# Obtaining Linguistic Data: answers and explanations

Cambridge IELTS 4, Test 3, Reading Passage 3

Source: Passage, questions and answer key from Cambridge IELTS 4, Test 3, 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 | People talk abnormally when they know they are being recorded |
| 28 | E | supplemented by the observer's written comments on the non-verbal behavior of the participants |
| 29 | C | the characteristics of the social setting (e.g. the level of formality) are also highly relevant |
| 30 | D | attempts can be made to make the speaker forget about the recording |
| 31 | F | There are also several direct methods of elicitation |
| 32 | linguist | linguists act as their own informants |
| 33 | foreign languages | The latter procedure is unavoidable when working on foreign languages |
| 34 | quality | and sound quality can be poor. |
| 35 | non-verbal behaviour | the non-verbal behavior of the participants ... Video recordings avoid these problems to a large extent |
| 36 | camera | but even they have limitations (the camera cannot be everywhere) |
| 37 | frequency of usage | A corpus enables the linguist to make unbiased statements about frequency of usage |
| 38 | particular linguistic feature | providing a collection of material that deals only with a particular linguistic feature. |
| 39 | size | The size of the corpus depends on practical factors |
| 40 | intuitions | and always need to be supplemented by data derived from the intuitions of native speakers of the language |

## Why these answers are right

**27. D.** You need the paragraph about how recording changes speech. Paragraph D says people talk abnormally when they know they are being recorded, which is the observer's paradox the paragraph goes on to discuss. That effect of recording points to D.

**28. E.** Body language is another way of saying non-verbal behavior. Paragraph E says audio recordings should be supplemented by the observer's written comments on the participants' non-verbal behavior, since a facial expression can change meaning. Taking notes on body language therefore points to E.

**29. C.** The statement links language to social situation. Paragraph C says age, sex and social background influence the kind of language used, and that the social setting, such as its level of formality, is highly relevant too. Social setting matches social situation, so C.

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

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