Visual Symbols and the Blind Reading Answers

Updated On Aug 25, 2021

Visual Symbols and the Blind Reading Answers

Contents

1 Visual Symbols and the Blind
2 Answers

The Academic passage ‘Visual Symbols and the Blind’ is a reading passage that appeared in an IELTS Test. Read the passage below and answer questions 27-40. Beyond the questions, you will find the answers along with the location of the answers in the passage and the keywords that help you find out the answers.

Visual Symbols and the Blind

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Question Number	Answer	Explanation
27.	C	In the first paragraph of Part 1, it is noted that blind people can ‘appreciate’ (recognise) the ‘use of outlines and perspectives’ (convention such as perspective) to describe the arrangement of objects and other surfaces in space. Hence, the answer is C (can recognise conventions such as perspective).
28.	C	In the first paragraph of Part 1, there is an example of a blind woman, in one of the writer’s investigations, decided on her own initiative to ‘draw a wheel as it was spinning’ (movement). To show this motion, she ‘traced a curve inside the circle’ (a symbol). He was ‘taken aback’ (surprised), lines of motion, such as the one she used, are a very recent invention in the history of illustration. Hence, the answer is C (included a symbol representing movement).
29.	A	In the fifth paragraph of Part 1, the writer mentions that the consensus among the sighted was barely higher than that among the blind. It is because motion devices are unfamiliar to the blind, the task given to them involved some problem solving. But, the ‘blind’ not only ‘figured out meanings for each line of motion’ (representing movement), but as a group they generally ‘came up with the same meaning at least as frequently as did sighted subjects’ (had good understanding of symbols). Hence, the answer is A (had good understanding of symbols representing movement).
30.	E	In the fourth paragraph of Part 1, it is given that ‘subjects’ (blind participants in the experiment) assumed that ‘spokes extending beyond the wheel’s perimeter’ (as shown in the diagram) signified that the ‘wheel had its brakes on’. Hence, the answer is E (use of brakes).

31.	C	In the fourth paragraph of Part 1, it is mentioned that ‘dashed spokes’ (as shown in the diagram) indicated the wheel was ‘spinning quickly’ (rapid spinning). Hence, the answer is C (rapid spinning).
32.	A	In the fourth paragraph of Part 1, it is written that ‘curved spokes’ (as shown in the diagram) indicated that the ‘wheel was spinning steadily’ Hence, the answer is A (steady spinning).
33.	pairs	In the first paragraph of Part 2, the writer mentions that he had started an ‘experiment with a blind doctoral student’ from China, Chang Hong Liu, to ‘explore how well blind people understand the symbolism’ behind ‘shapes such as hearts’ that do not directly represent their meaning. In the second paragraph, the writer adds that they gave ‘a list of’ twenty ‘pairs of words’ to ‘sighted subjects’ and asked them to pick from each pair the term best related to a circle and the term best related to a square. So, through this experiment using a list of pairs of words, the writer tried to find out whether blind and sighted people perceived the symbolism in the same way. Hence, the answer is ‘pairs’.
34.	shapes	In the first paragraph of Part 2, the writer mentions that he had started an ‘experiment with a blind doctoral student’ from China, Chang Hong Liu, to ‘explore how well blind people understand the symbolism’ behind ‘shapes’ such as ‘hearts’ that do not directly represent their meaning. In the second paragraph, the writer adds that they gave ‘a list of’ twenty ‘pairs of words’ to ‘sighted subjects’ and asked them to pick from each pair the term best related to ‘a circle’ (shape) and the term best related to ‘a square’ (shape). So, through this experiment using a list of pairs of words, the writer tried to find out whether blind and sighted people perceived the symbolism, through shapes, in the same way. Hence, the answer is ‘pairs’.
35.	sighted	In the second paragraph of Part 2, the writer says that they gave a list of twenty pairs of words to sighted subjects and asked them to pick from each pair the term best related to a circle and the term best related to a square. In the last paragraph, it is added that ‘all our subjects’ (sighted subjects) ‘deemed the circle soft and the square hard’. Hence, the answer is ‘sighted’.
36.	sighted	In the last paragraph of Part 2, it is informed that only 51% of ‘all our subjects’ (sighted subjects as mentioned in the second paragraph of Part 2) linked ‘deep to circle’ and ‘shallow to square’. Hence, the answer is ‘sighted’.
37.	deep	In the last paragraph of Part 2, it is informed that only ‘51% of all our subjects’ (sighted subjects as mentioned in the second paragraph of Part 2) linked ‘deep to circle’ and ‘shallow to square’. Hence, the answer is ‘deep’.
38.	blind	In the last paragraph of Part 2, it is stated that when the writer tested ‘four totally blind volunteers’ ‘using the same list’ (later repeated), we found that their choices closely resembled those made by the sighted subjects. Hence, the answer is ‘blind’.
39.	similar	In the last paragraph of Part 2, it is given that when the writer tested four totally blind volunteers using the same list, we found that ‘their’ (four totally blind volunteers) choices ‘closely resembled’ (similar) those made by the sighted subjects. Hence, the answer is ‘similar’.
40.	B	In the last line of Part 2, it is concluded that the ‘blind’ ‘interpret’ (comprehend) ‘abstract shapes’ (visual metaphors) ‘as sighted people do’ (in similar ways to sighted people). Hence, the answer is B (the blind comprehend visual metaphors in similar ways to sighted people).