Frogwatch - IELTS Reading Answers

Janice Thompson

11 min read

Updated On Aug 28, 2024

You will find IELTS Academic Reading passage, Frogwatch Reading Answers, in this article. Practise this one and you will get an idea of how to deal with IELTS Reading.

Frogwatch
Answer for Frogwatch IELTS Reading Answers with Location and Explanations

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The IELTS reading sample answer, Frogwatch, consists of the following two question types:

Each of these question types is asked in the IELTS Reading exam to check your reading and understanding capabilities.

Read the passage to answer the following questions.

Frogwatch

Frogwatch, a remarkable success story started in Western Australia, is the brainchild of Dr. Ken Aplin. His work, as the curator of reptiles and frogs in the Western Australian Museum, invoked long field trips and he wondered if a community-based frog-rmonitoring network could help him keep track of frogs. Through such a network, ordinary untrained members of the community could learn about frog habitats, observe the numbers and kinds of frogs in their local area, and report this information to the museum.

'Launched in 1995, Frogwatch recently gained its 3221st member, and many people say that this is the best thing the museum has ever done. Each participant receives a ‘Frogwatch Kit’ - a regular newsletter, an audio tape of frog calls and identification sheets. Recently, Frogwatch membership increased dramatically when a mysterious parasitic fungus disease began attacking frogs nationwide. Although research is yet incomplete, scientists suspect the fungus originated overseas, perhaps in South America, where frogs have died in catastrophic numbers from a fungus disease genetically similar to the Australian organism.

Researchers in Western Australia needed to know how widespread the infection was in the state’s frog populations. So Aplin sent an ‘F-file’ (frog fungus facts) alert to Frogwatch members, requesting their help. He asked them to deliver him dead or dying frogs. More than 2,000 frogs have now been examined, half from the museum’s existing collection. Aplin once thought the fungus had arrived in Western Australia in only the past year or two, but tests now suggest it has been there since the late 1980s.

Frogwatch has proved to be Abe perfect link to the public and Aplin has become a total convert to community participation. He’s now aiming for a network of 15,000 Frogwatch members as the museum can’t afford to use professional resources to monitor frog populations. Much of the frog habitat is on private land, and without community support, monitoring the frogs would be impossible.

Not everyone is convinced by the ‘feelgood' popularity of Frogwatch. While Aplin believes even tiny backyard ponds can help to significantly improve frog numbers, Dr. Dale Roberts isn’t so sure, A senior zoology lecturer at the University of WA, Roberts agrees the program has: tapped into the public’s enthusiasm for frogs, but he warns that strong public awareness does not amount to sound science.

He argues that getting the public to send in pages of observations is a good thing, but giving these reports credibility may not be valid scientifically. In addition, he’s not convinced that Frogwatch’s alarmist message about the danger of fungal infection is valid either. In Western Australia, for example, there was a long summer and very, late drenching rains, that year, following two equally dry years. So, he argues, there are other things that might have precipitated the deaths. He questions what could be done about it anyway. If it’s already widespread, it may not be worth the cost and effort of doing anything about it. Even if it’s causing high death rates, he says he can still find every frog species found over the past ten years in the south-west of Australia.

Roberts argues that Western Australia is different. Unlike most other states, species are still being discovered there; the disappearances of frog types in Queensland and New South Wales, are not occurring in Western Australia, although three south-west species are on the endangered list. Roberts believes that no amount of garden ponds in Perth will help those species, which live in isolated habitats targeted for development.

Aplin’s response is that increasing the number of frog-friendly habitats is important for the very reason that many Western Australian frog species are found in small, highly restricted locations. He argues that pesticide-free gardens and ponds can offer a greater chance of survival to animals battling habitat disturbance, environmental pollutants, climatic variations, and now fungal disease. Aplin’s opinion is that they should use the precautionary principle in cases where they don’t yet know enough about the situation. Usually diseases sort themselves out naturally and some frog fauna will co-evolve with the fungus. Given time some balance may be restored, but in the shorter term, they are seeing negative impacts.

The nationwide spread of the chytrid fungus is being mapped by Dr. Rick Speare, a specialist in amphibian disease at James Cook University. Speare also tests the accuracy of' Aplin’s fungus diagnoses and says Frogwatch is ‘an amazing and under-acknowledged system ... the best program in Australia for harnessing public interest in frog biology... There are a lot of eyes out there looking for dead or sick frogs, beyond the power of any biologist to collect.’

Aplin argues that they should never underestimate the importance of' having a community base, especially when governments want to cut research funds, ‘People can protest in ways that a handful of scientists hiding in a laboratory can’t do. For just about every environmental problem, community involvement is fundamental.’ Furthermore, Frogwatch is proving to be a social phenomenon as much as anything else. It seems ordinary people know that frogs are a measure of the environment’s health.

Questions 1-6

Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer of the passage?
Write:

YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

1 Frogwatch members need a basic level of scientific training.

2 All Frogwatch members live in Western Australia.

3 Frogwatch has proved that frogs are disappearing because of a fungus.

4 Scientists in WA have examined about two thousand frogs collected by Frogwatch.

5 The frog fungus disease has been in Western Australia for more than ten years.

6 New species of frogs have been found in Western Australia recently.

Questions 7-12

The reading passage describes the opinions of Dr, Ken Aplin, Dr. Dale Roberts and Dr. Rick Speare in relation to strategies for frog conservation.
Match one of the researchers A-C to each of the statements below.

There may be more than one correct answer.
Write:

A - for Dr. Aplin
B - for Dr. Roberts
C - for Dr. Speare

7 Although the involvement of large numbers of people is encouraging, this does not guarantee scientifically valid data.

8 The development of frog-friendly backyards will help to conserve frog species.

9 Although it is possible that frogs will adapt to fungal and other problems in the long term, we should take precautions in case this does not occur.

10 As there may be many other explanations for recent frog deaths, it is not worth spending a great deal of time and money studying this fungus.

11 Because of the unique geography of Western Australia,most frog species in this State are not in danger of extinction.

12 Frogwatch has greater potential for frog observation than is possible by the scientific community.

Answer for Frogwatch IELTS Reading Answers with Location and Explanations

Check out the answer key for this IELTS Academic Reading passage, Frogwatch, with detailed explanations.

1 Answer: No

Question type: Yes/No/Not Given

Answer location: Paragraph 1, line 3

Answer explanation: In the third line of the first paragraph of the passage, it is quoted “Through such a network, ordinary untrained members of the community could learn about frog habitats, observe the numbers and kinds of frogs in their local area, and report this information to the museum.”

From these quoted lines, we understand that Dr. Ken Aplin wanted ordinary untrained members of the community to learn about frog habitats, observe their numbers and kinds and report it to the museum. This does not require any basic knowledge or level of scientific training. Thus, Frogwatch members don’t need a basic level of training. So, the answer is No.

2 Answer: Not Given

Question type: Yes/No/Not Given

Answer location: Paragraph 1

Answer explanation: The first paragraph of the passage gives an introduction to Frogwatch and how it started. “Frogwatch, a remarkable success story started in Western Australia, is the brainchild of Dr. Ken Aplin. His work, as the curator of reptiles and frogs in the Western Australian Museum, invoked long field trips and he wondered if a community-based frog monitoring network could help him keep a track of frogs.”

From the introduction in the 1st paragraph, we understand that Frogwatch began in Western Australia and it was the idea of Dr. Ken Aplin, who thought of creating a community-based frog monitoring network to help him keep track of frogs. However, it is not specified in the passage whether the members in the monitoring network live in Western Australia. So, the answer is Not Given.

3 Answer: No

Question type: Yes/No/Not Given

Answer location: Paragraph 2, Line 3

Answer explanation: In the third paragraph, it is mentioned, “Frogwatch membership increased dramatically when a mysterious parasitic fungus disease began attacking frogs nationwide. Although research is yet incomplete, scientists suspect the fungus originated overseas, perhaps in South America, where frogs have died in catastrophic numbers from a fungus disease genetically similar to the Australian organism.”

From these quoted lines, we understand that scientists suspiciously suggest that the fungus rose from overseas, preferably in South America, because a vast majority of frogs died disastrously from a fungus disease genetically to the organism from Australia. But, it’s not yet substantiated that frogs disappeared due to fungus as the research is incomplete and all of the information is just an assumption. So, the answer is No. Here, “rapidly” refers to dramatically, and “disastrously” means catastrophic.

4 Answer: No

Question type: Yes/No/Not Given

Answer location: Paragraph 3, line 3

Answer explanation: In the 3rd line of 3rd paragraph, the author states that more than 2,000 frogs have now been examined, half from the museum’s existing collection. We understand from these lines that 2000 frogs were examined, of which half of them were from the museum’s existing collection. Thus, it’s clear that Frogwatch members collected only 1000 frogs. So, the answer is No.

5 Answer: Yes

Question type: Yes/No/Not Given

Answer location: Paragraph 3, line 3

Answer explanation: It is quoted in the 3rd paragraph, “More than 2,000 frogs have now been examined, half from the museum’s existing collection. Aplin once thought the fungus had arrived in Western Australia in only the past year or two, but tests now suggest it has been there since the late 1980s”.

We understand from these lines that initially, Aplin thought that the fungus arrived in Western Australia in one or two years, but when he examined the frogs, he found that the fungus has been present since the late 1980s. So, these lines in Paragraph 4 indicate that it was more than ten years from 1980 to 1995 and agree with the statement resulting in an answer to Yes.

6 Answer: Yes

Question type: Yes/No/Not Given

Answer location: Paragraph 7

Answer explanation: The quoted lines in the seventh paragraph, “Roberts argues that Western Australia is different. Unlike most other states, species are still being discovered there.”

From these lines, we understand that unlike other states, Western Australia is entirely different because species are still being discovered there. Thus, the statement agrees with the information, so, the answer is Yes.

7 Answer: B