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- IELTS Reading Yes No Not given
- IELTS Reading Multiple Choice Questions
- IELTS Reading Sentence Completion
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IELTS reading passage – Personality and Appearance
Personality and Appearance
A. Charles Darwin was almost let down by a lousy flaw that was as clear as the nose on his face when he was involved in being the “energetic young man” that Robert Fitzroy, the Beagle’s captain, expected as his gentleman companion. Fitzroy believed in physiognomy, the notion that one can infer something about a person’s qualities from the way they seem. As Darwin’s daughter Henrietta thereupon recognized, Fitzroy had “made up his mind that no guy with such a nose could have the energy.” This seldom ever occurs. His sluggish proboscis was fortunately made up for by the rest of his face: “His brow saved him.”
B.The ancient Greeks deemed that a person’s character may be seen in their face. The Swiss poet Johann Lavater is credited with making it famous by making his thoughts a hot topic in intellectual circles in the late 18th century. They were virtually taken for the award during Darwin’s time. Physiognomy wasn’t labeled as pseudoscience until it was linked to phrenology, a study that achieved notoriety in the late 19th century.
C.Despite the cliche that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, first impressions have a lot of power. We can already determine a person’s qualities within a tenth of a second of meeting them, including whether they are competent, aggressive, compassionate, or trustworthy. It is very challenging to change your mind once a quick decision has been made. These quick examinations are followed by action. Politicians who project competence are more likely to win office, while CEOs who project superiority are more likely to operate successful businesses. There is a well-known “attractive halo” as well. Not only do attractive people receive more Valentine’s Day cards, but they are also perceived as more extroverted, socially adept, strong, clever, and healthy.
D.In 1966, scientists at the University of Michigan asked 84 freshmen to reckon with one another on five personality qualities based only on looks while they sat in silence for fifteen minutes. The observers’ quick assessments of three traits—extroversion, conscientiousness, and openness—matched true personality scores much more frequently than by chance. A number of scholars, most notably Anthony Little from the University of Stirling and David Perrett from the University of St. Andrews, both in the UK, have lately reevaluated the connection between looks and personality. They accentuated how loosely confounding variables were controlled in the Michigan research. But when Little and Perrett re-ran the experimentation using mugshots rather than live subjects, they also found a link between facial appearance and personality—though only for extroversion and conscientiousness. Little and Perrett argued that they only found a correlation at the extremes of personality.
E.90 ice hockey players were studied by Justin Carre and Cheryl McCormick of Brock University in Ontario, Canada. They discovered that a wider face in which the cheekbone-to-cheekbone length was unusually large relative to the distance between the brow and upper lip was linked in a statistically noteworthy way with the number of penalty minutes a player was given for violent acts including slashing, elbowing, checking from behind, and battling. The kernel of truth theory isn’t the only one that can account for our proclivity for making snap judgments. A psychologist at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, named Leslie Zebrowitz claims that many times, hasty determinations are not trustworthy. An impulsive conclusion, according to her, is oftentimes an “overgeneralization” of a more basic retort. Predators’ replies to eye spots, the main circular patterns found on some moths, butterflies, and fish, are a prime example of overgeneralization. Because they correspond to the eyes of other species that prospective predators would perceive as a threat, they serve as a deterrent to them.
F..Alexander Todorov is a nonnative investigator who tends to make expansive generalizations. In recent weeks, our Princeton colleague Nikolaas Oosterhof proposed a theory that, in his opinion, explains why we quickly decide if a face is scary or not. Todorov and Oosterhof solicited respondents’ first impressions in response to images of emotionally neutral faces, sorted through the comments, and narrowed them down to two primary considerations: how trustworthy and powerful the face seems. Todorov and Oosterhof come to the conclusion that judging someone’s personality based on their face is an oversimplification of our developed capacity to deduce emotions from facial expressions, and consequently, a person’s purpose of hurting us and their capacity to do so. Todorov, however, fears that overgeneralization does not lead to the idea that there is occasionally a kernel of truth in these estimations of quality.
G.So where does the truth come from, assuming there is any? Perrett suspects that the connection appears when our stereotypes of beauty become self-fulfilling prophecies, a notion that was examined by other researchers in 1977. People’s behavior may be influenced by our expectations, and when we constantly consider someone untrustworthy, they will act in a way that supports our assumptions. However, occasionally the opposite is true, particularly for individuals who appear adorable. Konrad Lorenz, an ethologist who won the Nobel Prize, originally hypothesized that the characteristics of a baby’s face inspire loving feelings. Support for this has come from work by Zebrowitz, who has found that baby-faced boys and men stimulate an emotional center of the brain, the amygdala, in a similar way. But there’s a twist. Babyfaced men are, on average, better educated, more assertive, and more apt to win more military medals than their mature-looking counterparts. They are also more likely to be criminals; think of Al Capone. Zebrowitz uncovered that baby-faced guys were more likely to be aggressive and argumentative, as well as scholastic high achievers. The “self-defeating prophecy effect” is what she refers to as when a man with a baby face tries to defy expectations but ends up behaving childishly.
H. Another argument brings to mind the common parental advice to avoid pulling children’s faces because they could freeze. This notion contends that our personalities influence the way our features seem. It is backed by research conducted 20 years ago, which indicated that even when asked to strike a neutral face, furious senior citizens tended to seem cross. It appeared like a lifetime of scowling, grumbling, and grimacing had left its imprint.
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Questions 27-31
Do the following statements agree with the writer’s views in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet, write
Yes, if the statement agrees with the views of the writer.
No if the statement contradicts the views of the writer.
It is not given if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
27 The initial review of Darwin by Robert Fitzroy was factual.
28 Since the 18th century, the exact “physiognomy” rules haven’t been modified.
29 The first appearance of someone might be changed effortlessly thereafter.
30 A position of power is likely to be chosen for the one who looks capable.
31 It is unfair for attractive people to acquire preferential therapy in society.
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Questions 32-36
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.Write your answers in boxes 32-36 on your answer sheet.
32 What about the experiment by Anthony Little and David Perrett’s truth?
A It is predicated on the idea that none of the assumptions made by the Michigan experiment are correct.
B It lends some credence to some of the findings of the Michigan experiment.
C It reproduces the research settings used in the Michigan experiment.
D More types of faces are present than in the Michigan experiment.
33 What may be inferred from the experiment conducted by Justin Carre and Chery l McCormick?
A man with a broad face could be more aggressive.
B Men that are aggressive have a variety of facial characteristics.
C No link exists between aggressive personality and face characteristics.
D When playing competitive games, players need to be aggressive.
34 What does it mean when we talk about butterfly marks?
A Safety risks are obvious to everyone.
B Good judgment is not always the result of instinct.
C People should learn to discern between judgments that are accountable and those that are not.
D Different species detect danger in different ways.
35 What is Alexander Todorov’s research purpose?
A study of the relationship between facial characteristics and social development,
B disproves the notion that outward appearance matters.
C to gain knowledge about how facial features affect how people judge a person’s personality.
D to investigate how judgments affect a person’s connection.
36 Which of the following best summarises Alexander Todorov’s research findings?
A Oversimplifying should not be used to make judgments.
B It is unreliable to judge someone’s character by their outward appearance.
C Oversimplifying when attempting to assess someone’s personality might be deceptive.
D It’s possible to accurately judge a person’s character simply by their outward appearance.
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Questions 37 – 40
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below. Write the correct A-F letter in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.
37 Perret thought individuals were acting dishonestly.
38 The author concurs with the notion that people with baby-like traits
39 Zebrowitz asserts that people with baby faces and aggressive behavior
40 The author thinks that facial features
A judging others by making unjustified generalizations
B might have an impact on how other individuals act.
C frequently engages in criminal activity.
D might be impacted by others’ low expectations.
E could demonstrate the impact of persistent behaviors.
F might be attempting to push away people’s expectations.
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27 Answer: NO
28 Answer: NOT GIVEN
29 Answer: NO
30 Answer: YES
31 Answer: NOT GIVEN
32 Answer: B
33 Answer: A
34 Answer: B
35 Answer: C
36 Answer: D
37 Answer: D
38 Answer: C
39 Answer: F
40 Answer: E
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