. It does, however, pay a high price for speed. It loves to simplify, to assume WYSIATI (‘what you see is all there is’). It’s hopelessly bad at the kind of statistical thinking often required for good decisions, it jumps wildly to conclusions and it’s subject to a fantastic range of irrational cognitive biases and interference effects, such as confirmation bias and hindsight bias, to name but two.
The general point about our self-ignorance extends beyond the details of Systems 1 and 2. We’re astonishingly susceptible to being influenced by features of our surroundings. One famous (pre-mobile phone) experiment centred on a New York City phone booth. Each time a person came out of the booth after having made a call, an accident was staged – someone dropped all her papers on the pavement. Sometimes a dime had been placed in the phone booth, sometimes not (a dime was then enough to make a call). If there was no dime in the phone booth, only 4% of the exiting callers helped to pick up the papers. If there was a dime, no fewer than 88% helped.
Since then, thousands of other experiments have been conducted, all to the same general effect. We don’t know who we are or what we’re like, we don’t know what we’re really doing and we don’t know why we’re doing it. For example, Judges think they make considered decisions about parole based strictly on the facts of the case. It turns out (to simplify only slightly) that it is their blood-sugar levels really sitting in judgment. If you hold a pencil between your teeth, forcing your mouth into the shape of a smile, you’ll find a cartoon funnier than if you hold the pencil pointing forward, by pursing your lips round it in a frown-inducing way.
In an experiment designed to test the ‘anchoring effect’, highly experienced judges were given a description of a shoplifting offence. They were then ‘anchored’ to different numbers by being asked to roll a pair of dice that had been secretly loaded to produce only two totals – three or nine. Finally, they were asked whether the prison sentence for the shoplifting offence should be greater or fewer, in months, than the total showing on the dice. Normally the judges would have made extremely similar judgments, but those who had just rolled nine proposed an average of eight months while those who had rolled three proposed an average of only five months. All were unaware of the anchoring effect.
The same goes for all of us, almost all the time. We think we’re smart; we’re confident we won’t be unconsciously swayed by the high list price of a house. We’re wrong. (Kahneman admits his own inability to counter some of these effects.) For example, another systematic error involves ‘duration neglect’ and the ‘peak-end rule’. Looking back on our experience of pain, we prefer a larger, longer amount to a shorter, smaller amount, just so long as the closing stages of the greater pain were easier to bear than the closing stages of the lesser one.
Questions 27-31
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.
27. The dual process model of the brain is
A. The common practice of thinking about two things at the same time.
B. The conflicting impulses pushing the brain to make both more and less effort,
C. The feeling of liking and not liking something simultaneously.
D. The natural tendency to make sense of the world in two different ways.
28. System 2 takes charge of decision-making when
A. When the brain needs a rest.
B. When more mental effort is required.
C. When a person feels excessively confident.
D. When a dangerous situation is developing.
29. ‘Confirmation bias’ is an example of
A. System 1 rushing to judgment.
B. System 1 making a careful judgment.
C. System 1 making a brave judgment
D. System 1 judging a situation based on facts.
30. The main conclusion of the phone booth experiment was that
A. People are more likely to help someone that they are attracted to.
B. People are more responsive to their environment than they realize.
C. People are more likely to be helpful if they think they will be rewarded.
D. People are generally selfish and will always do what is best for themselves.
31. The ‘anchoring effect’ is the process by which
A. Decisions are made using a numerical system.
B. A subconscious factor may strongly influence our decision-making
C. Decisions about prison sentences are made by rolling a dice.
D. We may emphasize certain factor too much in our decision-making.
Questions 32-36
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 32-36 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE – if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO – if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN – if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
32. In general, humans have become less rational over the last 100 years.
33. Most people lack a clear sense of their own personal identity.
34. A person can train themselves to use System 2 most of the time.
35. People who make important decisions should be made aware of the dual-process model.
36. In most everyday situations, people are capable of making calm and rational decisions.
Questions 37-39
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-E, below.
Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 37-39 on your answer sheet.
37. In the course of evolutionary history System 1 has served humans well because
38. Low blood sugar or tiredness may be factors in decision making because
39. The ‘peak-end rule’ shows us that
A. feeling a certain way at the conclusion of an experience decides how we remember it.
B. decision-making and judgments are made too quickly.
C. having less energy means we are more likely to succumb to an irrational bias.
D. being sensitive to ones’ surroundings is a useful survival skill.
E. wanting more food or drink may distract us from the decision we are making.
Question 40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in box 40 on your answer sheet.
What is the writer’s primary purpose in writing this article?
A. to introduce their own research to the general reader
B. to summarize and review a recently published book
C. to argue against a commonly-held theory
D. to encourage readers to question their own decision-making processes.
ANSWERS ARE BELOW
ANSWERS
27. D
28. B
29. A
30. B
31. B
32. NOT GIVEN
33. TRUE
34. NO
35. NOT GIVEN
36. NO
37. D
38. C
39. A
40. B