How to Make Wise Decisions IELTS Reading Answers with Explanation

“How to Make Wise Decisions” is Passage 3 of Cambridge IELTS 16 Academic Reading Test 2. This page gives the answers for Questions 27–40 with a short explanation of why each answer is right, so you can check your work and learn from every mistake. The question types are: Multiple Choice, Summary Completion, True / False / Not Given.

Quick answers: Questions 27–40

Question	Answer
27	B
28	C
29	B
30	D
31	D
32	A
33	C
34	F
35	G
36	FALSE
37	NOT GIVEN
38	NOT GIVEN
39	TRUE
40	TRUE

Questions 27–30: Multiple Choice

Q	Question	Answer	Why
27	What point does the writer make in the first paragraph?	B	Option B is the one the passage supports.
28	What does Igor Grossmann suggest about the ability to make wise decisions?	C	Option C is the one the passage supports.
29	According to the third paragraph, Grossmann claims that the level of wisdom an individual shows	B	Option B is the one the passage supports.
30	What is described in the fifth paragraph?	D	Option D is the one the passage supports.

Questions 31–35: Summary Completion

Q	Question	Answer	Why
31	It is important to have a certain degree of ___ regarding the extent of our knowledge	D	Use exactly this wording from the passage, within the word limit.
32	and to take into account ___ which may not be the same as our own.	A	Use exactly this wording from the passage, within the word limit.
33	We should also be able to take a broad ___ of any situation.	C	Use exactly this wording from the passage, within the word limit.
34	Grossmann also believes that it is better to regard scenarios with ___.	F	Use exactly this wording from the passage, within the word limit.
35	By avoiding the first-person perspective, we focus more on ___ and on other moral ideals	G	Use exactly this wording from the passage, within the word limit.

Questions 36–40: True / False / Not Given

Q	Question	Answer	Why
36	Students participating in the job prospects experiment could choose one of two perspectives to take.	FALSE	The passage contradicts this statement.
37	Participants in the couples experiment were aware that they were taking part in a study about wise reasoning.	NOT GIVEN	The passage gives no clear information to confirm or reject this statement.
38	In the couples experiments, the length of the couples' relationships had an impact on the results.	NOT GIVEN	The passage gives no clear information to confirm or reject this statement.
39	In both experiments, the participants who looked at the situation from a more detached viewpoint tended to make wiser decisions.	TRUE	The passage agrees with this statement.
40	Grossmann believes that a person's wisdom is determined by their intelligence to only a very limited extent.	TRUE	The passage agrees with this statement.

Tips for these question types

• Multiple choice: eliminate options that are only partly right, and watch for words like only, always and never.
• Completion tasks: check the word limit and the grammar of the gap before you write the answer exactly as it appears in the passage.
• True / False / Not Given: TRUE means the passage says the same thing, FALSE means it says the opposite, and NOT GIVEN means it does not say. Never use your own knowledge.
• Review every mistake. Find the exact sentence in the passage that proves the answer so you can spot the same trap next time.

FAQ

How many questions does this passage have? How to Make Wise Decisions covers Questions 27–40, which is 14 questions.

Where is this passage from? It is Reading Passage 3 in Cambridge IELTS 16, Academic Test 2.

How should I use these answers? Attempt the passage under timed conditions first, then check your answers here and read the reason for every mistake.

Cambridge IELTS 16 Reading Test 2: all passages
Part 1: The White Horse of Uffington  |  Part 2: I Contain Multitudes  |  Part 3: How to Make Wise Decisions (you are here)

← Previous: Part 2

Practise more IELTS Reading

Try more passages on a computer-based screen with a timer. Practise free IELTS Academic Reading tests on computerielts.com and check your band score instantly.

>