The Placebo Effect: Reading Answers & Explanations
IELTS Reading practice test · 13 questionsAcademicmedium
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About this passage
The passage opens: “One of the most puzzling phenomena in medicine is that people can sometimes feel better after taking a treatment that contains no active medicine at all. A patient given a harmless sugar pill, but told that it is a powerful drug, may report that their pain has eased or their symptoms have improved.”
- Passage length: about 763 words
- Questions: 13
- Question types: True / False / Not Given, Multiple Choice, Short Answer
“The Placebo Effect” is an original IELTS-style practice passage written by IELTS-Bank. It is not taken from an official IELTS or Cambridge test, so these answers only apply to our version.
Answer key at a glance
The Placebo Effect answers with explanations
Questions 1–6: True / False / Not Given
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Write TRUE if the statement agrees, FALSE if it contradicts, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information.
- 1
A placebo contains no genuinely active ingredient.
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Answer: TRUE
Why: This sentence confirms the statement, so the answer is TRUE.
Evidence · Paragraph 2 “The word placebo is used for a dummy treatment designed to resemble a real one but lacking any genuinely active ingredient.”
- 2
Improvements from a placebo are always imagined and never real.
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Answer: FALSE
Why: This sentence directly contradicts the statement, so the answer is FALSE.
Evidence · Paragraph 2 “…this improvement is often real and measurable: patients are not simply imagining it or pretending.”
- 3
The placebo effect is equally strong for all medical conditions.
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Answer: FALSE
Why: This sentence directly contradicts the statement, so the answer is FALSE.
Evidence · Paragraph 4 “The placebo effect is not equally strong for all conditions. It tends to be most noticeable in symptoms that are influenced by the brain”
- 4
A placebo can ease the pain of a broken bone but cannot mend the bone.
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Answer: TRUE
Why: This sentence confirms the statement, so the answer is TRUE.
Evidence · Paragraph 4 “A placebo may make a person with a broken bone feel less pain, but it will not mend the bone”
- 5
Expecting harm from a treatment can make people feel worse even when it is a dummy.
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Answer: TRUE
Why: This sentence confirms the statement, so the answer is TRUE.
Evidence · Paragraph 6 “Patients warned that a treatment may cause unpleasant side effects sometimes report those very effects even when they have been given a dummy treatment.”
- 6
The placebo effect is stronger in older patients than in younger ones.
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Answer: NOT GIVEN
Why: The statement claims the placebo effect is stronger in older patients, but the passage does not confirm or deny this, instead discussing how the effect varies with symptoms influenced by the brain.
Closest related text · Paragraph 6 “This shadowy counterpart to the placebo effect shows that the mind's influence on the body can work in both directions, and it further complicates the task of interpreting how patients respond to any treatment.”
Question 7: Multiple Choice
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
- A. The chemical strength of the pill
- B. The patient's expectation that a treatment will help
- C. The size of the injection
- D. The cost of the medicine
- 7
According to the passage, what is part of the explanation for the placebo effect?
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Answer: B — The patient's expectation that a treatment will help
Why: This is the part of the passage that supports B — The patient's expectation that a treatment will help.
Evidence · Paragraph 3 “Part of the explanation lies in expectation. If a person firmly believes that a treatment will help them, that belief itself appears to influence how they feel”
Question 8: Multiple Choice
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
- A. Because the room is warmer
- B. Because the attention of a caring doctor and the ritual of receiving medicine add to the effect
- C. Because the treatment is given more quickly
- D. Because the patient pays more
- 8
Why can the setting in which a treatment is given strengthen the placebo effect?
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Answer: B — Because the attention of a caring doctor and the ritual of receiving medicine add to the effect
Why: This is the part of the passage that supports B — Because the attention of a caring doctor and the ritual of receiving medicine add to the effect.
Evidence · Paragraph 3 “The attention of a caring doctor, the ritual of receiving medicine, and the confidence with which a treatment is offered can all strengthen the effect”
Question 9: Multiple Choice
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
- A. By giving it only to healthy people
- B. By comparing a group given the real treatment with a group given a placebo, without either knowing which
- C. By asking patients to guess which they received
- D. By trying it on animals only
- 9
How do researchers test whether a new medicine genuinely works?
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Answer: B — By comparing a group given the real treatment with a group given a placebo, without either knowing which
Why: This is the part of the passage that supports B — By comparing a group given the real treatment with a group given a placebo, without either knowing which.
Evidence · Paragraph 5 “…medical researchers compare a group of patients given the real treatment with a similar group given a placebo, without either group knowing which they have received.”
Question 10: Multiple Choice
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
- A. That it can cure any disease
- B. That belief cannot substitute for effective treatment of serious disease
- C. That it never works
- D. That it only affects the imagination
- 10
What warning does the passage give about the placebo effect?
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Answer: B — That belief cannot substitute for effective treatment of serious disease
Why: This is the part of the passage that supports B — That belief cannot substitute for effective treatment of serious disease.
Evidence · Paragraph 7 “…it warns against wishful thinking, since belief cannot substitute for effective treatment of serious disease.”
Questions 11–13: Short Answer
Answer the questions below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
- 11
What is a harmless pill made of that might be used as a placebo?(max 3 words)
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Answer: sugar (also accepted: sugar pill / a sugar pill)
Why: The answer “sugar” is taken from this sentence — copy the word(s) exactly as they appear. It fits the 3-word limit.
Evidence · Paragraph 2 “It might be a pill made of sugar”
- 12
The placebo effect is most noticeable in symptoms influenced by what organ?(max 2 words)
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Answer: the brain (also accepted: brain)
Why: The answer “the brain” is taken from this sentence — copy the word(s) exactly as they appear. It fits the 2-word limit.
Evidence · Paragraph 4 “It tends to be most noticeable in symptoms that are influenced by the brain”
- 13
Name one symptom, apart from pain, that the passage says expectation can shape.(max 2 words)
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Answer: anxiety (also accepted: tiredness)
Why: The answer “anxiety” is taken from this sentence — copy the word(s) exactly as they appear. It fits the 2-word limit.
Evidence · Paragraph 4 “…such as pain, anxiety and tiredness, which are exactly the kinds of experience that expectation can shape.”
Estimated band score for this test
Your raw score out of 13 scaled to the 40-question IELTS Reading (Academic) conversion table. This is the same estimate the practice page shows after you submit. A single passage is a small sample, so treat it as a guide.
| Correct answers | Estimated band |
|---|---|
| 13 / 13 | 9.0 |
| 12 / 13 | 8.5 |
| 11 / 13 | 7.5 |
| 10 / 13 | 7.0 |
| 9 / 13 | 6.5 |
| 8 / 13 | 6.0 |
| 7 / 13 | 5.5 |
| 5–6 / 13 | 5.0 |
| 4 / 13 | 4.0 |
| 3 / 13 | 3.5 |
| 2 / 13 | 3.0 |
| 1 / 13 | 2.0 |
| 0 / 13 | 0.0 |
Full-test score? Use the IELTS band calculator.
Tips for the question types in this test
True / False / Not Given
- Read the statement first and underline the key idea, especially any qualifiers like "all", "only", "never", "always", "more than" or dates and numbers.
- Because the questions follow the order of the passage, scan for the paragraph that deals with the same topic rather than re-reading everything.
Common trap: Confusing "False" with "Not Given": choose False only when the passage actively contradicts the statement; if the passage is silent, it is Not Given.
Full True / False / Not Given strategyMultiple Choice
- Read the question stem carefully before the options so you know exactly what is being asked.
- Because multiple-choice questions follow passage order, locate the relevant section and read it in full — the answer usually depends on more than one sentence.
Common trap: Distractors that use exact words from the passage but distort the meaning.
Full Multiple Choice strategyShort Answer
- Read the instructions and note the exact word limit; going over it means zero marks even if the meaning is right.
- Turn each question into a set of keywords and predict what kind of answer it needs (a person, a date, a place, a noun).
Common trap: Exceeding the word limit (writing four words when only three are allowed).
Full Short Answer strategyPractise “The Placebo Effect” under exam conditions
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