Can animals count Reading Answers

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16-09-2025

Can animals count Reading Answers

Examine the can animals count reading answers in order to compare and discover the errors.

Solution For Can Animals Count

1. "Identical" 5. mosquitofish 9. false 13. Elizabeth Brannon
2. Balls of paper  6. surface 10. Not given  
3. Female 7. sugar 11. True  
4. fruit flies  8. true 12. Monkeys   

The IELTS reading module is a portion of the examination that tests your reading abilities and comprehension of the content. This passage occurs in the reading module to evaluate all of your skills and abilities. Try to solve this practice test within 20 minutes to improve your time management skills.

After reviewing our IELTS reading practice test and Can animals count reading answers, the following sorts of questions can be mastered. You can check the tips and tricks for the question types in IELTS reading question types. Examine the following question types in this article:

  • IELTS Reading table completion
  • IELTS Reading true false not given
  • IELTS Reading: short answer questions 

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IELTS Reading Practice Test Demo

Before attempting "Can animals count IELTS Reading Answers", you must have a view into the IELTS reading tips.

Can Animals Count Reading Passage

Read the passage given below and answer the questions. And, check the can animals count reading answers to know what mistakes you have done. 

Can animals count? 

1. According to psychologist Elizabeth Brannon, the capacity to discern between a large and a small number is the most fundamental numerical skill. If the ratio is large enough, humans can accomplish this with ease, but can other animals perform this task? In one experiment, Rhesus monkeys and college students inspected two sets of geometrical shapes that momentarily appeared on a computer monitor. They were required to determine which set had more items. Importantly, Brannon's team discovered that, like humans, monkeys make more mistakes when the numbers of objects in two sets are close together. The kids' performance ultimately resembles that of a monkey. She states it.
 
2. Both humans and monkeys are animals belonging to the primate family. However, they are not the only creatures whose numerical abilities depend on ratios. The same appears to be true for certain amphibians. The team of psychologist Claudia Uller enticed salamanders with two sets of fruit flies contained in transparent tubes. In a series of experiments, the researchers observed which tube the salamanders scurried towards, hypothesizing that if the salamanders had the ability to discern numbers, they would choose the tube with the greater number. The salamanders were able to distinguish between tubes carrying 8 and 16 flies but not between tubes containing 3, 4, 6, or 8 flies. For salamanders to be able to distinguish between two numbers, the larger one must be at least twice as large as the smaller one. However, they were able to distinguish between 2 and 3 flies equally as well as between 1 and 2 flies, indicating that they identify smaller numbers differently than bigger ones.
 
3. Researchers have found that mosquitofish instinctively form large shoals, lending further credence to this notion. While mosquitofish can discern the difference between a group of 3 shoal-mates and a group of 4, they showed no preference between groups of 4 and 5 when it came to the number of shoal-mates. It was discovered by the researchers that mosquitofish can distinguish between a maximum of 16 numbers, but only if the shoal-to-shoal ratio exceeds 2:1. In other words, fish, like salamanders, appear to have both the approximate and precise number systems present in more sophisticated creatures such as humans and other primates in infancy.
 
4.However, some critics argue that the animals may be relying on factors other than their number in order to complete the tasks. As Brannon points out, "any study that claims an animal is capable of representing a number should also be controlled for other factors." However, experiments on monkeys have shown that they are capable of performing mathematical feats without the need for additional cues. The mosquitofish studies were rerun, this time with different geometrical shapes in place of fish, in order to investigate this potential. Although each shape had a varied number of particles, the team arranged them in such a way that they had the same overall surface area and luminosity. The researchers conducted hundreds of experiments on 14 different species of fish and discovered that two out of three objects were continuously ignored by the fish. Mosquitofish are currently being tested to see if they can recognize three geometric shapes from four.
 
5. This skill may be found in even the most primitive of species. One chamber contained sugar water, which the bees preferred, while the other was bare. Jurgen Tautz dispatched a colony of bees down this hallway to see what would happen. Each compartment was labeled with a different number of geometric shapes—between 2 and 6—to test the bees' ability to count. The bees quickly mastered the art of identifying which chamber contained the number of shapes. As with salamanders and fish, the bees' mathematical prowess was limited; they could discern up to four forms, but not more than five or six.
 
6.  Still, these investigations do not answer the question of whether animals are taught to count or if they are born with the ability. A mathematical mind would have an evolutionary advantage if this is the case. An experiment involving three- and four-day-old chicks has yielded evidence that this may be the case. Chicks, like mosquitofish, love to be in close proximity to as many of their siblings as possible, so they'll always travel toward a larger group of relatives. In the initial few days of their lives, chicks are surrounded by certain objects, and they develop a strong attachment to these objects. These objects were treated as though they were members of one's family by researchers. Each chick was placed in the middle of a platform and shown in two The researchers made groups of paper balls. Afterward, they concealed the two piles behind screens before revealing them to the chick and altering the quantities in each pile. To determine which side had the most "prothers," the chick was forced into rudimentary arithmetic. For reasons that aren't clear, these chicks flew to the larger group at a rate that was far above random. According to the researchers, they were merely performing some basic math.
 
7. Foraging for food would be much easier if an animal had the ability to learn these skills. Those animals in the search for food have to make regular decisions about which trees have the most fruit or which patches of flowers have the most nectar. Numeracy has a number of other advantages that may not be immediately apparent. Some convincing evidence suggests that female coots count the eggs they've already laid before making any decisions about whether or not to increase their clutch size. It's hard to say how old these abilities are with certainty. We can only begin to comprehend the fundamental circumstances of the evolution of numbers.

IELTS Reading Questions - Can Animals Count Reading Passage

Questions 1–7

Complete the table below. 
For each answer, choose no more than three words from the passage.
Write your answers in the blank spaces next to 1–7 on your answer sheet.

Subjects Experiment Results
Rhesus monkeys and humans I looked at two sets of geometrics on a computer screen. The performance of the two groups is almost  
1...
Chicks chose between two sets of  2………………… which are altered Chicks can do calculations in order to choose a larger group.
coots The behaviors of  3... birds were observed. The bird seems to have the ability to count eggs.
salamanders offered clear tubes containing different quantities of 4... Salamanders distinguish between numbers over four if the bigger number is at least two times larger.
5.......... They show real shoals and later artificial ones of geometrical shapes; these are used to check the influence of a total of 6... and brightness. All subjects know the difference between two and three and possibly three and four, but not between four and five.
bees I had to learn where  7... was stored. I could soon choose the correct place.

Also, check the IELTS reading table completion. 

Questions 8–11

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the can animals count reading passage ? For the questions 8-11 on your answer sheet, write
 
True if the statement agrees with the information.
The statement is false if it contradicts the information.
Not Given If there is no information on this
 
8. Primates are better at identifying the larger of two numbers if one is much bigger than the
other.
9. Jurgen Tautz trained the insects in his experiment to recognize the shapes of individual numbers.
10. The research involving young chicks took place over two separate days.
11. The experiment with chicks suggests that some numerical ability exists in newborn animals.

Also, check the IELTS reading true/false/not given.  

Question 12 and 13

Answer the following question: 
 
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer
 
12. Other than humans, which animal belongs to the primate family?
13. Who has given this statement “the capacity to discern between a large and a small number is the most fundamental numerical skill”?

Also, check the IELTS reading short answer question.

Can Animals Count IELTS Reading Answers with explanations

Check your answers with the can animals count reading answers given below. It will give you feedback about your answering skills.

1 Answer: "Identical" 

Location: 1st paragraph
Explanation: The first paragraph says, "The students’ performance ends up looking just like a monkey's." It’s practically [= almost] identical’.

2 Answer: Balls of paper

Location: 6th paragraph
Explanation: The sixth paragraph says: '... showed it two groups of balls of paper... changed the quantities’ (although the text mentions "siblings" and "brothers," the experiment did not use other chicks).

3 Answer: Female

Location: 7th paragraph
Explanation: The last paragraph says: "Researchers in America found that female coots appear to calculate’ (the text also mentions ‘an intruder’, but it was the ‘counting" behavior or behavior of the coots that the researchers were interested in).

4 Answer: fruit flies

Location: 2nd paragraph
Explanation: The second paragraph says, "tried salamanders with two sets of fruit flies held in clear tubes."

5 Answer: mosquitofish

Location: 3rd paragraph
Explanation:  The third paragraph says ‘studies of mosquitofish, which instinctively join the biggest shoal."

6 Answer: surface 

Location: 4th paragraph
Explanation: The fourth paragraph says ‘The team arranged these shapes so that they had the same overall [= total] surface area and luminance [= brightness]."

7 Answer: sugar

Location: 5th paragraph
Explanation: The fifth paragraph says, "two chambers – one of which contained sugar water, which they liked, while the other was empty." .. The bees quickly learned "the correct chamber’.

8 Answer:  true

Location: 1st paragraph
Explanation: The first paragraph says: "Rhesus monkeys and university students... had to decide which set contained more objects." "Monkeys, like humans, make more errors when two sets of objects are close in number." Primates are defined in the second paragraph:‘Humans and monkeys are mammals, in the animal family known as primates.’

9 Answer: false

Location: 5th paragraph
Explanation: The fifth paragraph says' the number of shapes [= how many shapes, not the actual shape of individual numerals]’.

10. Answer: Not given 

Location: 6th paragraph
Explanation: Although the sixth paragraph says ‘If chicks spend their first few days surrounded by certain objects," this is a general statement, not how long the experiment lasted; "three-and four-day-old chicks" tells us the age of the chicks, but it does not say that the experiment took place on two days; we do not know whether it was repeated on more than one day. 

11 Answer: True 

Location:  6th paragraph
Explanation: The sixth paragraph says that these were almost newborn "three-and four-day-old chicks" and that they "scuttled [= ran] to the larger quantity at a rate well above chance." The researchers claim they were doing some very simple arithmetic.

12 Answer: Monkeys 

Location: 2nd  paragraph, 1st line 
Explanation:  Both humans and monkeys are animals belonging to the primate family.

13 Answer: Elizabeth Brannon

Location: 1st paragraph
Explanation:  According to psychologist Elizabeth Brannon, the capacity to discern between a large and a small number is the most fundamental numerical skill. 
 
Other reading passages

Conclusion

You may also put your knowledge into action by attempting the passage that is presented on this page, and then quickly check whether or not your “can animals count reading answers” are correct. You may access this blog, which we believe will be helpful for you as you continue to prepare for the IELTS. 

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About Author Dinesh Pandiyan

Dinesh is a highly experienced content writer who specializes in language proficiency tests like IELTS, GRE, PTE, TOEFL, and study abroad. He provides valuable insights and tips to students on various modules of these tests, including reading, writing, speaking, and listening. His articles are well-researched, informative, and engaging, offering practical guidance to students looking to succeed in their academic pursuits. Additionally, Dinesh has coordinated with IELTS trainers to prepare test preparation materials, guides, practice tests, and mock tests, and worked closely with counsellors for study abroad consultancy, providing guidance on choosing the right institution, preparing for interviews, and writing effective statements of purpose (SOP) and letters of recommendation (LOR). Students can benefit from Dinesh's comprehensive knowledge and experience by checking out his articles.

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