# EFFECTS OF NOISE: answers and explanations

Cambridge IELTS 7, Test 4, Reading Passage 3

Source: Passage, questions and answer key from Cambridge IELTS 7, Test 4, Reading Passage 3. © Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Used for educational practice. Explanations and evidence notes are written by Testmigo.

## Answer key

| Q | Answer | Proof |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 27 | D | most of us have had the experience of having to adjust to sleeping in the mountains or the countryside because it was initially 'too quiet' |
| 28 | C | after about four minutes the subjects were doing just as well on their tasks as control subjects who were not exposed to noise. |
| 29 | A | loud noise becomes more troublesome if the person is required to concentrate on more than one task. ... noise did not affect a subject's ability to track a moving line with a steering wheel |
| 30 | B | We are much more able to 'tune out' chronic background noise, even if it is quite loud, than to work under circumstances with unexpected intrusions of noise. |
| 31 | D | others heard the same amount of noise overall, but the bursts occurred at random intervals |
| 32 | F | all subjects performed at about the same level during the noise portion of the experiment. |
| 33 | I | the unpredictable noise produced more errors in the later proofreading task than predictable noise |
| 34 | B | unpredictable noise produces more fatigue than predictable noise, but it takes a while for this fatigue to take its toll on performance. |
| 35 | A | The noise was quite disruptive at first |
| 36 | D | children who were moved to less noisy classrooms still showed greater distractibility one year later |
| 37 | A | If the individual knows that he or she can control the noise, this seems to eliminate both its negative effects at the time and its after-effects. |
| 38 | E | some subjects heard loud bursts and others heard soft bursts. |
| 39 | B | high noise levels interfered with the performance of subjects who were required to monitor three dials at a time |
| 40 | C | it did interfere with the subject's ability to repeat numbers while tracking |

## Why these answers are right

**27. D.** The writer says many of us have had to adjust to sleeping in the mountains because it was at first too quiet, which shows humans adapt to a range of noise levels. The implication is that people are used to more noise where they normally live, so D fits.

**28. C.** The question asks what Glass and Singer found. Paragraph A says the loud bursts were disruptive at first, but after about four minutes subjects did as well as controls. So noise does not seriously disrupt problem-solving in the long term, C. D fails because the subjects' arousal declined, not the controls'.

**29. A.** Paragraph B says loud noise becomes more troublesome when you must concentrate on more than one task, and gives tracking a moving line as a single task noise did not affect. So noise is unlikely to interfere with one task, A; options B, C and D are tasks it did disrupt.

The why and the trap for questions 30 onwards are free with an account on the [answers page](https://testmigo.com/ielts/reading/effects-of-noise/answers).

[Practice EFFECTS OF NOISE](https://testmigo.com/ielts/reading/effects-of-noise)