The Keyless Society - IELTS Reading Answers With Explanations

Nehasri Ravishenbagam

9 min read

Updated On Dec 03, 2025

Get the exact “The Keyless Society” IELTS Reading Answers with clear explanations, answer locations, here in this blog and enhance your reading speed, accuracy, and comprehension!

The Keyless Society - IELTS Reading Answers With Explanations

Reading Passage - The Keyless Society
Questions
The Keyless Society IELTS Reading Answers with Explanation

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The IELTS Reading Academic passage “The Keyless Society” is an authentic Reading test passage made to assess your ability to locate keywords, understand the theme, and interpret factual details efficiently.

You should ideally be completing a reading passage within 20 minutes, and hence use this exercise to check your reading speed and accuracy.

If you find it to be a challenging test or need more practice with similar passages, get ready to explore some additional IELTS Reading practice tests on IELTSMaterial.com to strengthen your overall test performance.

Now, let us begin with solving ‘The Keyless Society’ reading passage!

The question types found in this IELTS Reading ‘The Keyless Society’ passage are:

Reading Passage - The Keyless Society

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

A. Students who want to enter the University of Montreal's Athletic Complex need more than just a conventional ID card - their identities must be authenticated by an electronic hand scanner. In some California housing estates, a key alone is insufficient to get someone in the door; his or her voice print must also be verified. And soon, customers at some Japanese banks will have to present their faces for scanning before they can enter the building and withdraw their money.

B. All of these are applications of biometrics, a little-known but fast-growing technology that involves the use of physical or biological characteristics to identify individuals. In use for more than a decade at some high- security government institutions in the United States and Canada, biometrics are now rapidly popping up in the everyday world. Already, more than 10,000 facilities, from prisons to day-care centres, monitor people's fingerprints or other physical parts to ensure that they are who they claim to be. Some 60 biometric companies around the world pulled in at least $22 million last year and that grand total is expected to mushroom to at least $50 million by 1999.

C. Biometric security systems operate by storing a digitised record of some unique human feature. When an authorised user wishes to enter or use the facility, the system scans the person's corresponding characteristics and attempts to match them against those on record. Systems using fingerprints, hands, voices, irises, retinas and faces are already on the market. Others using typing patterns and even body odours are in various stages of development.

D. Fingerprint scanners are currently the most widely deployed type of biometric application, thanks to their growing use over the last 20 years by law-enforcement agencies. Sixteen American states now use biometric fingerprint verification systems to check that people claiming welfare payments are genuine. In June, politicians in Toronto voted to do the same, with a pilot project beginning next year.

E. To date, the most widely used commercial biometric system is the handkey, a type of hand scanner which reads the unique shape, size and irregularities of people's hands. Originally developed for nuclear powerplants, the handkey received its big break when it was used to control access to the Olympic Village in Atlanta by more than 65,000 athletes, trainers and support staff Now there are scores of other applications.

F. Around the world, the market is growing rapidly. Malaysia, for example, is preparing to equip all of its airports with biometric face scanners to match passengers with luggage. And Japan's largest maker of cash dispensers is developing new machines that incorporate iris scanners. The first commercial biometric, a hand reader used by an American firm to monitor employee attendance, was introduced in 1974. But only in the past few years has the technology improved enough for the prices to drop sufficiently to make them commercially viable. 'When we started four years ago, I had to explain to everyone what a biometric is,' says one marketing expert. Now, there's much more awareness out there.'

G. Not surprisingly, biometrics raise thorny questions about privacy and the potential for abuse. Some worry that governments and industry will be tempted to use the technology to monitor individual behaviour. If someone used your fingerprints to match your health-insurance records with a credit-card record showing you regularly bought lots of cigarettes and fatty foods,' says one policy analyst, 'you would see your insurance payments go through the roof.' In Toronto, critics of the welfare fingerprint plan complained that it would stigmatise recipients by forcing them to submit to a procedure widely identified with criminals.

H. Nonetheless, support for biometrics is growing in Toronto as it is in many other communities. In an increasingly crowded and complicated world, biometrics may well be a technology whose time has come.

Questions

Questions 1 - 7

This Reading passage contains 8 paragraphs labelled A to H.
Select the most suitable headings from the list below for paragraphs B to H.
Write the corresponding numbers (i-x) in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.

Note: There are more headings than paragraphs, so not all headings will be used.

List of Headings:

i. Common objections

ii. Who's planning what

iii. This type sells best in the shops

iv. The figures say it all

v. Early trials

vi. They can't get in without these

vii. How does it work?

viii. Fighting fraud

ix. Systems to avoid

x. Accepting the inevitable

1. Paragraph B

2. Paragraph C

3. Paragraph D

4. Paragraph E

5. Paragraph F

6. Paragraph G

7. Paragraph H

Questions 8 - 14

Examine the following groups of people (Questions 8-14) and the list of biometric systems (A-F) provided below.
Match each group of people with the corresponding biometric system mentioned in Reading Passage.
Write the appropriate letters A-F in boxes 8-14 on your answer sheet. Note that some biometric systems may be used more than once

8. Sports students

9. Olympic athletes

10. Airline passengers

11. Welfare claimants

12. Business employees

13. Homeowners

14. Bank customers

List of Biometric Systems

A. fingerprint scanner

B. hand scanner

C. body odour

D. voiceprint

E. face scanner

F. typing pattern

The Keyless Society IELTS Reading Answers with Explanation

Let’s now review the answers to the questions from the passage in the reading section, Alternative Medicine In Australia IELTS Reading Answers, and assess your improvement for a high IELTS Reading band score.

Question Number	Answers	Explanation
27.	iv	Paragraph B states that ‘more than 10,000 facilities’, from prisons to day-care centers, ‘monitor people’s fingerprints or other physical parts’ to ensure that they are who they claim to be. Moreover, some ‘60 biometric companies’ around the world ‘pulled in at least $22 million last year’ and the grand total is expected to increase to at least ‘$50 million by 1999’. The increasing profit figures of the biometric companies around the world shows that this technology is being widely accepted. Hence, the answer is iv (The figures say it all).
28.	vii	Paragraph C explains how the biometric security systems ‘operate by storing a digitized record of some unique human feature’ (how the biometric systems work). When an ‘authorized user wishes to enter or use the facility’, the ‘system scans the person’s corresponding characteristics’ and ‘attempts to match them against those on record’. Hence, the answer is vii (How does it work?).
29.	viii	Paragraph D points out that ‘fingerprint scanners are currently the most widely deployed’ type of biometric application, thanks to their growing use ‘by law-enforcement agencies’. Sixteen American states now ‘use biometric fingerprint verification systems to check’ (fighting frauds) so that it can be verified if the ‘people claiming welfare payments are genuine’. In this way, financial frauds can be prevented. Hence, the answer is viii (Fighting fraud).

30.	iii	Paragraph E discusses the ‘most widely used commercial biometric system’ (sells most in shops) is ‘the handkey’, a type of hand scanner which reads the unique shape, size and irregularities of people’s hands. It was originally developed for nuclear power plants, and received its big break when it was used to control access to the Olympic Village in Atlanta by more than 65,000 athletes, trainers and support staff. Hence, the answer is iii (This type sells best in the shops).
31.	ii	Paragraph F illustrates what different countries are planning to do with biometric. ‘Malaysia’ is preparing to equip all of its airports with biometric face scanners to match the passengers with their luggage. ‘Japan’‘s largest maker of cash dispensers is developing new machines that incorporate iris scanners to avoid frauds. The first commercial biometric, a hand reader, was introduced in 1974 that was used by ‘an American firm’ to monitor employee attendance. This indicates that every country has its own implementation plans. Hence, the answer is ii (Who’s planning what).
32.	i	Paragraph G reveals that ‘biometrics raises thorny questions about privacy and the potential for abuse’. Some worry that ‘governments and industry will be tempted to use the technology to monitor individual behavior’. Moreover, it is given that in Toronto, critics of the welfare fingerprint plan ‘complained’ (objections) that it ‘would stigmatize recipients by forcing them to submit to a procedure widely identified with criminals’. Hence, the answer is i (Common Objections).
33.	x	Paragraph H mentions that ‘support for biometrics is growing’ (accepting) in many other communities. In an ‘increasingly crowded and complicated world’, ‘biometrics may be a technology whose time has come’ (it will happen in the future so it is inevitable). Hence, the answer is x (Accepting the inevitable).
34.	B	Paragraph E claims that the ‘handkey’ or hand scanner was originally developed for nuclear power plants and received its big break when it was used to control access to the Olympic Village in Atlanta by more than ‘65,000 athletes, trainers and support staff’ (sports students). Hence, the answer is B (Hand Scanner).
35.	B	In paragraph E, the writer has written that originally developed for nuclear power plants, the handkey received its big break when it was ‘used to control access to the Olympic Village in Atlanta by more than 65,000 athletes’, trainers and support staff. Hence, the answer is B (Hand Scanner).
36.	E	Paragraph F shares the fact that ‘Malaysia’ has equipped all of ‘its airports with biometric face scanners’ to ‘match passengers’ (airport passengers) with luggage. Hence, the answer is E (Face Scanner).
37.	A	Paragraph D points out that sixteen American states now use ‘biometric fingerprint verification systems’ to check that ‘people claiming welfare payments’ (welfare claimants) are genuine. Hence, the answer is A (Fingerprint Scanner).
38.	B	Paragraph F brings out the fact that the first commercial biometric, a ‘hand reader’ was used by an ‘American firm’ (business) to ‘monitor employee attendance’ that was introduced in 1974. Hence, the answer is B (Hand Scanner).
39.	D	Paragraph A reveals that in some California ‘housing estates’ (home owners), a key alone is insufficient to get someone in the door; ‘his or her voice print must also be verified’. Hence, the answer is D (Voiceprint).
40.	E	The last line of paragraph A informs that ‘customers at some Japanese banks’ will have to ‘present their faces for scanning’ (face scanner) before they can enter the building and withdraw their money. Hence, the answer is E (Face Scanner).

In conclusion, now that we have practised the ‘The Keyless Society’ Reading passage and checked its answers with location, learning some unique IELTS Reading tips and techniques to increase your reading speed will also help you confidently tackle these kinds of challenging questions.

You should, anyway, practice different IELTS Reading practice tests consistently, and if you need guidance while solving such passages, you can attend our free IELTS online webinars to chat with an IELTS expert and improve your weak areas in the IELTS reading exam!

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