# The Benefits of Being Bilingual: answers and explanations

Cambridge IELTS 12, Test 2, Reading Passage 3

Source: Passage, questions and answer key from Cambridge IELTS 12, Test 2, 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 | eye movements | Some of the most compelling evidence for this phenomenon, called 'language co-activation', comes from studying eye movements. |
| 28 | language co-activation | language co-activation occurs because what the listener hears could map onto words in either language. |
| 29 | Stroop Task | In the classic Stroop Task |
| 30 | conflict management | bilingual people often perform better on tasks that require conflict management. |
| 31 | cognitive control | reflecting better cognitive control when having to make rapid changes of strategy. |
| 32 | YES | In the past, such children were considered to be at a disadvantage compared with their monolingual peers. |
| 33 | NOT GIVEN | Long before the word is finished, the brain's language system begins to guess what that word might be. |
| 34 | NO | knowing more than one language can cause speakers to name pictures more slowly |
| 35 | NO | When monolingual and bilingual adolescents listen to simple speech sounds without any intervening background noise, they show highly similar brain stem responses. |
| 36 | NOT GIVEN | bilingual patients reported showing initial symptoms of the disease an average of five years later than monolingual patients |
| 37 | D | in the presence of background noise, however, the bilingual listeners' neural response is considerably larger |
| 38 | G | only the bilingual babies were able to successfully learn the new rule |
| 39 | B | When we hear a word, we don't hear the entire word all at once: the sounds arrive in sequential order. |
| 40 | C | Having to deal with this persistent linguistic competition can result in difficulties, however. |

## Why these answers are right

**27. eye movements.** The table needs what researchers observed in Russian-English bilinguals choosing objects. Paragraph B says the strongest evidence comes from studying eye movements, then describes a bilingual looking more at a stamp when asked for a marker. Eye movements is the two-word answer.

**28. language co-activation.** The findings column names the mechanism of using both languages at once. Paragraph B says that when a bilingual uses one language the other is active too, calls this phenomenon language co-activation, and repeats the term at the end. That is the required name.

**29. Stroop Task.** This cell asks for the name of a color-naming test. Paragraph C describes the classic Stroop Task, in which people see a word and must name the color of its font, such as red printed in blue. Stroop Task is the test's name and fits the two-word limit.

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

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