IELTS Academic Reading Sample - 12 The Scientific Method

IELTS Academic Reading Passage - The Scientific Method

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 29-40 which are based on the Reading Passage below.

Questions 29-33
The Reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-G.
Choose the most suitable headings for paragraphs C-G from the list of headings below.
Write the appropriate numbers i-x in boxes 29-33 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings
The Crick and Watson approach to research
ii  Antidotes to bacterial infection
iii  The testing of hypotheses
iv Explaining the inductive method
v Anticipating results before data is collected
vi How research is done and how it is reported
vii The role of hypotheses in scientific research
viii Deducing the consequences of hypotheses
ix Karl Popper’s claim that the scientific method is hypothetico-deductive
x The unbiased researcher

Example:     Paragraph A            Answer: ix

29. Paragraph C
30. Paragraph D
31. Paragraph E
32. Paragraph F
33. Paragraph G

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

A  ‘Hypotheses,’ said Medawar in 1964, are imaginative and inspirational in character’; they are ‘adventures of the mind’. He was arguing in favour of the position taken by Karl Popper in The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1972, 3rd edition) that the nature of scientific method is hypothetico-deductive and not, as is generally believed, inductive.

B  It is essential that you, as an intending researcher, understand the difference between these two interpretations of the research process so that you do not become discouraged or begin to suffer from a feeling of ‘cheating’ or not going about it the right way.

C  The myth of scientific method is that it is inductive: that the formulation of scientific theory starts with the basic, raw evidence of the senses - simple, unbiased, unprejudiced observation. Out of these sensory data - commonly referred to as ‘facts’ — generalisations will form. The myth is that from a disorderly array of factual information an orderly, relevant theory will somehow emerge. However, the starting point of induction is an impossible one.

D  There is no such thing as an unbiased observation. Every act of observation we make is a function of what we have seen or otherwise experienced in the past. All scientific work of an experimental or exploratory nature starts with some expectation about the outcome. This expectation is a hypothesis. Hypotheses provide the initiative and incentive for the inquiry and influence the method. It is in the light of an expectation that some observations are held to be relevant and some irrelevant, that one methodology is chosen and others discarded, that some experiments are conducted and others are not. Where is, your naive, pure and objective researcher now?

Hypotheses arise by guesswork, or by inspiration, but having been formulated they can and must be tested rigorously, using the appropriate methodology. If the predictions you make as a result of deducing certain consequences from your hypothesis are not shown to be correct then you discard or modify your hypothesis.If the predictions turn out to be correct then your hypothesis has been supported and may be retained until such time as some further test shows it not to be correct. Once you have arrived at your hypothesis, which is a product of your imagination, you then proceed to a strictly logical and rigorous process, based upon deductive argument — hence the term ‘hypothetico-deductive’.

F  So don’t worry if you have some idea of what your results will tell you before you even begin to collect data; there are no scientists in existence who really wait until they have all the evidence in front of them before they try to work out what it might possibly mean. The closest we ever get to this situation is when something happens by accident; but even then the researcher has to formulate a hypothesis to be tested before being sure that, for example, a mould might prove to be a successful antidote to bacterial infection.

G  The myth of scientific method is not only that it is inductive (which we have seen is incorrect) but also that the hypothetico-deductive method proceeds in a step-by-step, inevitable fashion. The hypothetico-deductive method describes the logical approach to much research work, but it does not describe the psychological behaviour that brings it about. This is much more holistic — involving guesses, reworkings, corrections, blind alleys and above all inspiration, in the deductive as well as the hypothetic component -than is immediately apparent from reading the final thesis or published papers. These have been, quite properly, organised into a more serial, logical order so that the worth of the output may be evaluated independently of the behavioural processes by which it was obtained. It is the difference, for example between the academic papers with which Crick and Watson demonstrated the structure of the DNA molecule and the fascinating book The Double Helix in which Watson (1968) described how they did it. From this point of view, ‘scientific method’ may more usefully be thought of as a way of writing up research rather than as a way of carrying it out.
 

Questions 34 and 35
In which TWO paragraphs in the Reading Passage does the writer give advice directly to the reader?
Write the TWO appropriate letters (A-G) in boxes 34 and 35 on your answer sheet.

Questions 36-39
Do the following statements reflect the opinions of the writer in Reading Passage 12?

In boxes 36-39 on your answer sheet write

      YES  if the statement reflects the opinion of the writer.
      NO   if the statement contradicts the opinion of the writer.
      NOT GIVEN   if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

36. Popper says that the scientific method is hypothetico-deductive.
37. If a prediction based on a hypothesis is fulfilled, then the hypothesis is confirmed as true.
38. Many people carry out research in a mistaken way.
39. The ‘scientific method’ is more a way of describing research than a way of doing it.

Question 40
Choose the appropriate letter A-D and write it in box 40 on your answer sheet.
Which of the following statements best describes the writer’s main purpose in the Reading Passage?

A  to advise Ph.D students not to cheat while carrying out research.
B  to encourage Ph.D students to work by guesswork and inspiration.
C  to explain to Ph.D students the logic which the scientific research paper follows.
D  to help Ph.D students by explaining different conceptions of the research process.

Answer: Click the button to Show/ Hide Answers

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Rating 3.38 (41 Votes)

Kasun Madusanka Silva
11 in 22 minutes.
Naresh Jampala
I have prepared for the IELTS exam. So consider me.
Rakib Raihan
I didn't understand the answer to question 33.
Kata
Thank you a lot for your help! I do not understand question 36. Why it is 'YES'? "...the nature of scientific method is hypothetico-deductive and NOT...""and not" make me confused.
Enke
Please click show answer blow :)
Anjali
Please give me answers for this reading passage.
Bhageshwar
1-12.
Gita
Can you please explain each answer?
M A
Hi, Where is passage 3? Can anyone help, please? I'm so confused! Thanks, M. A.
liban
Congratulations for me! I got 6/12.
Thiha Zaw
Thanks, I suppose the key is the difference between two words "Confirmed as true VS Supported".
Nada.H
Thiha Zaw said :
Why is the answer 'NO' for Question number 37? Can someone point it out, please?
Focus on the next sentence.. it says "may be retained until such time as some further test shows it not to be correct."

Thiha Zaw
Why is the answer 'NO' for Question number 37? Can someone point it out, please?
Sagar Shiyani
I got 12 out of 12.
Tebello
I don't understand why 37 is a NO. Can somebody explain?
Sukhjinder
Read again, there is a word retained, that means hypothesis can be supportive or may be may be not, it is not confirmed.
Prabhsimran Singh
How the answer to the question 30 is 'D'?
Harpreet
Paragraph E.
Harpreet
C or D passage.
Harpreet
Read c or d paragraphs of the reading passage.
Vinay
Can anybody let me know why the answer to Q. 40 is 'D' instead of 'B'? Which paragraph or sentence supports the option 'D'?
Ananya
How the answer to question 37 is 'No' instead of 'Yes'?
Alisa Albert
Nice and very Helpful.
Jaspal
The results of practices are very positive. So thanks to innovator for his kind help.
Saddy
Got 11 out of 12. I was wrong with question 40 :(
CVharles Legend
I'm taking IELTS by the end of February 2015 and I would like to know if anyone has got any reading and writing questions which is likely to be repeated... Thanks.
Pham Thi Thanh Thuy
Thank you! Your website is very helpful! A great mentor!
IELTS Mentor Team
The repetition in Paragraph D & E has been corrected. Thank you, Pham Thi, for pointing this out.
Pham Thi Thanh Thuy
There is a repetition of 'D' paragraph in the 'E'. Please correct it.
IELTS Mentor
Thank you, Mahima for your comment. This was a mistake that we have taken care of.
IELTS Mentor
The last part of Paragraph 'D' was incomplete. We have corrected this mistake. Thanks for noticing and informing us.
Mahima
Paragraph 'F' comes before 'E'?
Julia
Paragraph 'D' isn't complete...!