IELTS exam consists of four sections: 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.
The Robots Are Coming asks a big question. Can a machine ever think like a human? The passage looks at why some scientists say no, how researchers have tried to build thinking machines, and whether emotions and consciousness could ever be part of a robot. Several scientists are named along the way, so it’s easy to mix up who said what.
This page gives you a practice version of that passage, 13 questions, and the full "The Robots Are Coming" 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’s the robots are coming or are they IELTS reading answers:
Question
Answer
14
C
15
D
16
B
17
D
18
A
19
F
20
C
21
D - Colin McGinn
22
C - Marvin Minsky
23
A - Hans Moravec
24
Disc
25
Patterns
26
Mars
These are the answers for The Robots Are Coming 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.
The Robots Are Coming IELTS Reading Passage for Practice
Could a machine ever really think? And what would it take, a better program, a body that learns, or something as odd as fear? This passage follows the long argument over artificial intelligence, from the doubters to the people who think robots may one day “understand”.
Read it carefully, then answer the questions. Aim to finish in about 20 minutes.
The Robots Are Coming
A Could robots become so advanced that they threaten our existence? Some scientists say no, and they reject the idea of artificial intelligence altogether. They argue that the human brain is the most complex system ever made, so any machine built to copy human thought is bound to fail. Physicist Roger Penrose of Oxford University is one of those who believe that machines are physically unable to think like humans. Colin McGinn of Rutgers University agrees. He compares AI to sheep trying to do complicated psychoanalysis, because their limited brains lack the mental tools for it.
B Artificial intelligence, or AI, is unlike most technologies, because scientists still know very little about how intelligence works. Physicists understand Newtonian mechanics and the quantum theory of atoms and molecules well, but the basic laws of intelligence are still a mystery. Even so, many mathematicians and computer scientists who work in the field are hopeful. To them, it is only a matter of time before a thinking machine walks out of the laboratory. Over the years, different problems have blocked attempts to build robots. To tackle them, researchers tried the “top-down approach”, using a computer to load all the essential rules onto a single disc. Put that disc into a machine, the thinking went, and it would become self-aware and reach human-like intelligence.
C In the 1950s and 1960s, there was great progress, but the weaknesses of these early robots soon showed. They were huge, and they took hours to cross a room. A fruit fly, with a brain that has only a fraction of the computing power, can move through three dimensions with ease. Our brains, like the fly’s, recognise what we see without our noticing, by doing countless calculations. This unconscious sense of patterns is just what computers lack. The second problem is that robots have no common sense. Humans know that water is wet and that mothers are older than their daughters, but no mathematics can express these truths. Children pick up the intuitive laws of biology and physics by interacting with the real world. Robots only know what has been programmed into them.
D Because the top-down approach had limits, researchers tried a “bottom-up” approach instead, copying evolution and the way a baby learns. Rodney Brooks, then director of MIT’s AI laboratory, which was famous for its clumsy top-down walking robots, changed the direction of research. He explored an unusual idea: tiny insect-like robots that learned to walk by bumping into things, instead of calculating exactly where each foot should go. Today, many descendants of Brooks’s robots are on Mars, running across the dusty surface and gathering data for NASA. But despite their success at copying insects, robots using neural networks have done very badly when programmers tried to copy higher animals such as mammals. MIT’s Marvin Minsky sums up the problem. The first real achievements were impressive, he says, like a machine that did well in a maths course. But when researchers tried to build machines that could answer questions about simple children’s stories, they failed, and no machine today can do that.
E Some people believe that a mix of the top-down and bottom-up approaches may eventually be the key to AI. Adults, after all, blend the two. It has been suggested that emotions are what most set us apart as human, and that machines can never have them. Computer expert Hans Moravec disagrees. He thinks future robots will be given emotions such as fear to protect themselves, for example, to signal to humans that their batteries are running low. Emotions are vital for making decisions. People with a certain kind of brain injury lose the ability to feel emotions and become unable to decide anything. Without emotions to guide them, they debate their options endlessly. Moravec points out that as robots become more intelligent and able to choose, they could also freeze with indecision. To help them, robots of the future might need emotions built into their brains.
F People do not agree on whether machines can be conscious, or even what consciousness means in human terms. Minsky suggests that thinking in our brain is not in one place but spread out, with different centres competing with one another at any moment. Consciousness could then be seen as a stream of thoughts and images coming from these smaller “minds”, each competing for our attention. Robots might one day reach a “silicon consciousness”. They might even have a different structure for thinking and processing information from ours, but one that cannot be told apart from it. If that happens, whether they truly “understand” hardly matters. A robot with perfect command of syntax, for practical purposes, understands what is said.
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The Robots Are Coming Reading Practice Questions
Now test yourself. The questions ask you to find where information appears, match statements to the right scientist, and complete a summary using words from the passage.
Watch out for paraphrasing. The questions rarely use the same words as the passage.
Questions 14–20: Matching Information
The passage has six paragraphs labelled A–F.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A–F in boxes 14–20.
Note: You may use any letter more than once.
a comparison between a small animal and early robots when it comes to moving around
an example of insect-like robots now working on another planet
a suggestion that robots might need fear to protect themselves
a comment that scientists do not yet understand the basic laws of intelligence
an idea that thinking is spread across several centres in the brain
a claim that machines are physically unable to think like humans
a description of what children learn from dealing with the real world
Questions 21–23: Matching Features
Look at the following statements and the list of scientists below.
Match each statement with the correct scientist, A–E.
Write the correct letter A–E in boxes 21–23.
Note: You may use any letter more than once.
Future robots may need emotions built into them so that they do not freeze when they have to choose.
Consciousness may be a stream of thoughts from smaller minds that compete for attention.
Robots can learn to walk by bumping into things, without calculating exactly where to put their feet.
List of Scientists
A. Roger Penrose B. Colin McGinn C. Rodney Brooks D. Marvin Minsky E. Hans Moravec
Questions 24–26: Summary Completion
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 24–26.
The Problems with Early Robots
The first robots, built in the 1950s and 1960s, were 24 ______ and took hours to cross a room. A fruit fly does this with far less computing power, because it recognises what it sees through countless calculations it is not aware of. Computers lack this unconscious sense of 25 ______. Robots also lack 26 ______, so they do not know simple truths, such as the fact that water is wet.
The Robots Are Coming Reading Answers with Explanation
Done with the questions? Use the Robots Are Coming 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 14–20: Matching Information
Answer 14: C Paragraph C compares the early robots with a fruit fly. The robots were huge and took hours to cross a room, while the fly moves through three dimensions with ease. “A small animal” is the question’s way of saying “fruit fly”. Paragraph D also mentions insect-like robots, but those are robots, not a real animal. Answer location: Paragraph C, sentences 2 and 3
Answer 15: D Paragraph D says many descendants of Brooks’s robots are on Mars gathering data for NASA. “Another planet” is the question’s word for Mars. No other paragraph mentions a robot working outside Earth. Answer location: Paragraph D, sentence 4
Answer 16: E Paragraph E says Moravec thinks future robots will be given emotions such as fear to protect themselves. The battery example is the same idea. Paragraph F talks about robots too, but it’s about consciousness, not emotions. Answer location: Paragraph E, sentence 5
Answer 17: B Paragraph B says physicists understand Newtonian mechanics and quantum theory well, but the basic laws of intelligence are still a mystery. The question turns “a mystery” into “not yet understood”. Paragraph A says AI is hard, but it never says that scientists don’t know how intelligence works. Answer location: Paragraph B, sentences 1 and 2
Answer 18: F Paragraph F says Minsky suggests thinking is spread out, with different centres competing. “Several centres” matches “different centres”. Don’t pick Paragraph E, which is also about the brain, but about emotions helping decisions. Answer location: Paragraph F, sentence 2
Answer 19: A Paragraph A says Penrose and others believe machines are physically unable to think like humans. The question uses the same idea, in almost the same words. Paragraph A is the only place with this claim. Answer location: Paragraph A, sentence 4
Answer 20: C Paragraph C says children pick up the intuitive laws of biology and physics by interacting with the real world. “Dealing with” is the question’s way of saying “interacting with”. Paragraph D mentions how a baby learns, but as an idea for researchers to copy, not as a list of what children learn. Answer location: Paragraph C, sentence 8
Answers 21–23: Matching Features
Answer 21: E. Hans Moravec Paragraph E says that as robots become more intelligent and able to choose, they could freeze with indecision, and that they might need emotions built into their brains. This is Moravec’s point. “Freeze” is the question’s word for “paralysed” in the passage, which is the idea. Answer location: Paragraph E, sentences 9 and 10
Answer 22: D. Marvin Minsky Paragraph F says that, according to Minsky’s idea, consciousness could be a stream of thoughts from smaller “minds” competing for attention. Be careful here. Minsky also appears in Paragraph D, but there he talks about machines that fail to answer questions about children’s stories. This statement is about consciousness, so it comes from Paragraph F. Answer location: Paragraph F, sentences 2 and 3
Answer 23: C. Rodney Brooks Paragraph D says Brooks explored tiny insect-like robots that learned to walk by bumping into things, instead of calculating where each foot should go. The question says the same, with “without calculating” for “instead of calculating”. Penrose and McGinn are distractors here, because they don’t talk about learning at all. Answer location: Paragraph D, sentence 3
Answers 24–26: Summary Completion
Answer 24: huge Paragraph C says the early robots were huge and took hours to cross a room. The summary has the second half of that sentence, so the gap is the describing word. One word, so it fits the limit. Answer location: Paragraph C, sentence 2
Answer 25: patterns Paragraph C says that this unconscious sense of patterns is just what computers lack. The summary repeats “unconscious sense of”, so the missing word is what comes next. Copy it in the plural, as the passage does. Answer location: Paragraph C, sentence 5
Answer 26: common sense Paragraph C says the second problem is that robots have no common sense. Write both words. If you only wrote “sense”, you’d lose the meaning. Two words fit the limit. The example in the summary, “water is wet”, also appears in the same paragraph. Answer location: Paragraph C, sentences 6 and 7
Important Vocabulary for The Robots Are Coming IELTS Reading Passage
This passage uses a few technical words, and the questions often swap them for simpler ones. Learn the main ones before you try again.
Word
Meaning
Artificial intelligence (AI)
Computer systems that can do things that normally need human thinking
Top-down approach
Building intelligence by programming all the rules into a machine at the start
Bottom-up approach
Building intelligence by letting a machine learn step by step, like a child
Self-aware
Knowing that you exist and what you are doing
Prototype
An early model of something, used for testing
Unconscious
Happening without a person noticing
Intuitive
Known by feeling or instinct, without being taught
Common sense
Basic, practical knowledge about how the world works
Neural network
A computer system designed to work a little like the human brain
Insect-like
Looking or behaving like an insect
Consciousness
Being awake and aware of yourself and what is around you
Syntax
The rules for putting words in the right order in a sentence
Indecision
Not being able to make a choice
Hardwired
Built in as a permanent part of a system
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 The Robots Are Coming IELTS Reading Questions?
This passage covers a lot of ideas and a lot of scientists, so it can feel heavy. But each paragraph has one clear job, and most of the names appear in only one or two of them. 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 robots are coming 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
a small animal
a fruit fly
another planet
Mars
dealing with the real world
interacting with the real world
freeze when they have to choose
paralysed with indecision
a stream of thoughts
a sequence of thoughts and images
So don’t search for the exact words. Search for the idea.
2. Locate Specific Information in Each Paragraph
Give each paragraph a short label before you start. For this passage:
A: the doubters, Penrose and McGinn
B: why AI is hard to understand, and the top-down approach
C: the problems with early robots
D: the bottom-up approach, Brooks and Minsky
E: emotions and Moravec
F: consciousness
Then use names and details as landmarks, like fruit fly, Mars, batteries or syntax. Once you find the clue, read the whole sentence around it. A matching word on its own doesn’t always give the answer.
3. Match Researchers with Their Opinions
First, make a short note of each scientist and what they said. For example: Penrose says machines are physically unable to think like us, McGinn compares AI to sheep doing psychoanalysis, Brooks built insect-like robots, Minsky talks about children’s stories and about consciousness, and Moravec talks about emotions.
Then read each statement and ask, “Who would say this?” Be careful with Minsky, because he appears twice, in Paragraphs D and F, with two different ideas. Always check what the person says, not only the name. And remember that a letter can be used more than once if the instructions say so.
4. Complete the Summary Within the Word Limit
Find the part of the passage the summary covers. In this set, it’s Paragraph C, and the gaps follow the order of the paragraph.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS means one or two words, never three. Copy the words exactly as they appear in the passage. Question 26 needs two words, “common sense”, and Question 25 needs the plural “patterns”. 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 the right paragraph, or one that sounded similar? Did you attach a statement to the right scientist? Small slips like these can lose you marks you had already earned. And spend about 20 minutes on this set. 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 Robots Are Coming follows the long debate over whether machines can think. It covers the doubters, the top-down and bottom-up approaches, the role of emotions, and the question of consciousness. The ideas are not hard, but there are many scientists and each one has their own view, so it’s easy to mix them up. Short labels for each paragraph and a quick note on each name keep you on track.
When you check the robots are coming reading answers, don’t only look at what you got wrong. Look at how you got there. Did you match a statement to the wrong scientist? Did you miss a paraphrase? Spotting that is what improves your score. For more practice, try a few more The Robots Are Coming IELTS reading answer sets, and time yourself each time.
What is The Robots Are Coming IELTS Reading passage about?
It’s about whether machines can ever think like humans. The passage covers scientists who doubt it, the top-down and bottom-up approaches to building AI, the role of emotions, and the question of whether robots could be conscious.
How can I use the robots are coming reading answers for practice?
Attempt the whole set first, with a timer running. Then check your answers using the explanations and the answer locations. Don’t look at the key halfway through. Use the answers to learn why each one fits.
What question types are in this practice set?
Matching Information, Matching Features, and Summary Completion. Each one needs a slightly different approach, so read the instructions before you start each one.
Is this the official The Robots Are Coming IELTS reading test?
No. The passage is a reworded practice version, and the questions are new, so they won’t match a published paper. Use it to practise the same skills before you try a real test.
How long should I spend on this passage?
About 20 minutes for this set. A full IELTS Reading test gives you 60 minutes for three passages and 40 questions. A timer helps you build the right pace.
Why are the questions numbered 14 to 26?
Because this is the last passage in a full IELTS Reading test, where the questions run from 14 to 26 for this passage. We kept the same numbering so the practice feels like the real thing.
How do I match scientists with their opinions in this passage?
Make a short note of each scientist and what they said. Then read the statement and ask who would say it. Check what the person says, not only the name, because Minsky appears in two paragraphs with two different ideas.
Can the same letter be used more than once in matching questions?
Yes, if the instructions say so, and they do in this set. Check the note under the question each time, because some tasks use each letter only once. Never rule out an option just because you’ve already used it.
How do I find the robots are coming reading answers with location faster?
Give each paragraph a short label, like doubters, early robots, emotions, or consciousness. Then use names and details as landmarks, like fruit fly, Mars, or batteries, and read the whole sentence around the clue.
What should I do after getting an answer wrong?
Go back to the passage and find the sentence behind the right answer. Ask why you missed it. Maybe you didn’t spot a paraphrase, or you matched the wrong scientist. Write it down and watch for the same mistake next time.
Sunita Kadian, co-founder and Academic Head at Yuno Learning is an expert in IELTS and English communication. With a background in competitive exam preparation (IELTS, GMAT, CAT, TOEFL), interview pre...
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