# The Swiffer: answers and explanations

The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS, Test 6, Reading Passage 3

Source: Passage, questions and answer key from The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS, Test 6, 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 | they one day noticed a woman do with a paper towel what people do all the time: wipe something up and throw it away. |
| 28 | B | "But the book definitely spiraled out of control," Lehrer says. |
| 29 | A | Apparently 'Like a Rolling Stone' suddenly flowed from his pen. |
| 30 | C | a small fold of tissue called the anterior superior temporal gyrus suddenly lights up just beforehand. This stays silent |
| 31 | B | The predictive signal is a steady rhythm of alpha waves emanating from the brain's right hemisphere |
| 32 | C | when we are diligently focused, our attention tends to be towards the details of the problems we are trying to solve. |
| 33 | D | day-dreaming has been shown to be positively correlated with problem-solving. |
| 34 | A | if colleagues are too socially intimate, creativity is stifled. |
| 35 | workplace | Jobs designed the entire workplace to maximise the chance of strangers bumping into each other |
| 36 | acquaintances | Those with the greatest diversity of acquaintances enjoyed far more success. |
| 37 | conversations | forces himself to initiate conversations. |
| 38 | Internet | As for predictions that the rise of the Internet would make the need for shared working space obsolete |
| 39 | cities | Cities, however, allow our ingenuity to grow by pulling huge numbers of different people together, who then exchange ideas. |
| 40 | A | says this study of the imagination started from a desire to understand what happens in the brain at the moment of sudden insight. |

## Why these answers are right

**27. D.** The designers watched people clean and saw a woman wipe something up with a paper towel and throw it away, which people do all the time. That everyday habit gave Harry West the idea of a mop with a disposable surface, so D is correct.

**28. B.** Lehrer planned to study what happens in the brain at the moment of insight, but says the book spiraled out of control. He realized he also had to cover the hard work afterward and the role of culture and teams, so he revised his plans, B.

**29. A.** The Dylan story comes where Lehrer discusses inspiration arriving as if from nowhere. Dylan had given up music, yet a song suddenly flowed from his pen, and he said it was like a ghost writing it. This illustrates how ideas seem spontaneous, A.

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

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