The Animal That Regrows Its Head – IELTS Reading Answers

Since IELTS Reading is considered the second easiest module of the exam after IELTS Listening, try to solve and review “The Animal That Regrows Its Head Reading” passage and similar passages to ensure that your reading skills are up to the mark.

The Animal That Regrows Its Head is an IELTS Academic reading passage that has appeared in an IELTS Test. Since questions get repeated in the IELTS exam, these passages are ideal for practice. If you want more practice, try taking an IELTS Reading Practice Test.

The question types found in The Animal That Regrows Its Head passage are:

• True/False/Not Given (Q. 1-5)
• Multiple Choice Questions (Q. 6-8)
• Sentence Completion (Q. 9-13)

Reading Passage

The Animal That Regrows Its Head

In a windowless lab at the University of Galway in Ireland, there’s a fish tank containing an extraordinary creature. Perched on blue cocktail sticks like lollipops, rows of seashells are coated in a strange “living hair”, buffeted by gently flowing seawater. This colony of tiny marine animals – known as “snail fur” – was harvested in Irish rockpools off the backs of hermit crabs, and is related to jellyfish, corals and sea anemones.

Each no bigger than a baby’s eyelash, they are called Hydractinia, and up close resemble a tree, each with a foot, a trunk and a tentacled head used for catching tasty passing detritus. They also have a superpower: when grazing fish frequently bite off those tentacle heads, they re-sprout to their former hirsute glory within a week.

It’s this talent that has captured the attention of Uri Frank and colleagues at Galway’s Regenerative Medicine Institute. Along with a growing number of researchers, he claims that the tissue regeneration seen in creatures like Hydractinia could be an ancient power possessed by most animals, including humans – it’s just dormant. So, how does this “snail fur” regrow itself? And could it hold the key to tissue regeneration in human beings too?

Many animals can regenerate body parts, from starfish to salamanders. But primitive snail fur is unusual, not least because its abilities are so extreme.

Marshalling stem cells

The key to Hydractinia’s regenerative talent is the fact that it retains its embryonic stem cells for life. This means that any wound healing process doesn’t just produce a scab and a scar but a whole new body part as it would in an embryo, even a head.

At a gathering of developmental biologists earlier this year, Frank showed a video of the creature’s head-budding process in action, embryonic stem cells that had been genetically altered to glow green rushing to the neck end of a headless Hydractinia. Attendees were agog. As one tweeted: “Uri Frank shows timelapse movie of Hydractinia stem cells physically moving across to head (wound site) – Wow!”

Since recording that video the Galway team have been working to understand how Hydractinia rebuilds its severed body and hope to publish their findings shortly in a scientific journal. While they’re keeping schtum about the details, the paper will focus on how the creature marshalls its stem cells to regrow its head – for example, how stem cells know the head’s missing – and where exactly the embryonic stem cells come from.

Studying Hydractinia has also led Frank and colleagues to ask a bigger question: why can only a few animals regenerate while most can’t? A salamander can regrow a lost tail but closely related frogs can’t regrow a lost limb. And if a tiny marine creature can regrow its own head, why can’t humans even regrow their adult teeth? After all, says Frank, it’s not as if human and Hydractinia stem cell systems are so very different.

Ancient ancestor

Key stem cell processes are ancient and common to many animal species. For instance, the complex “Wnt” signalling system, which controls stem cells in developing embryos and, when uncontrolled, causes cancer, is very similar in all animals, including Hydractinia and people. It’s one of a handful of complex stem cell systems, each involving hundreds of elements, which have remained the same since Hydractinia branched off the evolutionary tree that eventually led to us around 600 million years ago.

Over the past decade or so, researchers have started to believe that stem cells first evolved in a creature even more ancient than Hydractinia, whose soft body has long since dissolved in ancient seabeds. In this as-yet-unknown creature, the power of regeneration may have first evolved, says Frank, endowing all later animals with a basic toolkit for regrowing lost body parts – one which mainly lies dormant in present-day life.

“It’s maybe not such a crazy idea. Stem cell systems are enormously complex and 600 million years may not be long enough to reinvent another system from scratch. So it’s more likely to believe that our stem cell system and Hydractinia’s stem cell system were actually inherited from a common ancestor,” says Frank. “And if you think about it, Hydractinia can grow a new head and, although we cannot as adults, we can do that as embryos when we make our own head. So it is possible that this ability to do so is switched off in human adults and in Hydractinia it’s not.”

This theory ties in with a study published last year in the journal Nature, about two varieties of an ancient form of flatworm, the planarian. This worm has been studied for over a century because of its amazing regenerative powers. Slice them up into tiny pieces and some planarian worms can regrow their bodies from even the tiniest tailpiece. Others need most of their body intact to regrow a head. Until now, that is.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute tested the idea that all planarian flatworms have the same regenerative superpowers but that in some it’s switched off early in development. They were right. With a relatively simple tweak to the stem cell system of a developing embryo they turned a creature that in nature couldn’t regrow a head out of a tiny tailpiece, into one that could.

In Galway, Frank hopes his research will help to explain the apparently miraculous results from planarian experiments and unravel other mysteries, too. Why, for instance, do planarians easily grow new tails when Hydractinia struggles to regrow its foot? One idea is that body symmetry – front/back or left-right as in planarians and humans but not snail fur – may dictate where stem cells in the body can migrate to.

In theory, it’s possible that humans may harbour the same dormant regenerative superpowers as snail fur and flatworms, however far they seem from humans. At the most basic cellular level there are striking similarities. Studying them could teach us how to regrow damaged or lost body parts too. “While there’s no market for regrowing human heads,” says Frank, “wouldn’t it be great if we could repair spinal cords, damaged hearts, damaged kidneys, hands and any other organs we might lose?”

The flatworm studies imply this might not be quite as unthinkable as once thought. The Victorian father of regenerative science, Thomas Hunt Morgan carried out flatworm experiments showed their amazing powers to regrow a whole body from a stump in 1901. But he abandoned the study, writing: “We will never understand the phenomena of development and regeneration.”

Clearly, there are many mysteries of regeneration still to be revealed, yet now it seems that a tiny creature living in a fish tank in Galway and its ilk could help us unlock the bizarre process of regrowing body parts sooner than we thought.

Questions 1-5 

1. “Snail fur” is related to jellyfish, corals and sea anemones.
2. Judging by the picture, Hydractinia can regrow its head in a day.
3. Uri Frank thinks that even humans can possess regenerating powers.
4. Snail fur is similar to salamanders and starfish.
5. Healing in Hydractinia produces new body part.

Questions 6-8 

6. Which of the following DIDN’T happen at a gathering of developmental biologists?

1.  Uri Frank showed a video of Hydractinia regenerating its head.
2.  Some stem sells of the creature were glowing green.
3.  Attendants were astonished by the show.
4.  Research conference afterwards took place.

7. The Galway team will focus on what in their future paper?

1.  How Hydractinia manages to regrow its head.
2.  How stem cells know that the head is missing.
3.  Where the stem cells come from.
4.  All of the above.

8. According to Frank Uri and his team

1.  human and Hydractinia stem cells are similar.
2.  most organisms can regenerate themselves.
3.  frogs can regrow lost limbs.
4.  salamander and frogs are not closely related.

Questions 9-13 

9. “Wnt” signalling system can cause___________ if uncontrolled.
10. Human and Hydractinia stem cells might actually be from a common____________ .
11. The thing that dictates where stem cells in the body can migrate to might be body__________ .
12. Humans might possibly harbour the same______________ regenerative superpowers as snail fur and flatworms.
13. Thomas Hunt Morgan said that we will never understand the_____________ of development and regeneration.

Answers of The Animal That Regrows Its Head Reading Answers with Location and Explanation

Check out the answers for Animal That Regrows Its Head – IELTS Reading Answers

1. Answer: True

Question type: True/ False/ Not-Given

Answer location: Paragraph A, line 4.

Answer explanation: The first paragraph discusses that “ This colony of tiny marine animals – known as “snail fur” – was harvested in Irish rockpools off the backs of hermit crabs, and is related to jellyfish, corals and sea anemones.” So from this we can conclude that “Snail fur” is related to jellyfish, corals and sea anemones. Hence, the answer is True.

2. Answer: False

Question type: True/ False/ Not-Given

Answer location: Paragraph B

Answer explanation: In the mentioned paragraph, it is given that “Each no bigger than a baby’s eyelash, they are called Hydractinia, and up close resemble a tree, each with a foot, a trunk and a tentacled head used for catching tasty passing detritus. They also have a superpower: when grazing fish frequently bite off those tentacle heads, they re-sprout to their former hirsute glory within a week…” This reference suggests that Hydractinia can grow its severed body, But it won’t be possible to do it in a day. Hence the answer is False.

3. Answer: True

Question type: True/ False/ Not-Given

Answer location: Paragraph C

Answer explanation: In the mentioned paragraph, it is given that “It’s this talent that has captured the attention of Uri Frank and colleagues at Galway’s Regenerative Medicine Institute. Along with a growing number of researchers, he claims that the tissue regeneration seen in creatures like Hydractinia could be an ancient power possessed by most animals, including humans – it’s just dormant. So, how does this “snail fur” regrow itself? And could it hold the key to tissue regeneration in human beings too?”. It can be concluded that the fourth paragraph refers to the fact that Uri Frank thinks that even humans can possess regenerating powers. Hence, the answer is True.

4. Answer: Not Given

Question type: True/ False/ Not-Given

Answer location: N.A.

Answer explanation: The beginning of the fourth paragraph explores that “Many animals can regenerate body parts, from starfish to salamanders. But primitive snail fur is unusual, not least because its abilities are so extreme.” There is no such specification if  “Snail fur is similar to salamanders and starfish”. Hence, the answer is Not Given.

5. Answer: True

Question type: True/ False/ Not-Given

Answer location: Paragraph D, line 2

Answer explanation: In the above-mentioned paragraph, it is stated that “The key to Hydractinia’s regenerative talent is the fact that it retains its embryonic stem cells for life. This means that any wound healing process doesn’t just produce a scab and a scar but a whole new body part as it would in an embryo, even a head…”. It can be pointed out that Healing in Hydractinia produces a new body part. Hence, the answer is True.

Tips to Solve the Question Types in The Animal That Regrows Its Head Reading Answers

Since now you have The Animal That Regrows Its Head Reading Answers Key with explanations, let us check out some quick tips to answer the three types of questions in the IELTS Reading Answers of The Animal That Regrows Its Head.

True/False/Not Given: 

True/False/Not Given questions are a type of IELTS Reading question that requires you to identify whether a statement is true, false, or not given in the passage.

• True statements are statements that are explicitly stated in the passage.
• False statements are statements that are explicitly contradicted in the passage.
• Not Given statements are statements that are neither explicitly stated nor contradicted in the passage

To answer True/False/Not Given questions, you need to be able to understand the passage and identify the key information. You also need to be able to distinguish between statements that are explicitly stated, contradicted, and not given.

Multiple-Choice Questions:

You will be given a reading passage followed by several questions based on the information in the paragraph in multiple-choice questions. Your task is to understand the question and compare it to the paragraph in order to select the best solution from the available possibilities.

• Before reading the passage, read the question and select the keywords. Check the keyword possibilities if the question statement is short on information.
• Then, using the keywords, read the passage to find the relevant information.
• To select the correct option, carefully read the relevant words and match them with each option.
• You will find several options with keywords that do not correspond to the information.
• Try opting for the elimination method mostly.
• Find the best option by matching the meaning rather than just the keywords.

Sentence – Completion Type Question:

Sentence Completion Type Questions is a type of IELTS reading question that requires you to scan through a passage and answer questions based on the information given following the word limit.

To answer sentence-completion-type questions, you can use the following strategies:

• Go through the instructions carefully – You will find the word limit for the answers there, which you have to follow strictly.
• Read the questions and highlight the keywords – The next step will be to read the questions to know what keywords or information you have to look for in the passage.
• Use the ‘Wh’ words in the questions – Words like ‘What’, (names), ‘Where’ (place), ‘When’ (time), etc. will enable you to understand the type of information you are looking for.
• Use reading techniques to study the passage quickly – Do not waste your time reading the whole passage. Scan through the passage to find out the keywords or their synonyms. If headers are given, use them to locate the answer easily.
• Check the spelling – Once you find the answer, note the correct spelling in your answer sheet.

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