The Swiffer Reading Answers (Cambridge Official Guide to IELTS Test 6)

The Swiffer is Reading Passage 3 in the Cambridge Official Guide to IELTS, Test 6 Academic Reading. The passage uses Procter & Gamble's Swiffer cleaning product as a starting point for journalist Jonah Lehrer's broader argument about how creative insight works - drawing on neuroscience, Bob Dylan's songwriting, alpha waves and the right hemisphere of the brain, Steve Jobs' design of the Pixar offices, and Geoffrey West's research on cities and creativity. The 14 questions test multiple choice (Q27-30), matching A-G to sentence completions (Q31-34), note completion (Q35-39), and a best-title MCQ (Q40).

Passage overview at a glance

What the passage is about

The Swiffer passage uses the Procter & Gamble cleaning product as the entry point for journalist Jonah Lehrer's argument in his book Imagine, which seeks to explain how creativity works. Lead designer Harry West's eureka moment - watching a woman wipe up with a paper towel and throw it away - illustrates Lehrer's three ingredients of breakthrough ideas: frustration, insight, and hard work. The passage then turns to neuroscience: brain scans showing alpha waves in the right hemisphere predicting moments of insight up to eight seconds before they arrive, why relaxed attention enables remote associations while focused concentration blocks them, and the corporate implication that companies should give staff unstructured time. It closes on the social side of creativity - Steve Jobs designing Pixar's atrium to force chance interactions, Lehrer's argument that owners need wide circles of acquaintances and conversations, and Geoffrey West's finding that creativity scales with city size.

Complete answer key with explanations

Questions 27-30: Multiple choice

Choose A, B, C or D for each question. Each question tests a specific claim or argument made in the passage.

Q#	Question summary	Answer	Where to find it
27	What are we told about the product called a 'Swiffer'?	D	D: Its design was inspired by a common housework habit. The passage describes designers watching "a woman do with a paper towel what people do all the time: wipe something up and throw it away" - this everyday housework habit triggered the Swiffer concept.
28	When Jonah Lehrer began writing his book...	B	B: he ended up revising his plans for the content. Lehrer says "the book definitely spiralled out of control" - he started intending to focus on what the brain does at the moment of insight but realised he had to expand the scope to include hard work, culture, and collaboration too.
29	Lehrer refers to the singer Bob Dylan in order to...	A	A: illustrate how ideas seem spontaneous. Lehrer cites Dylan walking away from his career to a cabin in the woods, then being overcome by a sudden desire to write - "Like a Rolling Stone" apparently flowed from his pen. The example shows how creative ideas can appear to arrive from nowhere.
30	What did neuroscientists discover from the word puzzle experiment?	C	C relates to the brain-scan finding that an alpha-wave signal in the right hemisphere predicts moments of insight up to eight seconds before they consciously arrive. The puzzle experiment is the source of this finding.

Questions 31-34: Sentence completion (Matching A-G)

Choose the correct ending (A-G) for each sentence. The endings are:

• A. when people are not too familiar with one another
• B. because there is greater activity in the right side of the brain
• C. if people are concentrating on the specifics of a problem
• D. so they can increase the possibility of finding answers
• E. when people lack the experience required for problem-solving
• F. when the brain shows strong signs of distraction
• G. when both hemispheres of the brain show activity

Q#	Sentence start	Answer	Where to find it
31	According to research, new creative insights are formed...	B	B: because there is greater activity in the right side of the brain. The passage describes alpha waves emanating from the brain's right hemisphere as the predictive signal for insight.
32	People are less likely to have a breakthrough idea...	C	C: if people are concentrating on the specifics of a problem. The passage says "when we are diligently focused, our attention tends to be towards the details of the problems we are trying to solve" - which blocks remote associations.
33	Smart companies encourage staff to take time out during the day...	D	D: so they can increase the possibility of finding answers. The passage explains that companies allow seemingly unproductive activities because day-dreaming and relaxed attention are when insights arrive.
34	Brainstorming sessions work best...	A	A: when people are not too familiar with one another. The passage cites research suggesting that groups composed of people who do not already know each other well produce more creative output than tight-knit groups.

Questions 35-39: Note completion (ONE WORD ONLY)

Complete the notes about Steve Jobs, Lehrer, and Geoffrey West using ONE WORD ONLY from the passage.

Q#	Note context	Answer	Where to find it
35	STEVE JOBS: made changes to the __________ to encourage interaction at Pixar.	workplace	The passage describes Jobs redesigning the Pixar offices to force employees to meet by chance - changes to the workplace.
36	LEHRER: company owners must have a wide range of __________ to do well.	acquaintances	Lehrer argues that successful entrepreneurs maintain a broad set of acquaintances rather than only deep, narrow relationships.
37	It is important to start __________ with new people.	conversations	Lehrer emphasises starting conversations with people you do not already know as the mechanism for picking up new ideas.
38	The __________ has not replaced the need for physical contact.	internet	The passage notes that despite the rise of the internet, in-person interaction remains essential for creativity. The internet has not replaced face-to-face contact.
39	GEOFFREY WEST: living in __________ encourages creativity.	cities	Geoffrey West's research finding is that creativity scales with city size - living in cities, with their density of unplanned encounters, increases creative output per capita.

Question 40: Best title (MCQ)

Q#	Question	Answer	Why
40	Which of the following is the most suitable title for Reading Passage 3?	A	A: Understanding what drives our moments of inspiration. The whole article is framed around Lehrer's project to explain the science of inspiration and creativity. The Swiffer story is just the entry point. B (challenging traditional theories) is too narrow, C (professional relationships) is only part of the article, D (the future) is not the focus.

Question type strategy for this passage

Vocabulary worth learning from this passage

• Eureka moment, a sudden flash of insight or discovery
• Prototype, an early model used to test a design
• Hemisphere, in this context, one of the two halves of the brain
• Alpha waves, brain waves associated with relaxed, awake states
• Remote associations, connections between distantly related ideas
• Spiralled out of control, grew much larger than originally planned
• Atrium, a large open central space in a building
• Scale with, increase in proportion to (used in research on cities)

Related Reading practice

For verified answer keys from the Cambridge IELTS book series, browse our Reading answers hub including The Thylacine from Cambridge IELTS 17 and Henry Moore from Cambridge IELTS 15. The Cambridge Official Guide to IELTS contains a different test set from the numbered Cambridge books - it has its own Test 1 through Test 8, with their own Reading passages.

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