IELTS Reading: fill the gaps

Read the following passage about nocturnal animals.

Nocturnality is an animal behaviour characterised by activity during the night and sleep during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus its opposite “diurnal”.

Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed senses of hearing and smell, and specially adapted eyesight. Such traits can help animals such as the Helicoverpa zea moth to avoid predators. Some animals, such as cats and ferrets, have eyes that can adapt to both low-level and bright day levels of illumination. Others, such as bushbabies and some bats, can function only at night. Many nocturnal creatures, including most owls, have large eyes in comparison with their body size to compensate for the lower light levels at night.

Being active at night is a form of niche differentiation, where a species' niche is partitioned not by the amount of resources but by time (i.e. temporal division of the ecological niche). For example, hawks and owls can hunt the same field or meadow for the same rodents without conflict because hawks are diurnal and owls are nocturnal.

Fill the gaps in the summary using words from the list below it.

Nocturnal animals sleep during the daytime, whereas ______ animals are awake during the day and they ______ at night. Animals that are active at night tend to have ______ hearing and smell, and they may have ______ eyesight. Nocturnality allows animals to hunt for prey without having to ______ with predators that are active during daylight hours.

most, sensitive, asleep, conflict, diurnal, compete, exceptional, sleep

Comments

[Jessica Zhang]

Here are my answers:
diurnal
sleep
sensitive
exceptional
conflict

[Nguyen]

diurnal
sleep
sensitive
exceptional
conflict

[Angelina]

diurnal
sleep
sensitive
exceptional
conflict

[Clare]

diurnal
Sleep
Sensitive
Exceptional
Conflict

[Thanh]

diurnal
sleep
sensitive
exceptional
conflict

[ATITI]

diurnal
sleep
sensitive
exceptional
conflict

[Linh]

most
asleep
sensitive
exceptional
conflict

[Akter]

1. diurnal
2. sleep
3. sensitive
4. exceptional
5. conflict

[Ha]

diurnal
sleep
sensitive
exceptional
conflict

[Aubameyang]

I think conflict and compete are both acceptable in Q5

[Murad]

diurnal,sleep,sensitive,exceptional,conflict

[Max]

1. diurnal
2. sleep
3. sensitive
4. exceptional
5. conflict

[Mariya Mirabella]

1 diurnal
2 sleep
3 sensetive
4 exceptional
5 conflict

[paul]

1 diurnal
2 sleep
3 sensitive or exceptional
4 exceptional or sensitive
5 conflict

[Ankit Joshi]

1 MOST
2 SLEEP
3 SENSITIVE
4 EXPECTIONAL
5 CONFLICT

[Ngoc Ninh]

1.most
2.sleep
3.sensitive
4.exceptional
5.conflict

[Pachu]

1 diurnal
2 sleep
3 sensitive
4 exceptional
5 conflict

[Prasad Gandham]

1 diurnal
2 sleep
3 sensitive
4 exceptional
5 compete

[Anna Nguyễn]

Nocturnal animals sleep during the daytime, whereas (DỈURNAL) animals are awake during the day and they (SLEEP) at night. Animals that are active at night tend to have (SENSITIVE) hearing and smell, and they may have (EXCEPTIONAL) eyesight. Nocturnality allows animals to hunt for prey without having to (CONFLICT) with predators that are active during daylight hours.

[Brs]

I think both compete and conflict must be acceptable for question 5.

[Tinh]

diurnal
sleep
exceptional
sensitive
conflict

[Ameet]

diurnal

sleep

exceptional

sensitive

conflict

[nom]

most
sleep
exceptional
sensitive
compete

[Shakhzod]

Please help me

In one of the Simon's essays I read the sentence: There are AT LEAST AS MANY celebrities whose accomplishments make them excellent role models for young people. The problem is that I couldnt understand entirely the part that I wrote in capitals. Please who can explain it in a bit different way?

[Hang]

Diurnal
Sleep
Sensitive
Exceptional
Compete

[Jason Heo]

diurnal
sleep
sensitive
exceptional
conflict

[Murad]

@Shakhzod
At least as many is the exaggeration of amount.
There are a lot of, numerous celebrities whose achievements make them excellent role models for young people

[Simon]

CORRECT ANSWERS FROM SIMON:

diurnal
sleep
sensitive
exceptional
compete*

*Most people chose 'conflict', but in the verb form 'to conflict' usually means 'to be incompatible' (e.g. the date of the celebration conflicted with a business meeting that I had to attend).

It is much more natural to use 'compete' in the summary above.

[Sana]

Hi Simon,

Could you please explain why you chose sensitive not exceptional for num 3 and exceptional not sensitive for num 4?

Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you!

[Haithem]

diurnal
sleep
sensitive
exceptional
compete

[tom]

diurnal
sleep
developed
large
conflict

[Franca]

1.diurnal
2.asleep
3.sensitive
4.exceptional
5.Compete

[Simon]

Sana,

It would be ok to change those two answers around.

[neha]

Nice blog. Thanks for sharing..