Hearing Impairment - IELTS Reading Answers

One of the keys to mastering the IELTS Reading test is learning how to read selectively. You don’t need to read every word in the passage; you just need to know what to look for and how to find it quickly. That’s where skimming and scanning come in. To master these skills, it is important to practice reading samples from the best IELTS Reading books, like ‘Hearing Impairment’ IELTS Reading Answers.

Start a timed practice with the Hearing Impairment Reading Answer given below. We have provided explanations, locations for the answers, and tips to help you handle the three different types of reading questions here.

Passage for Hearing Impairment IELTS Reading Answers

Now go through the passage for ‘Hearing Impairment’ Reading Answers given below, and be prepared to solve similar IELTS Reading topics for General and Academic for the reading section.

Hearing Impairment/Children with Auditory Problems

A Hearing impairment or other auditory function deficit in young children can have a major impact on their development of speech and communication, resulting in a detrimental effect on their ability to learn at school. This is likely to have major consequences for the individual and the population. The New Zealand Ministry of Health has found from research carried out over two decades that 6-10% of children in that country are affected by hearing loss.

B A preliminary study in New Zealand has shown that classroom noise presents a major concern for teachers and pupils. Modern teaching practices, the organisation of desks in the classroom, poor classroom acoustics, and mechanical means of ventilation such as air-conditioning units all contribute to the number of children unable to comprehend the teacher's voice. Education researchers Nelson and Soli have also suggested that recent trends in learning often involve collaborative interaction of multiple minds and tools as much as individual possession of information. This all amounts to heightened activity and noise levels, which have the potential to be particularly serious for children experiencing auditory function deficit. Noise in classrooms can only exacerbate their difficulty in comprehending and processing verbal communication with other children and instructions from the teacher.

C Children with auditory function deficit are potentially failing to learn to their maximum potential because of noise levels generated in classrooms. The effects of noise on the ability of children to learn effectively in typical classroom environments are now the subject of increasing concern. The International Institute of Noise Control Engineering (I-INCE), on the advice of the World Health Organization, has established an international working party, which includes New Zealand, to evaluate noise and reverberation control for school rooms.

D While the detrimental effects of noise in classroom situations are not limited to children experiencing disability, those with a disability that affects their processing of speech and verbal communication could be extremely vulnerable. The auditory function deficits in question include hearing impairment, autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention deficit disorders (ADD/ADHD).

E Autism is considered a neurological and genetic life-long disorder that causes discrepancies in the way information is processed. This disorder is characterised by interlinking problems with social imagination, social communication and social interaction. According to Janzen, this affects the ability to understand and relate in typical ways to people, understand events and objects in the environment, and understand or respond to sensory stimuli. Autism does not allow learning or thinking in the same ways as in children who are developing normally.

Autistic spectrum disorders often result in major difficulties in comprehending verbal information and speech processing. Those experiencing these disorders often find sounds such as crowd noise and the noise generated by machinery painful and distressing. This is difficult to scientifically quantify as such extra-sensory stimuli vary greatly from one autistic individual to another. But a child who finds any type of noise in their classroom or learning space intrusive is likely to be adversely affected in their ability to process information.

F The attention deficit disorders are indicative of neurological and genetic disorders and are characterised by difficulties with sustaining attention, effort and persistence, organisation skills and disinhibition. Children experiencing these disorders find it difficult to screen out unimportant information, and focus on everything in the environment rather than attending to a single activity. Background noise in the classroom becomes a major distraction, which can affect their ability to concentrate.

G Children experiencing an auditory function deficit can often find speech and communication very difficult to isolate and process when set against high levels of background noise.

These levels come from outside activities that penetrate the classroom structure, from teaching activities, and other noise generated inside, which can be exacerbated by room reverberation. Strategies are needed to obtain the optimum classroom construction and perhaps a change in classroom culture and methods of teaching. In particular, the effects of noisy classrooms and activities on those experiencing disabilities in the form of auditory function deficit need thorough investigation. It is probable that many undiagnosed children exist in the education system with 'invisible' disabilities. Their needs are less likely to be met than those of children with known disabilities.

H The New Zealand Government has developed a New Zealand Disability Strategy and has embarked on a wide-ranging consultation process. The strategy recognises that people experiencing disability face significant barriers in achieving a full quality of life in areas such as attitude, education, employment and access to services. Objective 3 of the New Zealand Disability Strategy is to 'Provide the Best Education for Disabled People' by improving education so that all children, youth learners and adult learners will have equal opportunities to learn and develop within their already existing local school. For a successful education, the learning environment is vitally significant, so any effort to improve this is likely to be of great benefit to all children, but especially to those with auditory function disabilities.

I A number of countries are already in the process of formulating their own standards for the control and reduction of classroom noise. New Zealand will probably follow their example. The literature to date on noise in school rooms appears to focus on the effects on schoolchildren in general, their teachers and the hearing impaired. Only limited attention appears to have been given to those students experiencing the other disabilities involving auditory function deficit. It is imperative that the needs of these children are taken into account in the setting of appropriate international standards to be promulgated in future.

Questions for Hearing Impairment Reading Answers

The passage, Hearing Impairment Reading Answers, from Cambridge 9 Test 2, consists of 13 questions, which showcase three different IELTS Reading question types. They are:

• IELTS Reading Matching Information (Q. 1-6)
• IELTS Reading Short Answer Questions (Q. 7-10)
• IELTS Reading Multiple Choice Questions (Q. 11-12 & 13)

Questions 1-6

1 an account of a national policy initiative

2 a description of a global team effort

3 a hypothesis as to one reason behind the growth in classroom noise

4 a demand for suitable worldwide regulations

5 a list of medical conditions which place some children more at risk from noise than others

6 the estimated proportion of children in New Zealand with auditory problems

Questions 7-10

7 For what period of time has hearing loss in schoolchildren been studied in New Zealand? 

8 In addition to machinery noise, what other type of noise can upset children with autism? 

9 What term is used to describe the hearing problems of schoolchildren which have not been diagnosed? 

10 What part of the New Zealand Disability Strategy aims to give schoolchildren equal opportunity?

Questions 11-12

Which TWO are mentioned by the writer of the passage?

A current teaching methods

B echoing corridors 

C cooling systems 

D large class sizes

E loud-voiced teachers

F playground games

11 ………………….

12 …………………

Questions 13

What is the writer’s overall purpose in writing this article?

A to compare different methods of dealing with auditory problems

B to provide solutions for overly noisy learning environments 

C to increase awareness of the situation of children with auditory problems

D to promote New Zealand as a model for other countries to follow

Answers and Explanations of Hearing Impairment IELTS Reading Passage

In this section, you will find all the answers as well as the location of each answer in the passage and the keywords that help you locate the answers. Check out 'Hearing Impairment' answers and assess your improvement for a high IELTS band score.

Tips for Answering the Question Types in the Hearing Impairment Reading Passage

Given below are some IELTS exam preparation tips for band score of 8+ by helping you answer the types of questions in the ‘Hearing Impairment’ Reading passage.

Matching Information

• Read the statements first, not the paragraphs: Understand exactly what type of information you are looking for (reason, problem, solution, feature, description, data, example).
• Focus on keywords that indicate ideas, not vocabulary: Matching Information is about ideas, so look for causes, examples, descriptions, theories, comparisons, and features/characteristics. These often paraphrase heavily.
• Expect extreme paraphrasing: You rarely find exact words from the question.Train your mind to look for conceptual matches, not word-matches.
• Scan paragraph-by-paragraph instead of scanning the whole passage: Matching Information is one of the few tasks where reading each paragraph carefully works well. 
• Don’t assume paragraphs are used only once: A, B, C, D… may be used more than once, or not at all.
• Always match the entire meaning, not part of it: If a paragraph mentions only 20% of the idea, it is not a correct match.
• If stuck between two paragraphs, choose the one that gives the main idea, not a minor mention. Minor mentions are mostly distractors, while clear explanation refers to the correct answer.

Short-Answer Type Question

• Always check the WORD LIMIT first: If it says ‘NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER’, follow it strictly. Never exceed the limit. Also, remember, a number counts as one item (e.g., 2025 = 1 ‘word’).
• Read the question carefully as this question type is meaning-based: Identify what type of information you need who? what? where? when? why? or how?. Questions usually follow the text order.
• Use scanning + keyword identification: Locate answers using detectable elements, like names, places, years/dates, capital-letter terms, numbers, unusual nouns. These anchor the location of the answer.
• Answers are usually paraphrased in the passage: Questions may use synonyms for actions (increase = rise), people (scientist = researcher), places (facility = centre). But the exact answer words must be taken from the passage.
• NEVER change the form of the words: If the text says ‘reduction’, write that. Do not change it to ‘reduce’ while noting down the answer.
• Answers come in order: If question 4 is before question 5, their answers appear in the same sequence in the text. This saves HUGE amounts of time.

Multiple-Choice Question

• Read the question first: Before reading the passage, read the question and all four options. This prepares your brain to look for relevant information.
• Find keywords in the question: Identify words or phrases that are unique to that question (e.g., ‘today’s museums’, ‘minority tastes’, ‘commercial constraints’).
• Skim and then scan: Skim the passage to find the paragraph that discusses the topic, then scan it carefully for the answer.
• Beware of distractors: All four choices may include information found in the passage, but only one is directly supported by the text in relation to the question.
• Look for paraphrased ideas or synonyms: The correct answer will often use different words than the passage. Focus on meaning, not matching words.
• Check logic and tone: Eliminate answers that are too extreme or go beyond what the passage states.
• Verify your answer with evidence: Do not guess based on memory. Always go back to the passage and confirm with a sentence or idea.

To conclude, reading samples from IELTS recent actual tests, such as Hearing Impairment IELTS Reading Answers, is crucial. By practicing with them, you will improve your reading speed, identify your weak areas, and become familiar with different types of reading questions. Keep taking these tests, and you'll achieve the results you want.

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