Aphantasia: A life without mental images, Life lessons from villains, crooks and gangsters, As More Tech Startups Stay Private, So Does the Money Reading Answers

Zuhana

19 min read

Updated On Aug 14, 2024

Reading Passage 1
Reading Passage 2
Reading Passage 3
Answers
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The IELTS Reading passage, Aphantasia: A life without mental images, along with the other two IELTS Academic Reading passages – Life lessons from villains, crooks and As More Tech Startups Stay Private, So Does the Money make this a complete IELTS Reading practice tests. You will have 60 minutes to complete the whole test, which consists of 40 questions in total.

Here are the question types in this reading test:

Set your timer and take the test now!

Reading Passage 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on the Reading Passage below.

Find the practice test with the Aphantasia: A life without mental images PDF here.

Aphantasia: A life without mental images

Questions 1–8

Do the following statements agree with the information in the IELTS reading text?

In boxes 1- 8 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE, if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE, if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN, if there is no information on this

1 Aphantasia is a condition, which describes people, for whom it is hard to visualize mental images.

2 Niel Kenmuir was unable to count sheep in his head.

3 People with Aphantasia struggle to remember the personal traits and clothes of different people.

4 Niel regrets that he cannot portray an image of his fiancee in his mind.

5 Inability to picture things in someone’s head is often a cause of distress for a
person.

6 All people with Aphantasia start to feel ‘isolated’ or ‘alone’ at some point in their
lives.

7 Lauren Beard’s career depends on her imagination.

8 The author met Lauren Beard when she was working on a comedy scene in her next book.

Questions 9–13

Complete the sentences below.

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in blank spaces 9-13 on your answer sheet.

9 Only a small fraction of people have imagination as_________ as Lauren does.

10 Hyperphantasia is __________ to Aphantasia.

11 There are lots of subjectivity in comparing people’s imagination – somebody’s vivid scene could be another person’s __________.

12 Prof Zeman is _________ that Aphantasia is not an illness.

13 Many people spend their lives with _________ somewhere in the mind’s eye.

Reading Passage 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on the Reading Passage below.

Find the practice test with the Life lessons from villains, crooks PDF here.

Life lessons from villains, crooks

Questions 14-21

Reading Passage 2 has eight paragraphs A-H.

Match the headings below with the paragraphs.

Write the correct letter, A-H, in blank spaces 14-21 on your answer sheet.

14 Jailbreak with creative thinking ____________

15 Five common traits among rule-breakers ____________

16 Comparison between criminals and traditional businessmen ___________

17 Can drug baron’s escape teach legitimate corporations? ___________

18 Great entrepreneur ___________ .

19 How criminal groups deceive the law ___________.

20 The difference between legal and illegal organizations ___________ .

21 Similarity between criminals and start-up founders __________ .

Questions 22–25

Complete the sentences below.

Write ONLY ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 22–25 on your answer sheet.

22 To escape from prison, Joaquin Guzman had to use such traits as creative thinking, long-term planning and _________.

23 The Sinaloa cartel built a grand underground tunnel and even used a __________ to avoid the fence.

24 The main difference between the two groups is that criminals, unlike large corporations, often have _________ encoded into their daily life.

25 Due to being persuasive, Walid Abdul-Wahab found a ________ of Amish camel milk farmers.

Question 26

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

26 The main goal of this article is to:

A Show different ways of illegal activity

B Give an overview of various criminals and their gangs

C Draw a comparison between legal and illegal business, providing examples

D Justify criminals with creative thinking bottom of the form

Reading Passage 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on the Reading Passage below.

Find the practice test with the As More Tech Startups Stay Private, So Does the Money PDF here.

As More Tech Startups Stay Private, So Does the Money

Questions 27–31

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter next to 28–31 on your answer sheet.

27 How many funds would you gain by now, if you had invested 1000$ in the Amazon in 1997?

A 250,000$

B close to 500,000$

C It is not stated in the text

D No funds

28 Nowadays founders talk about going public as a:

A necessity

B benefit

C possibility

D profit

29 In which time period was the biggest number of companies going public?

A the early 1990s

B the late 1900s and 2000s

C The 1980s

D the late 1990s

30 According to the text, which of the following is true?

A Private valuations maybe forever higher than public ones.

B Public valuations eventually will become even less valuable.

C The main question is whether the public market increase or the private market decrease.

D The pressure might last for a long time.

Questions 31–36

Complete the sentences below.

Write ONLY ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in blank spaces 31–36 on your answer sheet.

31 Skepticism was always expected by the ___________of tech industry.

32 Start-up executives by staying private afford the luxury of avoiding quarterly earnings ____________ .

33 The new version to initial offerings has its ___________.

34 Selling shares on a secondary market is considered a ___________ mechanism.

35 Workers’ compensation might be an ___________.

36 The public investors who failed to participate in the next big thing might be the ones wearing the ___________.

Questions 37–40

Do the following statements agree with the information in the IELTS reading text?

In boxes 37–40 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE, if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE, if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN, if there is no information on this

37 Private investors are bearing most of the risk.

38 Not many investors were willing to speak on the record.

39 The typical tech company hitting the markets in the 1990s was 5 years old.

40 Marc Andreessen, the firm’s co-founder, expressed amazement with divergence in how investors treat the public.

Answers

Now we’ll go through the answers to the questions about the passages ‘Aphantasia: A life without mental images’, ‘Life lessons from villains, crooks and gangsters’, and ‘As More Tech Startups Stay Private, So Does the Money’ – and improve your reading skills for a better IELTS band score.

Aphantasia: A life without mental images Reading Answers (Passage 1)

1 Answer: FALSE

Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions

Answer location: Paragraph A life without mental images, line 4

Answer explanation: If you read thoroughly, there’s a line that claims “but this year scientists have described a condition, aphantasia, in which some people are unable to visualise mental images.” Here, the author suggests that some persons with aphantasia are “unable to visualise mental pictures.” Thus, it implies that they are unable to see mental pictures. However, the question just said that such individuals had difficulty doing so, implying that they may still visualise mental pictures.

2 Answer: TRUE

Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions

Answer location: Paragraph A life without mental images, line 6

Answer explanation: A line in the said paragraph indicates “My stepfather, when I couldn’t sleep, told me to count sheep, and he explained what he meant, I tried to do it and I couldn’t,” he says. “I couldn’t see any sheep jumping over fences, there was nothing to count.” Niel Kenmuir says that he couldn’t see any sheep jumping over fences and there was nothing to count. He was unable to see any sheep since he had a blind mind’s eye.

3 Answer: NOT GIVEN

Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions

Answer location: N/A

Answer explanation: None of the passages confirms or denies that people with Aphantasia struggle to remember the personal traits and clothes of different people.

4 Answer: TRUE

Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions

Answer location: Paragraph Mind’s eye blind, line 5

Answer explanation: In the said paragraph, you can point out that “when I think about my fiancée there is no image, but I am definitely thinking about her, I know today she has her hair up at the back, she’s brunette. But I’m not describing an image I am looking at, I’m remembering features about her, that’s the strangest thing and maybe that is a source of some regret.” Here, “cannot portray an image” is paraphrased to “not describing an image”. Thus, we can infer that Niel can not visualise the image of his fiancee and he feels regretful about this.

5 Answer: TRUE

Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions

Answer location: Paragraph Mind’s eye blind, line 8

Answer explanation: If you read thoroughly, there’s a line that claims, “but while Niel is very relaxed about his inability to picture things, it is often a cause of distress for others.” Here, from Niel’s example, we can infer that Neil did not take it seriously because he was relaxed about this inability, but most people remain in distress because of this inability.

6 Answer: NOT GIVEN

Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions

Answer location: N/A

Answer explanation: None of the passages confirms or denies that all people with Aphantasia start to feel ‘isolated’ or ‘alone’ at some point in their lives.

7 Answer: TRUE

Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions

Answer location: Paragraph The super-visualiser, line 2

Answer explanation: The answer is clearly mentioned in the said paragraph and line. In the passage, it is said that “her career relies on the vivid images that leap into her mind’s eye when she reads text from her author.” Here, vivid images that leap into her mind have been paraphrased to her imagination. Hence, we can deduce that Lauren’s career depended on her imagination.

8 Answer: FALSE

Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions

Answer location: Paragraph The super-visualiser, line 3

Answer explanation: The author in the said paragraph states that “when I met her in her box-room studio in Manchester, she was working on a dramatic scene in the next book.” Hence, the author confirms that he met Lauren when she was in her box-room studio in Manchester when she was working on a dramatic scene and not on a comedy scene.

9 Answer: vibrant

Question Type: Sentence Completion

Answer location: Paragraph The super-visualiser, line 8

Answer explanation: In the reference paragraph, the author mentions that “not many people have mental imagery as vibrant as Lauren or as blank as Niel.” Here, not many people have been paraphrased to only a small fraction of people. Hence, not many people have imaginations as vibrant as Lauren’s.

10 Answer: polar-opposite

Question Type: Sentence Completion

Answer location: Paragraph The super-visualiser, line 9

Answer explanation: Few lines in the said paragraph discuss that “Adam Zeman, a professor of cognitive and behavioural neurology, wants to compare the lives and experiences of people with aphantasia and its polar-opposite hyperphantasia.” Thus, Adam Zeman, a professor proves that aphantasia is polar-opposite to hyperphantasia.

11 Answer: grainy picture

Question Type: Sentence Completion

Answer location: Paragraph The super-visualiser, line 12

Answer explanation: In the said paragraph, you can find out that “how we imagine is clearly very subjective – one person’s vivid scene could be another’s grainy picture.” According to the passage, one person’s vivid scene could be another’s grainy picture.

12 Answer: adamant

Question Type: Sentence Completion

Answer location: Paragraph The super-visualiser, line 14

Answer explanation: If you read thoroughly, a line in the said paragraph discusses that “he is adamant that aphantasia is “not a disorder” and says it may affect up to one in 50 people.” Thus, we can infer that author is suggesting Prof Zeman is adamant that Aphantasia is not an illness (not a disorder).

13 Answer: imagery hovering

Question Type: Sentence Completion

Answer location: Paragraph The super-visualiser, last line

Answer explanation: A line in the said paragraph states that “but he adds: “I think it makes quite an important difference to their experience of life because many of us spend our lives with imagery hovering somewhere in the mind’s eye which we inspect from time to time, it’s a variability of human experience.”Top of Form” This information confirms that many of us (most people) spend our lives with imagery hovering somewhere in the mind’s eye.

Life lessons from villains, crooks Reading Answers (Passage 2)

14 Answer: C

Question Type: Matching Heading

Answer location: Paragraph C, line 2

Answer explanation: A line in the given paragraph suggests that “making a break for it required creative thinking, long-term planning and perseverance – essential skills similar to those needed to achieve success in big business.” Hence, we can see that the author escaped from prison (jailbreak) and found something. Therefore, upcoming enterprises and businesses need to break free from traditional thinking and come up with innovative and creative business models.

15 Answer: G

Question Type: Matching Heading

Answer location: Paragraph G, last line

Answer explanation: Paragraph G puts forward the information that “they picked out five common traits among this group: the ability to hustle, pivot, provoke, hack and copycat.” Here, author suggests the 5 common traits of rule breakers are ability to hustle, pivot, provoke, hack and copycat.

16 Answer: B

Question Type: Matching Heading

Answer location: Paragraph B, line 1

Answer explanation: Paragraph B puts forward the information that “far from encouraging illegality, these gurus argue that – in the same way, big corporations sometimes emulate start-ups – business leaders could learn from the underworld about flexibility, innovation and the ability to pivot quickly.” According to the passage, large businesses who wear the criminal hat are highly adaptable in their approach, agile on their feet, and always ready to innovate on their present strategy. Big firms sometimes try to follow the startups/act like criminals to attain their goals.

17 Answer: A

Question Type: Matching Heading

Answer location: Paragraph A, line 3

Answer explanation: The answer is clearly mentioned in the said paragraph and line. You must note the paraphrasing here. In the passage, it is said that “beyond the morally reprehensible side of criminals’ work, some business gurus say organised crime syndicates, computer hackers, pirates and others operating outside the law could teach legitimate corporations a thing or two about how to hustle and respond to rapid change.” From this information, we can learn that drug baron’s escape teach legitimate corporationsto try and learn from Guzman’s creative thinking and his ability to think out of the box to create an avenue for escape not once but twice.

18 Answer: H

Question Type: Matching Heading

Answer location: Paragraph H, line 1

Answer explanation: A line in the given paragraph suggests that “clay gives a Saudi entrepreneur named Walid Abdul-Wahab as a prime example. Abdul-Wahab worked with Amish farmers to bring camel milk to American consumers even before US regulators approved it.” The Saudi entrepreneur Walid Abdul Wahab founder of DesertFarms made his company sell camel milk to giant retailers like the Wholefoods Market. Hence, he can be considered a great entrepreneur.

19 Answer: D

Question Type: Matching Heading

Answer location: Paragraph D, line 2

Answer explanation: The answer is clearly mentioned in the said paragraph and line. You must note the paraphrasing here. In the passage, it is said that “some cartels stay in business despite multiple efforts by law enforcement on both sides of the US border and millions of dollars from international agencies to shut them down.” The perfect example how criminal groups deceive the law is the Sinaloa Cartel dug which created underground tunnels and recruited family members as border agents, who used catapults to transport drugs in areas with high-tech fences. Devin Liddell, who heads brand strategy for Seattle-based design consultancy, Teague, while he condemns the violence and illegal activities of the cartels he was intrigued by the techniques used by them to circumvent the law.

20 Answer: E

Question Type: Matching Heading

Answer location: Paragraph E, line 4

Answer explanation: Few lines in said paragraph discusses that the “Liddell argues the difference between the two groups is that criminal organisations often have improvisation encoded into their daily behaviour, while larger companies think of innovation as a set process.” This line from the passage provides the difference between legal (think of innovation as a set process) and illegal organizations (often have improvisation encoded into their daily behaviour).

21 Answer: F

Question Type: Matching Heading

Answer location: Paragraph F, line 3

Answer explanation: Paragraph G intimates that “both criminals and start-up founders “question authority, act outside the system and see new and clever ways of doing things,” said Goodman.” So, the similarity between criminals and start-up founders is that both question authority, act outside the system as well as see new and clever ways of doing things.

22 Answer: perseverance

Question Type: Sentence Completion

Answer location: Paragraph C, line 2

Answer explanation: According to the information given the the passage, “making a break for it required creative thinking, long-term planning and perseverance – essential skills similar to those needed to achieve success in big business.” Hence, Joaquin Guzman, in order to escape the prison used such traits as creative thinking, long-term planning, and perseverance.

23 Answer: catapult

Question Type: Sentence Completion

Answer location: Paragraph D, last line

Answer explanation: If you read thoroughly, the author in the given paragraph mentions that “it built a vast underground tunnel, hired family members as border agents and even used a catapult to circumvent a high-tech fence.” Thus, to transport drugs, the Mexican drug gang Sinaloa built a huge subterranean tunnel. They hired family members as border agents to transport the narcotics, and they employed catapults to get across the high-tech fences.

24 Answer: Improvisation

Question Type: Sentence Completion

Answer location: Paragraph E, 2nd last line

Answer explanation: In the said paragraph, refer that, “the brand has all but faded from view. Liddell argues the difference between the two groups is that criminal organisations often have improvisation encoded into their daily behaviour, while larger companies think of innovation as a set process.” The main difference between the two groups is that criminals, unlike large corporations never repeat the process that they have previously used and this helps them in avoiding the law enforcing officers.

25 Answer: network

Question Type: Sentence Completion

Answer location: Paragraph H, line 3

Answer explanation: If you read thoroughly, there’s a line that claims, “through perseverance, he eventually found a network of Amish camel milk farmers and started selling the product via social media.” It suggests that Saudi entrepreneur Walid Abdul-Wahab because of this persuasive nature found a network of Amish farmers to supply camel milk.

26 Answer: C

Question Type: Multiple Choice Questions

Answer location: Complete Paragraph

Answer explanation: This paragraph discusses the difference between legal and illegal firms in that illegal firms are prepared to venture down unexplored pathways, are unconstrained by traditions, and will not hesitate to breach the rules in order to find novel solutions to their issues.

As More Tech Startups Stay Private, So Does the Money Reading Answers (Passage 3)

27 Answer: A

Question Type: Multiple Choice Questions

Answer location: Paragraph E, line 7

Answer explanation: In the said paragraph, refer that, “if you invested $1,000 in Amazon at its I.P.O. in 1997, you would now have nearly $250,000.” Here, the author states that if someone bought Amazon IPO in 1997 at $1,000, its worth would now be nearly $250,000.

28 Answer: A

Question Type: Multiple Choice Questions

Answer location: Paragraph A, last line

Answer explanation: According to paragraph A, “many founders talk about going public as a necessary evil to be postponed as long as possible because it comes with more problems than benefits.” Thus, the author infers that nowadays many founders talk about going public because they consider it a necessity.

29 Answer: B

Question Type: Multiple Choice Questions

Answer location: Paragraph F, line 1

Answer explanation: The answer is clearly mentioned in the said paragraph and line. In the passage, it is said that “just 53 technology companies went public in 2014, which is around the median since 1980, but far fewer than during the boom of the late 1990s and 2000, when hundreds of tech companies went public annually, according to statistics maintained by Jay Ritter, a professor of finance at the University of Florida.” So, in the year 2014, only 53 tech companies went public, which is the average of the companies that went live since 1980. However, the boom happened in the 1990s and 2000 (when 100s of companies went public). Hence, the biggest number of companies went public in the late 1990s and 2000.

30 Answer: C

Question Type: Multiple Choice Questions

Answer location: Paragraph H, line 5

Answer explanation: In the said paragraph, you can refer to, “Private valuations will not forever be higher than public valuations,” said Mr. Levitan, of Maveron. “So the question is, will private markets capitulate and go down or will public markets go up?” Here, we can observe that Mr. Levitan stated private valuations will not necessarily be higher than public appraisals. As a result, the question about private markets (would decline) and public markets (would expand) arises.

31 Answer: luminaries

Question Type: Sentence Completion

Answer location: Paragraph A, line 2

Answer explanation: If you observe, the answer is clearly mentioned in the said paragraph and line “though luminaries of the tech industry have always expressed skepticism and even hostility toward the finance industry, tech’s dirty secret was that it looked to Wall Street and the ritual of a public offering for affirmation — not to mention wealth.” According to the passage, luminaries of the tech industry have always expressed skepticism.

32 Answer: treadmill

Question Type: Sentence Completion

Answer location: Paragraph B, line 4

Answer explanation: In the said paragraph, you can find out that “staying private affords start-up executives the luxury of not worrying what outsiders think and helps them avoid the quarterly earnings treadmill.” Hence, we can deduce that start-up executives by staying private enjoy the luxury of not working on what outsiders think and also avoid the quarterly earnings treadmill.

33 Answer: downside

Question Type: Sentence Completion

Answer location: Paragraph E, line 4

Answer explanation: Paragraph C puts forward the information that “but there is also a downside to the new version to initial offerings.” Here, Maveron suggests that instead of waiting for the initial offering he sold his stake of IPO to start-ups, and this way he is able to make 100 times of initial investment but he also suggests that there is a downside to this new version to initial offerings.

34 Answer: novel

Question Type: Sentence Completion

Answer location: Paragraph F, line 4

Answer explanation: In the reference paragraph, the author mentions that “over the last few weeks, I’ve asked several founders and investors why they’re waiting; few were willing to speak on the record about their own companies, but their answers all amounted to “What’s the point?” Initial public offerings were also ways to compensate employees and founders who owned lots of stock, but there are now novel mechanisms — such as selling shares on a secondary market — for insiders to cash in on some of their shares in private companies.” Here, the author mentions that when investors sell their shares on a secondary market it is considered a novel mechanism.

35 Answer: issue

Question Type: Sentence Completion

Answer location: Paragraph G, last line

Answer explanation: In the said paragraph, you can find out that “we probably need to fundamentally rethink how do private companies compensate employees because that’s going to be an issue,” said Mr.Kupor, of Andreessen Horowitz.” Mr. Kupor recommends that they might have to re-think how do private companies compensate employees because workers’ compensation is going to be an issue.

36 Answer: frown

Question Type: Sentence Completion

Answer location: Paragraph H, last line

Answer explanation: The last line of paragraph H conveys that “if the private investors are wrong, employees, founders and a lot of hedge funds could be in for a reckoning. But if they’re right, it will be you and me wearing the frown — the public investors who missed out on the next big thing.” Here, the author suggests that if private investors are wrong (failed) a lot of hedge funds could be in for a reckoning. However, if they are right, public investors will be wearing the frown.

37 Answer: TRUE

Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions

Answer location: Paragraph E, line 5

Answer explanation: If you read thoroughly, a line in the said paragraph discusses that “when the unicorns do eventually go public and begin to soar — or whatever it is that fantastical horned beasts tend to do when they’re healthy — the biggest winners will be the private investors that are now bearing most of the risk.” This line from the passage confirms that private investors are bearing most of the risk.

38 Answer: TRUE

Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions

Answer location: Paragraph F, line 5

Answer explanation: A line in the said paragraph states that “over the last few weeks, I’ve asked several founders and investors why they’re waiting; few were willing to speak on the record about their own companies, but their answers all amounted to – What’s the point?” Since it is given that only a few investors are willing to speak, we can infer that not many investors were willing to speak on the record.

39 Answer: NOT GIVEN

Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions

Answer location: N/A

Answer explanation: None of the passages confirms or denies that the typical tech company hitting the markets in the 1990s was 5 years old.

40 Answer: FALSE

Question Type: True/False/Not Given Questions

Answer location: Paragraph H, line 1

Answer explanation: The opening line of paragraph H puts forward the information that “during a recent presentation for Andreessen Horowitz’s limited partners — the institutions that give money to the venture firm — Marc Andreessen, the firm’s co-founder, told the journalist Dan Primack that he had never seen a sharper divergence in how investors treat public- and private-company chief executives.” Here, we can observe that Marc Andreessen, the firm’s co-founder expressed that he has never seen a sharper divergence in how investors treat public & private-company chief executives. However, he did not seem to be amazed about it.