IELTS reading passage issue №2 (English as a foreign language learner I am)

Question

I have been taking IELTS mock exams recently on a website. (The tests are probably taken from Cambridge textbooks).

So I have a point I may disagree with in the Reading section.

I had to choose whether certain statements TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN

Question 21 statement says Many people were very impressed by Swingle's discovery.

I chose NOT GIVEN

the text itself goes like this:

Swingle was just as impressed. Yet despite his reports, many Western biologists were sceptical. In the West, the idea of using one insect to destroy another was new and highly controversial.

The authors of the website (may be Cambridge teachers) say the correct answer should be FALSE. Here's how they explained it:

“sceptical” (other spelling: skeptical) means showing doubt about something.

While the statement in question 21 says that people were impressed of the discovery, the text says people doubted that. These ideas are contrasting, so the answer for question 21 is FALSE.

Note: In fact, it was Swingle who was impressed by the method used in China, not other people (Western biologists).

(This explanation could be right from the Cambridge IELTS books.)

My stand on this is:

Since when "Many people being impressed" and "Many Western biologists being skeptical" are antonyms???

These two statements don't refute each other. They can be true at the same time. That means, people can be impressed and many Western biologists be skeptical at the same time. These two statements are NOT mutually exclusive! This is not oxymoron-like.

The statement of Q21 is NOT GIVEN

What should the correct answer be?

Answer 1

It seems you are being asked whether the statement expresses the same idea as the text. The text says that, although Swingle himself was impressed, many biologists were not, so the statement doesn't express the same meaning as the text.