IELTS Reading Multiple Choice

This part discusses the IELTS reading multiple choice answers. The part in italics is the section from the reading which has the answer.

(1) Young children are making criminologists nervous because

By the year 2005 they will be teenagers--a group that tends to be, in the view of Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox, "temporary sociopaths--impulsive and immature." If they also have easy access to guns and drugs, they can be extremely dangerous. (para. 1)

'Children' are not commiting more crime so (a) is not correct.

You may have been tempted to tick (b) because the reading mentions " impulsive and immature", but this is in reference to when they will be teenagers later in life, not the children.

(c) is correct because, as per the quote above, the concern is that when they become teenagers (grown up) they will commit these crimes.

(2) The general crime rate in the US is

For all the heartening news offered by recent crime statistics...(para. 2)

"Heartening news" means 'good news' - so the general crime rate is obviously falling as this would be good news. So the answer is (b)

(3) The age group which commits the highest rate of crime is

...14 and 17, the age group that in the early '90s supplanted 18- to 24-year-olds as the most crime-prone. (para. 2)

This tells us the 14-17 age group replaced ('supplanted') 18-24-year-olds as the most likely ('prone') to commit crime, so the answer for this IELTS reading multiple choice question is (a).

(4) James Fox believes that the improvement in crime figures could

"So long as we fool ourselves in thinking that we're winning the war against crime, we may be blindsided by this bloodbath of teenage violence that is lurking in the future." (para.2)

Here James is saying that because general crime figures are falling, we may not notice what is going to happen in the future with teenage crime, so the IELTS reading multiple choice answer is (a).

It is not logical that falling crime rates could increase or decrease teenage crime (there is no connection) so it can't be (b) or (c).

(5) According to paragraph 3, the government

At the same time, government is becoming less, not more, interested in spending money to help break the cycle of poverty and crime. (para.3)

You have to be careful with this one. Like the IELTS reading multiple choice question 1 you may be tempted to pick (b) because it mentions 'the government' and has the words 'less interested' which matches the question.

But is says the government is 'less interested in spending money'. You cannot assume (guess) from this that the government is 'not interested in solving the problem'. It may just want to commit more money elsewhere, but this does not mean it has no interest in solving the issue.

So the answer is in fact (c) - the government is not doing enough.

(6) In comparison with James Fox, Michael Tonry is

Michael Tonry, a professor of law and public policy at the University of Minnesota, argues that the demographic doomsayers are unduly alarmist...."it's not going to be an apocalyptic effect." (para.4)

Here Michael is saying that those who are concerned about the problem (like James) are worrying too much ("unduly alarmist") and there will not be the terrible consequences ("apocalyptic") like they claim.

So he is obviously less pessimistic and the answer is (b).

(7) Jonathan Kozol believes that

We're not creating new jobs, and we're not improving education to suit poor people for the jobs that exist." (para.5)

In this paragraph, Jonathan makes lots of negative points and finishes by saying jobs are not being created and education not improved. He is therefore citing these as a cause of the problems he mentioned.

It thus follows that changing this would improve the situation, so the answer is (c).

(8) Professor DiIulio thinks that spending on social programs

"A failure to maintain existing welfare and health commitment for kids," he says, "is to guarantee that the next wave of juvenile predators will be even worse than we're dealing with today." (para.6)

If you don't 'maintain' something, then you don't keep it working as it is. So he is saying that if spending on welfare and health (social programs) is not kept as it is, things will get worse.

So the IELTS reading multiple choice answer is (a).