# Do literate women make better mothers?: answers and explanations

Cambridge IELTS 6, Test 4, Reading Passage 2

Source: Passage, questions and answer key from Cambridge IELTS 6, Test 4, Reading Passage 2. © Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Used for educational practice. Explanations and evidence notes are written by Testmigo.

## Answer key

| Q | Answer | Proof |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 14 | B | about 300,000 illiterate adults from all over the country |
| 15 | F | Children in developing countries are healthier and more likely to survive past the age of five when their mothers can read and write. |
| 16 | C | researchers from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the Central American Institute of Health in Nicaragua |
| 17 | J | may simply indicate her family's wealth |
| 18 | F | has a direct effect on their children's health and survival. |
| 19 | NOT GIVEN | interviewed nearly 3,000 women, some of whom had learnt to read as children |
| 20 | NO | For women educated in primary school, however, the infant mortality rate was significantly lower, at 80 per thousand. |
| 21 | YES | the infant mortality rate for the children of illiterate mothers was around 110 deaths per thousand live births ... the infant mortality figures for those who remained illiterate and for those educated in primary school remained more or less unchanged |
| 22 | YES | For those women who learnt to read through the campaign, the infant mortality rate was 84 per thousand |
| 23 | NO | the infant mortality rate was 84 per thousand, an impressive 21 points lower ... significantly lower, at 80 per thousand |
| 24 | NOT GIVEN | The children of the newly-literate mothers were also better nourished than those of women who could not read. |
| 25 | C, E | The Nicaraguan study suggests we may be able to bypass that. |
| 26 | C, E | education budgets in developing countries should be increased, not just to help their economies, but also to improve child health. |

## Why these answers are right

**14. B.** The gap is who the crusade set out to teach. Paragraph C says about 300,000 illiterate adults from across Nicaragua learned to read and write, and adults means men and women, so B fits.

**15. F.** The summary says public health experts long knew of a link between child health and something. Paragraph A says experts accepted decades ago that children are healthier when their mothers can read and write, which is maternal literacy, F.

**16. C.** The gap names who investigated the question. Paragraph D lists researchers from Liverpool, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, institutions in three countries, so an international research team, option C, describes them.

The why and the trap for questions 17 onwards are free with an account on the [answers page](https://testmigo.com/ielts/reading/do-literate-women-make-better-mothers/answers).

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