CCTV Surveillance Reading Answers

IELTS exam has four different sections which are Reading, Listening, Writing, and Speaking. The Reading test checks if you can understand a passage, find specific details, and follow how ideas are developed from one paragraph to the next.

CCTV Surveillance looks at both sides of the camera debate. Cameras help catch criminals, and the Boston Marathon case is the main example. But some people worry about privacy and about who watches the people behind the cameras. The passage also gives a short history of the first security camera, and it includes the views of a law professor who argues against more cameras. Facts and opinions are mixed together, so it takes care to tell them apart.

This page gives you a practice version of that passage, 13 questions, and the full CCTV surveillance reading answers with explanations. The passage is reworded, and the questions are original, so they won’t match a published paper word for word.

Here is the quick CCTV Surveillance IELTS reading answer key​: 

Question Numbers	CCTV Surveillance Reading Answers
14	YES
15	NOT GIVEN
16	NOT GIVEN
17	NO
18	NOT GIVEN
19	NO
20	YES
21	Tools of invasion / Surveillance cameras
22	Frederick Bamell / An intruder / The intruder
23	Loss of privacy
24	Report the crime
25	Increased power
26	B

These are the answers for the CCTV Surveillance IELTS Reading Passage. You can now attempt the practice test below and then check your answers with the explanations to understand how each response is supported by the passage.

CCTV Surveillance IELTS Reading Passage for Practice

Is it fair to be watched all day if it keeps people safe? And who decides what happens to the footage? This passage looks at the case for cameras, the case against them, and the history of the first one.

Read it carefully, then answer the questions. Aim to finish in about 15 minutes.

CCTV Surveillance

A
Rising crime and terrorist attacks have increased the demand for surveillance. Whether it’s a camera on the street or a satellite above the Earth, someone may be watching you. Police and security workers rely heavily on video as a tool against crime and terrorism. Figures suggest that cameras help to discourage crime. In the UK, almost every street has them. Most people support these systems, but worries about invasion of privacy have been raised.

B
The full value of these cameras became clear when investigators identified the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing by going through security camera images. Those images led to a quick arrest. Nobody disputes that cameras work. But a question remains. Are governments crossing legal and ethical lines in their search for security?

C
Before we go on, it helps to look at the first known use of a security camera. In 1933, a man named Norbury used one in England. An intruder was stealing his eggs and chickens, so he set up a box camera with cords connected to the door. Within a few days, it had captured an image of the intruder, Frederick Bamell. The judge found Bamell guilty and was impressed by Norbury’s skill as an investigator.

D
The benefits of cameras can’t be denied, but where should we draw the line? Cameras may deter crime, but nobody regulates the people behind them. Cameras placed in private places with harmful intent are one example. Some time ago, footage from the Delhi Metro’s CCTV appeared on YouTube. That kind of misuse raises the question of who is responsible. Not all cameras are the same. They might belong to companies, to the police or even to angry neighbours. A case of harassment should be treated differently from a matter of public interest. Looking into a neighbour’s window is a crime, yet a camera could do the same thing and still be legal.

E
Neil Richards, a professor of law at Washington University, wrote an article for the CNN website. In it, he explained his worries about civil liberties and the loss of privacy caused by cameras all over our cities. Some people had suggested adding more cameras after the Boston bombing, and Richards, the author of The Dangers of Surveillance, said this would be a mistake and a danger to civil liberties. He felt that cameras cost a lot to install and maintain, and that the money could go to schools, firefighters or security services instead. He also argued that cameras don’t deter crime. They can only record a crime if they happen to be in the right place at the time. The passage adds that Ed Davis, the Boston police commissioner, shares the view that more police and more cameras could lead to a police state.

F
Richards says that a camera system like this could give the government more power over us. It could be used not just to watch people but, in some cases, to blackmail, persuade or discriminate against them. Less privacy, he says, means less liberty. Being watched all the time may make us feel safer, but he calls that feeling an illusion. History, from the Gestapo to the Stasi, shows that government surveillance leads to abuse of power. The FBI carried out unlawful surveillance and blackmail against people it called “dangerous”, such as Martin Luther King Jr.

G
Even so, catching criminals, and above all terrorists, is a necessity today. Thousands of lives can be saved if those responsible are caught in time. And as for civil liberties, the writer suggests that if you have nothing to hide, it doesn’t matter whether you are watched on a screen, on camera, or through any other media. 

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CCTV Surveillance Reading Practice Questions

Now test yourself. The questions ask you to judge statements against the passage, find where information appears, and complete sentences with words from the text.

Watch out for paraphrasing. The questions rarely use the same words as the passage.

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 with the information
 FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
 NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1. Figures suggest that security cameras help to discourage crime.
2. Most streets in the UK have no security cameras.
3. Satellite cameras prevent more crime than street cameras do.
4. Norbury’s camera was connected to a door by cords.
5. Richards believes that cameras are cheap to install and maintain.
6. Frederick Bamell was sent to prison for stealing.

Questions 7–10: Matching Information

The passage has seven paragraphs labelled A–G.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A–G in boxes 7–10.

Note: You may use any letter more than once.

1. an example of a government agency spying on a well-known person
2. a mention of animals or animal products being stolen from a property
3. a reference to footage ending up on a video-sharing website
4. a claim that catching terrorists could save thousands of lives

Questions 11–13: Sentence Completion

Complete the sentences below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 11–13.

1. In the UK, almost every ______ has security cameras.
2. Norbury connected the cords from his box camera to his ______.
3. Richards argues that cameras can only record a crime if they are in the ______ at the time. 

Also Read:
IELTS Syllabus	IELTS Test Format	IELTS Exam Pattern

CCTV Surveillance Reading Answers with Explanation

Done with the questions? Use the CCTV surveillance reading answers with location below to check each response. You’ll see where each answer sits in the passage, and where the common traps are.

Answers 1–6: True, False, Not Given

Answer 1: TRUE
Paragraph A says figures suggest cameras help to discourage crime. The question uses the same idea, with “discourage” kept as it is. It agrees with the passage.
 Answer location: Paragraph A, sentence 5

Answer 2: FALSE
Paragraph A says almost every street in the UK has cameras. The statement says most streets have none. That’s the opposite, so it’s False.
 Answer location: Paragraph A, sentence 6

Answer 3: NOT GIVEN
Paragraph A mentions satellites, but only as one kind of watching. It never compares satellite cameras with street cameras, and it says nothing about which prevents more crime. Don’t fill the gap with your own opinion.
 Answer location: Paragraph A, sentence 2; no information on this

Answer 4: TRUE
Paragraph C says Norbury set up a box camera with cords connected to the door. The statement says the same thing, in a shorter way.
 Answer location: Paragraph C, sentence 3

Answer 5: FALSE
Paragraph E says Richards felt cameras cost a lot to install and maintain. The statement says they’re cheap, which contradicts him. The word “cheap” is the clue.
 Answer location: Paragraph E, sentence 3

Answer 6: NOT GIVEN
Paragraph C says the judge found Bamell guilty. It doesn’t say what the punishment was, so you can’t say he went to prison. “Guilty” is not the same as “sent to prison”, and that’s the trap here.
 Answer location: Paragraph C, last sentence; no information on this

Answers 7–10: Matching Information

Answer 7: F
Paragraph F says the FBI carried out unlawful surveillance and blackmail against people such as Martin Luther King Jr. “A government agency spying on a well-known person” matches that. Paragraph E mentions the Boston police, but that isn’t spying on a person.
 Answer location: Paragraph F, last sentence

Answer 8: C
Paragraph C says an intruder was stealing Norbury’s eggs and chickens. “Animals or animal products” is the question’s way of saying “chickens and eggs”. It’s the only paragraph with stolen goods.
 Answer location: Paragraph C, sentence 3

Answer 9: D
Paragraph D says footage from the Delhi Metro’s CCTV appeared on YouTube. “A video-sharing website” is another name for YouTube. Scan for the website name, and you find it fast.
 Answer location: Paragraph D, sentence 4

Answer 10: G
Paragraph G says thousands of lives can be saved if those responsible are caught in time. The question mentions terrorists, and the same paragraph says catching criminals and, above all, terrorists is a necessity. It’s the only place with this claim.
 Answer location: Paragraph G, sentences 1 and 2

Answers 11–13: Sentence Completion

Answer 11: street
Paragraph A says almost every street in the UK has cameras. The sentence in the question has the same structure, so the missing word is the noun after “every”. One word, so it fits the limit.
Answer location: Paragraph A, sentence 6

Answer 12: door
Paragraph C says the cords were connected to the door. The answer is one word. Don’t write “the door”, because the article is already in the question.
 Answer location: Paragraph C, sentence 3

Answer 13: right place
 Paragraph E says cameras can only record a crime if they happen to be in the right place at the time. Write both words. If you only wrote “place”, the sentence would lose its meaning. Two words fit the limit.
Answer location: Paragraph E, sentence 5

Check out: How to Register for the IELTS Exam 2026 in India?

Important Vocabulary for CCTV Surveillance IELTS Reading Passage

This passage uses some legal and security words, and the questions often swap them for simpler ones. Learn the main ones before you try again.

Word	Meaning
Surveillance	Careful watching of people or places, often to prevent crime
Deter	To make someone decide not to do something
Suspect	A person who may have committed a crime
Ethical	Connected with what is right or wrong
Intruder	A person who enters a place without permission
Regulate	To control something with rules
Public interest	Something that matters to people in general
Civil liberties	The basic freedoms that people have in a society
Blackmail	Forcing someone to do something by threatening to reveal a secret
Discriminate	To treat a person or group unfairly
Illusion	Something that seems real but is not
Abuse of power	Using authority in a wrong or harmful way

Try using three or four of these words in your own sentences. It helps you remember them, and you’ll recognise their paraphrases faster in the test.

How to Approach CCTV Surveillance IELTS Reading Questions?

This passage mixes history, news and opinion, so it can feel like it’s pulling in different directions. The good news is that each paragraph has one clear job. Work out what each question wants, find the right paragraph, and then read that part carefully.

Here are a few simple ways to approach the CCTV surveillance IELTS reading answers:

1. Identify Keywords and Their Synonyms

Underline the main words in the question and think of other words with the same meaning. The passage will probably use those.

In the question	In the passage
discourage crime	deter crime
spying on a well-known person	surveillance against Martin Luther King Jr.
a video-sharing website	YouTube
cheap to install and maintain	cost a lot to install and maintain (opposite)

So don’t search for the exact words. Search for the idea.

2. Identify the Main Idea of Each Paragraph

Give each paragraph a short label before you start answering. For this passage:

• A: why cameras are used and who supports them
• B: the Boston case and the ethical question
• C: the first security camera
• D: misuse of footage and the need for rules
• E: Richards’s argument about cost and crime
• F: Richards’s warning about power and history
• G: the case for catching criminals

Once you’ve done this, most questions point to a paragraph straight away. A question about eggs goes to C. A question about the Stasi goes to F.

3. Distinguish Facts from the Writer’s Opinions

This passage has both, and the two are easy to mix up.

Facts are things that can be checked. The Boston suspects were identified from camera images, and Norbury used a box camera in 1933. Opinions are what someone thinks. Richards calls more cameras “a mistake” and says the feeling of safety is “an illusion”. The last paragraph gives the writer’s own view: that if you have nothing to hide, being watched doesn’t matter.

When a question names a person, check whether the statement is about what that person said or about a plain fact. In True/False/Not Given, you judge the information given. In Yes/No/Not Given, you judge the writer’s views. Read the instructions to see which one you have.

4. Follow the Instructions for Each Question Type

Read the instructions before every task, because they change what counts as a correct answer.

For True/False/Not Given, if the passage says the same thing, it’s True. If it says the opposite, it’s False. If it doesn’t say anything about it, it’s Not Given. For matching information, the answers are spread out in the passage, and a letter can be used more than once if the note says so. For sentence completion, NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS means one or two, never three. Copy the words exactly, and read your answer back inside the sentence to check that it fits.

5. Check Your Answers Against the Passage

Before you move on, go back to the sentence that gave you the answer. Does it really say what you wrote?

When you finish, check each answer once more. Did you pick True when the passage didn’t say it? Did you copy the words exactly? Small slips like these can lose you marks you had already earned. And spend about 15 minutes on this set, or around 20 minutes on a full IELTS passage. If you get stuck, mark the question and come back.

Looking for more IELTS Reading practice? Read these answer guides to practise different passage topics and question types: The Origin of Writing Reading Answers Animal Camouflage Reading Answers High School Students in Part-Time Employment Reading Answers Eco Tourism Reading Answers IELTS Reading Answers for Coinage in Ancient Greece   Australia's Convict Colonies Reading Answers

Conclusion

CCTV Surveillance shows both sides of a hard question. Cameras help catch criminals, but they also raise worries about privacy, misuse, and government power. The ideas are clear, but facts and opinions are mixed together, so it pays to read carefully. Short labels for each paragraph help you stay on track.

When you check the CCTV surveillance reading answers, don’t only look at what you got wrong. Look at how you got there. Did you mix up a fact with an opinion? Did you pick True when the answer was Not Given? Spotting that is what improves your score. For more practice, try a few more CCTV Surveillance IELTS reading answer sets, and time yourself each time.

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