March 02, 2020

IELTS Reading: another 'true, false, not given'

Read the following text and try the quick exercise below it.

Primal Therapy

Primal therapy is a trauma-based psychotherapy created by Arthur Janov, who argues that neurosis is caused by the repressed pain of childhood trauma. According to Janov, repressed pain can be sequentially brought to conscious awareness for resolution through re-experiencing specific incidents and fully expressing the resulting pain during therapy. In therapy, the patient recalls and reenacts a particularly disturbing past experience, usually from early in life, and expresses normally repressed anger or frustration, especially through spontaneous and unrestrained screams, hysteria or violence. Janov criticises the talking therapies as they deal primarily with the cerebral cortex and higher-reasoning areas and do not access the source of emotional pain within the more basic parts of the central nervous system.

Primal therapy became very influential during a brief period in the early 1970s, after the publication of Janov's first book, The Primal Scream. It inspired hundreds of spin-off clinics worldwide and served as an inspiration for many popular cultural icons. Singer-songwriter John Lennon and actor James Earl Jones were prominent advocates of primal therapy. However, it has since declined in popularity, partly because Janov did not produce enough evidence to convince research-oriented psychotherapists of its effectiveness.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. During primal therapy sessions, patients are encouraged to remember traumatic childhood events.
2. Primal therapy patients must talk calmly to the therapist.
3. Primal therapy enjoyed a short heyday.
4. Although it is less popular these days, many people still advocate this form of therapy.

February 24, 2020

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

The following excerpt comes from test 3 in Cambridge IELTS book 10.

The travel industry includes: hotels, motels and other types of accommodation; restaurants and other food services; transportation services and facilities; amusements, attractions and other leisure facilities; gift shops and a large number of other enterprises. Since many of these businesses also serve local residents, the impact of spending by visitors can easily be overlooked or underestimated. In addition, Meis (1992) points out that the tourism industry involves concepts that have remained amorphous to both analysts and decision makers. Moreover, in all nations this problem has made it difficult for the industry to develop any type of reliable or credible tourism information base in order to estimate the contribution it makes to regional, national and global economies.

Are the two statements below true, false, or not given?

1. Visitor spending is always greater than the spending of residents in tourist areas.
2. It is easy to show statistically how tourism affects individual economies.

Extra task:
Can you explain the meaning of the phrase "the tourism industry involves concepts that have remained amorphous to both analysts and decision makers"?

February 17, 2020

IELTS Reading: paraphrasing practice

Let's look at some examples of paraphrasing, using the text below.

What is an 'elevator pitch'?

An “elevator pitch” is an overview of a product, service, person, group, organisation or project, and is often part of a fund-raising, marketing, brand or public relations program. The name "elevator pitch" reflects the idea that it should be possible to deliver a short but effective presentation in the time span of an elevator ride from the ground floor to the directors’ boardroom on the top floor of a building.

An elevator pitch is often used by an entrepreneur pitching an idea to an investor to receive funding. Venture capitalists often ask entrepreneurs to give an elevator pitch in order to quickly weed out bad ideas and weak teams. Other uses include job interviewing, dating and professional services. Proposals for books, screenplays, blogs and other forms of publishing are often delivered via an elevator pitch, which may be presented in oral, written or video formats.

Which words or phrases in the passage are similar to those below?

1. a summary
2. succinct
3. gain financial backing
4. eliminate
5. spoken

February 10, 2020

IELTS Reading: the time problem

'Not having enough time' is the biggest problem for most people taking the reading test. Here are some tips for dealing with this problem:

1. Go straight to the first question. Don't waste time reading the full passage or the first sentence of each paragraph, and don't read any of the other questions.
2. Do 'paragraph' questions last. Questions that ask you to match headings or statements with paragraphs are much easier if you are already familiar with the passage.
3. Don't get stuck on one question. As soon as you realise that you are having difficulties with a question, leave it and move to the next one. Return to difficult questions later if you have time.
4. Remember that the answers to most question sections are in order in the passage. You don't need to go back to the beginning of the passage to search for each answer.
5. Only skim or scan for numbers and names. Otherwise, read at normal speed.
6. Work with an alarm. You can't do this in an exam, but at home you could set the alarm (on your phone) for 2 minutes and try to do each question within this time.

Note:
When preparing for the reading test at home, try not to worry about time at first. Your first concern should be to get the score you need, even if it takes you 3 hours instead of 1 hour to do a full test.

February 03, 2020

IELTS Reading: vocabulary review

Let's review some vocabulary from the last few reading exercises that I've published here on the blog.

Would you have been able to match the keywords below?

January 27, 2020

IELTS Reading: instead of skimming and scanning

Many teachers and books talk about skimming and scanning as key techniques for IELTS reading.

I have stopped using the words 'skimming' and 'scanning' in my lessons because I find that they confuse students. In fact, many students get the wrong answers because they 'skim' too quickly and miss the words that they are looking for.

So, forget 'skimming' and 'scanning' and focus on 'finding' and 'understanding'.

1. Finding: read the text to find words from the question.
2. Understanding: when you have found some key words from the question, read that part of the text carefully in order to understand it and get the right answer.

January 20, 2020

IELTS Reading: how should you practise?

Here's a useful question that a student asked me:

Many students complain that they don’t get a high enough score in IELTS reading, and many teachers respond that you need more practice. Dear Simon, could you describe how to practise for reading correctly? I do practise with the Cambridge books and spend time reading newspapers, but with no results.

Here's my answer:

Good question. First, testing yourself is not the best form of practice. You should test yourself from time to time (e.g. once a week), but spend much more time studying rather than testing. 'Studying' means that your aim is to learn something from what you read. For example, when reading newspaper articles, you might learn a new word or phrase, or you might learn how to use a word correctly in a new context. Don't forget to check things in a dictionary or by searching online, and write new language in a notebook.

The Cambridge IELTS books are a great resource for studying (as well as testing). Try doing some reading tests without a time limit. Allow yourself to use a dictionary to check words, and aim to get all of the answers right. Analyse your mistakes carefully, and make keyword tables.

Above all, remember that IELTS reading is a vocabulary test. Ask yourself what new vocabulary you have learnt this week. Can you point to a page of your notebook and say "I've learnt these 10 or 20 new words and phrases this week"? If you can, you are improving.

January 13, 2020

IELTS Reading: choose the title

Read the passage below, and select the best title from the following list.

A) The 2020s: a decade of challenges
B) Work in the 2020s: how to succeed
C) Essential skills in a changing job market

As the pace of digital transformation in the workplace accelerates, the next decade will pose challenges for employees as they are pushed more quickly into different types of jobs and teams. Skill demands are changing so rapidly, say futurists, that even when a company lays out what it requires now, by the end of the 2020s that will look very different.

Jason Wingard, dean of Columbia University School of Professional Studies, believes some skills will not be relevant. “You are going to have to look at the market and keep abreast of what are transferable skills,” he says. “You will need to measure yourself against that and ask yourself, ‘Do you have what it takes to be competitive?’”

So what are the five essential skills that workers will need to navigate a changing work environment — and flourish in the next decade?

(Source: Financial Times, 6th January 2020)

January 06, 2020

IELTS Reading and Listening scores

Students often ask how many correct answers they need (out of 40) to get a band score of 7 in the reading and listening tests.

According to official IELTS guidelines for academic* reading and listening:

• Band 6 is about 23 out of 40
• Band 7 is about 30
• Band 8 is about 35

Note:
The score needed for each band can change depending on the difficulty of each test. If you have a really difficult test, the score needed for band 7 might be 28 or 29. If the test is easier, you might need to score 31 or 32 to get a 7. Click here to see the banding guide on the official IELTS website.

*General reading is scored differently.

December 23, 2019

IELTS Reading: gap-fill

A student asked me for help with this exercise from Cambridge IELTS 14.

Here's the relevant part of the passage:

There are even more insects that are masters of exploiting filthy habitats, such as faeces and carcasses, where they are regularly challenged by thousands of microorganisms. These insects have many antimicrobial compounds for dealing with pathogenic bacteria and fungi, suggesting that there is certainly potential to find many compounds that can serve as or inspire new antibiotics.

Choose ONE WORD from the passage to fill each gap below.

They are also interested in compounds which insects use to protect themselves from pathogenic bacteria and fungi found in their _____. Piper hopes that these substances will be useful in the development of drugs such as _____.

December 16, 2019

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the text below about Issac Newton.

Sir Isaac Newton was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian. His Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Latin for "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"; usually called the Principia), published in 1687, is one of the most important scientific books ever written. It lays the groundwork for most of classical mechanics.

Newton is considered by many scholars and members of the general public to be one of the most influential people in human history. French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange often said that Newton was the greatest genius who ever lived. Newton himself had been rather more modest of his own achievements, famously writing in a letter to Robert Hooke in February 1676: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Are the following statements TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN?

1. Newton's Principia is recognised as a groundbreaking text in its field.
2. Many experts regard Newton as the greatest genius the world has seen.
3. Newton wrote that he had achieved everything without the help of others.

December 09, 2019

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Look at the following extract from a text about a psychology experiment:

In the year 1971, Zimbardo accepted a tenured position as professor of psychology at Stanford University. There he conducted the Stanford prison study, in which 21 normal college students were randomly assigned to be "prisoners" or "guards" in a mock prison located in the basement of the psychology building at Stanford. The two week planned study into the psychological impact of prison life ended only after 6 days due to emotional trauma being experienced by the participants.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. The participants in the study were all psychology students.
2. They were given the choice of playing the role of prisoner or guard.
3. A real prison was used in the experiment.
4. The study aimed to investigate the mental and behavioural effects of life in prison.

December 02, 2019

IELTS Reading: paragraph headings

Read the following passage about a chess-playing computer.

A) On February 10, 1996, Deep Blue became the first machine to win a chess game against a reigning world champion (Garry Kasparov) under regular time controls. However, Kasparov won three and drew two of the following five games, beating Deep Blue by a score of 4–2. Deep Blue was then heavily upgraded and played Kasparov again in May 1997, winning the six-game rematch 3½–2½. Deep Blue won the deciding game six, becoming the first computer system to defeat a reigning world champion in a match under standard chess tournament time controls.

B) After the loss, Kasparov said that he sometimes saw deep intelligence and creativity in the machine's moves, suggesting that during the second game, human chess players had intervened on behalf of the machine, which would be a violation of the rules. IBM denied that it cheated, saying the only human intervention occurred between games. The rules provided for the developers to modify the program between games, an opportunity they said they used to shore up weaknesses in the computer's play that were revealed during the course of the match. This allowed the computer to avoid a trap in the final game that it had fallen for twice before. Kasparov demanded a rematch, but IBM refused and dismantled Deep Blue.

Choose the best heading for paragraphs A and B from the list below.

1. The first chess-playing computer
2. Developers’ intervention is questioned
3. Chess champion accepts defeat
4. Program developers caught cheating
5. A victory for artificial intelligence

November 25, 2019

IELTS Reading: read better, not faster

Many students worry that they read too slowly, and they ask me for advice about reading faster. These students are surprised when I tell them that it might be better to slow down and read "better" rather than faster.

If you read too quickly, or if you try to find the answers by skimming and scanning, you probably won't fully understand what you're reading, and you might miss the answers that you're searching for. On the other hand, if you read at normal speed, you're more likely to understand what you're reading, and you'll have plenty of time to find the answers.

If you struggle to finish all 40 questions in one hour, it's probably because you didn't understand the passage well enough, not because you didn't read it fast enough. So, you need to analyse your mistakes and look up the words and phrases that you didn't understand. In other words, work on becoming a better reader, not a faster reader.

November 17, 2019

IELTS Reading: finding enjoyment in reading

Last Monday I tried to persuade you that your reading will improve more quickly if you read things in English that you enjoy.

If you see reading as a boring chore, you're going to have a hard time improving. You need to find real enjoyment in reading; then it becomes easy.

So, let me ask you a question: Are you currently reading something enjoyable or fascinating in English? Let me know in the 'comments' area below.

November 10, 2019

IELTS Reading: the real secret to improving

The real secret to improving your reading is not a special trick, method or exam technique. It's simpler than that.

If you want to improve your reading, you need to read more.

Read things that truly fascinate you. Read about your hobbies, people you admire, gossip, or whatever you would choose to read for fun in your own language. Do some reading that isn't a form of study. It doesn't matter if you don't understand every word; just expose your brain to lots of interesting English, and you'll learn without even realising!

Of course, you should keep doing your IELTS reading practice too, and there are reading techniques that can help you. Just add some 'fun' reading to your schedule and see what happens.

November 03, 2019

IELTS Reading: examples of true, false, not given

Here are some good examples of true, false, not given. Can you explain the three answers below?
(from test 4, passage 2 in Cambridge IELTS 14)

1. TRUE

Question: An animal is likely to live longer in a zoo than in the wild.
Passage: The average captive animal will have a greater life expectancy compared with its wild counterpart.

2. FALSE

Question: Zoos have always excelled at transmitting information about animals to the public.
Passage: ...communicate information to visitors about the animals... This was an area where zoos used to be lacking.

3. NOT GIVEN

Question: Improvements in the quality of TV wildlife documentaries have resulted in increased numbers of zoo visitors.
Passage: It is true that television documentaries are becoming ever more detailed and impressive.

October 27, 2019

IELTS Reading: keywords again!

Here's a table showing the key vocabulary from the four most recent IELTS reading exercises on this blog.

Note: Did you know the word 'introspective'? The noun 'introspection' is a word that I like.

October 20, 2019

IELTS Reading: prove why the answers are correct

In this lesson I suggested a different way to practise: get the correct answers from the back of the book, and try to prove why they are correct.

Here's an example reading passage:

Behaviourism is a systematic approach to understanding the behaviour of humans and other animals. During the first half of the twentieth century, John B. Watson devised methodological behaviourism, which rejected introspective methods and sought to understand behaviour by only measuring observable behaviours and events.

It was not until the 1930s that B. F. Skinner suggested that private events—including thoughts and feelings—should be subjected to the same controlling variables as observable behaviour. This approach became the basis for his philosophy called "radical behaviourism”. While Watson and Ivan Pavlov investigated the stimulus-response procedures of classical conditioning, Skinner assessed the controlling nature of consequences and also their potential effect on the antecedents of behaviour; the technique became known as operant conditioning.

Now look at the 'true, false, not given' statements and correct answers below. Can you explain why each answer is correct?

1. Watson measured both visible behaviour and hidden emotions. (FALSE)
2. Skinner’s approach differed from that of Watson and Pavlov in that he went beyond the strictly observable. (TRUE)

October 13, 2019

IELTS Reading: paragraph headings

Read the passage below and choose the best heading for each paragraph.

List of headings:

1. A creature of legend
2. The human impact on mammoths
3. Explaining the appearance of mammoth remains
4. Woolly mammoths in ancient art
5. Woolly mammoth habitats
6. How we know so much about the woolly mammoth

A) The woolly mammoth is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the early Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, and its closest living relative is the Asian elephant. The appearance and behaviour of woolly mammoths are among the best studied of any prehistoric animal because of the discovery of frozen carcasses in Siberia and Alaska, as well as skeletons, teeth, stomach contents, dung, and depiction in prehistoric cave paintings.

B) Mammoth remains had long been known in Asia before they became known to Europeans in the 17th century. The origin of these remains was long a matter of debate, and often explained as being remains of legendary creatures. The mammoth was identified as an extinct species of elephant by Georges Cuvier in 1796.

C) The woolly mammoth coexisted with early humans, who used its bones and tusks for making art, tools, and dwellings, and the species was also hunted for food. It disappeared from its mainland range around 10,000 years ago, most likely through climate change and consequent shrinkage of its habitat, hunting by humans, or a combination of the two.

October 06, 2019

IELTS Reading: a different way to practise

Here's an interesting way to use reading tests from the Cambridge IELTS books:

1. Choose a passage from one of the reading tests.
2. Get the correct answers from the back of the book.
3. Now read the first question, underline keywords, and search for the answer in the passage - you already know the correct answer, so your only aim is to find where it is in the passage.
4. Underline words in the passage that have the same meaning as the keywords in the question.
5. When you have done this for each question, make a keyword table.

This technique forces you to stop testing yourself. Instead, it makes you focus on finding key vocabulary and understanding the reason for each answer. You might be surprised at the improvements you make if you regularly practise in this way.

September 29, 2019

IELTS Reading: choose the title

Read the following passage and choose the best title from the list below.

Future Shock is a book written by the futurist Alvin Toffler in 1970. In the book, Toffler defines the term "future shock" as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies. His shortest definition for the term is a personal perception of "too much change in too short a period of time". The book became an international bestseller, selling over 6 million copies, and has been widely translated.

Toffler argued that society is undergoing an enormous structural change, a revolution from an industrial society to a "super-industrial society". This change overwhelms people, he believed, the accelerated rate of technological and social change leaving people disconnected and suffering from "shattering stress and disorientation" - future shocked. Toffler stated that the majority of social problems are symptoms of future shock. In his discussion of the components of such shock he popularized the term "information overload."

A) A shocking vision of the future.
B) What is “future shock”?
C) The career of the futurist Alvin Toffler.
D) A changing society.

September 22, 2019

IELTS Reading: multiple choice exercise

Read the following text, and chose the best answer to the questions below.

The Placebo Effect

A placebo is a sham or simulated medical intervention. Sometimes patients given a placebo treatment will have a perceived or actual improvement in a medical condition, a phenomenon commonly called the placebo effect.

A study of Danish general practitioners found that 48% had prescribed a placebo at least 10 times in the past year. The most frequently prescribed placebos were antibiotics for viral infections, and vitamins for fatigue. Specialists and hospital-based physicians reported much lower rates of placebo use.

1. The placebo effect refers to

A) a simulated medical treatment
B) an improvement in a patient’s health as a result of a simulated medical treatment
C) a common medical phenomenon

2. According to a study, placebos were prescribed in Denmark

A) mainly by doctors working in hospitals
B) instead of antibiotics
C) for fatigued patients or those suffering with viruses

September 14, 2019

IELTS Reading: keep a record of key vocabulary

Whenever you do a practice reading test, keep a record of the key vocabulary i.e. the words and phrases that gave you the answers.

Here's a 'keyword' table with vocabulary from the three most recent reading exercises here on the blog.

If you have a vocabulary notebook (which is a good idea), add the phrases above.

September 07, 2019

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

Read the following short passage, and try the exercise below it.

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature. Since March 1901, it has been awarded annually (with some exceptions) to those who have "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”.

Nobel died in 1896 and he did not leave an explanation for choosing peace as a prize category. As he was a trained chemical engineer, the categories for chemistry and physics were obvious choices. The reasoning behind the peace prize is less clear. According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, his friendship with Bertha von Suttner, a peace activist and later recipient of the prize, profoundly influenced his decision to include peace as a category. Some Nobel scholars suggest it was Nobel's way to compensate for developing destructive forces. His inventions included dynamite and ballistite, both of which were used violently during his lifetime.

(Source: wikipedia.org)

Which TWO of the statements below are correct?

A)  The creator of the Nobel Peace Prize was himself a producer of weapons.
B)  The Nobel Peace Prize is a controversial award.
C)  Nobel was a peace activist during his lifetime.
D)  The ‘peace’ prize category was suggested by one of Nobel’s friends.
E)  Nobel saw the destructive application of some of his inventions.

August 31, 2019

IELTS Reading: paragraph headings

Choose the best heading for paragraphs A and B from the list below.

i. Why the elderly are living longer
ii. The impossibility of living beyond a certain age
iii. Medical and healthcare developments since the 1960s
iv. Is there a maximum age for humans?

A) A fundamental question in ageing research is whether humans and other species possess an immutable lifespan limit. A theoretical study suggested the maximum human lifespan to be around 125 years. The longest-living person whose dates of birth and death were verified to the modern norms of Guinness World Records and the Gerontology Research Group was Jeanne Calment, a French lady who lived to 122.

B) Reduction of infant mortality has accounted for most of the increased average life span longevity, but since the 1960s, mortality rates among those over 80 years have decreased by about 1.5% per year. The progress being made in lengthening lifespans and postponing senescence is entirely due to medical and public-health efforts, rising standards of living, better education, healthier nutrition and more salubrious lifestyles.

August 24, 2019

IELTS Reading: problems with Cambridge 14 answers

A few people have asked me about the answers given at the back of Cambridge 14. It seems that some alternative answers have not been listed.

For example, a student called Haley asked me about the following questions, from test 1 in Cambridge IELTS 14 (General Training):

Q19. What do visitors need to show when parking?
I answered 'prearranged permits' but the answer key says 'permits'

Q20. Where can the nursery pick-up point be found?
I answered 'outside Concorde Building' but the answer key says 'Concorde Building'

Q27. What are Sure Smart Maternity Payments?
I answered 'individual grants' but the answer key says 'grants'

Would Haley's answers be correct? The answer is yes - all three answers are perfectly fine. The words 'prearranged', 'outside' and 'individual' are not necessary, but they certainly don't make the answers wrong.

August 17, 2019

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following text about the printing press:

From a single point of origin, Mainz, Germany, printing spread within several decades to over two hundred cities in a dozen European countries. By 1500, printing presses in operation throughout Western Europe had already produced more than twenty million volumes. In the 16th century, with presses spreading further afield, their output rose tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies. The operation of a press became so synonymous with the enterprise of printing that it lent its name to an entire new branch of media, the press.

In Renaissance Europe, the arrival of mechanical movable type printing introduced the era of mass communication which permanently altered the structure of society. The relatively unrestricted circulation of information and ideas transcended borders and threatened the power of political and religious authorities. The sharp increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and learning and bolstered the emerging middle class.

Answer TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN:

1. By the beginning of the 16th century, the printing press was in use in several different countries.
2. The printing press was popular because it was so easy to operate.
3. Movable type printing can be linked to a rise in the number of people who could read and write.
4. Printing had a negative effect on the middle classes.

August 10, 2019

IELTS Reading: why isn't my score improving?

A student emailed me the other day, asking me to explain why his reading score was stuck at 5.5.

I had never met the student, so I could only offer general advice. Here's what I wrote in my response to his email:

The first step towards making an improvement is to understand what you're doing wrong. So, you need to analyse what's happening when you do reading tests. Here are some questions that you could ask yourself:

• Do you finish all 40 questions?
• Do you find one type of question very difficult?
• Are you reading too slowly, or maybe too quickly?
• Are you following all of the advice that I gave in this lesson?
• Are you doing realistic practice tests using the Cambridge books?
• What scores do you get when you do practice tests?
• What problems do you notice when you do practice tests?

Try to work out what is going wrong, and then I'll be able to give you better advice.

August 03, 2019

IELTS Reading: read phrase by phrase

People who read too quickly in the IELTS test often miss the answers. If you go too fast, you won't really understand what you're reading, and you'll start to panic when you don't find what you're looking for.

On the other hand, some people read too slowly; they read each word as if it were a separate item on the page. These people tend not to finish the test.

Instead of skimming too quickly or reading each word slowly, I recommend that you read phrase by phrase. For example, read the first sentence of this lesson as three phrases:

People who read too quickly .....  in the IELTS test ..... often miss the answers.

Try to get into the habit of reading phrase by phrase. You should find that you can go at a reasonable speed and that you'll understand (almost) everything.

July 20, 2019

IELTS Reading: keep to a time schedule

A student asked me the following question:

"In the reading test I always spend too much time on the first two sections and never reach passage 3. How can I change this habit?"

I think the student already knew what my answer would be:

"You need to be more disciplined and force yourself to keep to a time schedule in the test."

Remember:

- Spend 20 minutes on each passage.
- Miss any questions that seem too difficult.
- Move on if a question is taking you too long.
- Get to the end of the test, and return to the questions you missed.

July 13, 2019

IELTS Reading: choose the title

Read the following passage and choose the best title.

The modern English alphabet is a Latin alphabet consisting of 26 letters, each having an upper- and lower-case form. It originated around the 7th century from the Latin script.

English is the only major modern European language that requires no diacritics for native words. Diacritic marks mainly appear in loanwords such as naïve and façade. Informal English writing tends to omit diacritics because of their absence from the keyboard, while professional copywriters and typesetters tend to include them.

As loanwords become naturalised in English, there is a tendency to drop the diacritics, as has happened with many older borrowings from French, such as hôtel. Words that are still perceived as foreign tend to retain them; for example, the only spelling of soupçon found in English dictionaries uses the diacritic. However, diacritics are likely to be retained even in naturalised words where they would otherwise be confused with a common native English word e.g. résumé rather than resume. Rarely, they may even be added to a loanword for this reason, as in maté, from the Spanish yerba mate but with the é to distinguish from the English word 'mate'.

(Source: wikipedia.org)

Choose the best title from the list below.

A)  The English alphabet
B)  The use of diacritics in written English
C)  Disappearing diacritics in the English language
D)  How loanwords have entered the English language

Note: Did you work out what the word 'diacritic' means?

July 06, 2019

IELTS Reading: easy 'General Reading' example

I tell my students to do both academic and general reading practice tests. The general reading tests are easier, but this allows you to work on your exam technique without having such long passages to worry about.

Here's part of a general reading exercise from Cambridge IELTS 14.

Relevant part of the passage:

Transition care is provided in your own home or in a ‘live-in’ setting. This setting can be part of an existing aged-care home or health facility such as a separate wing of a hospital.

If you’re already receiving subsidised residential care in an aged-care home, but you need to go somewhere else for transition care, your place in the aged-care home will be held until you return.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. Transition care at home is only available for patients who live alone.
2. Transition care may be given on a hospital site.
3. You may lose your place in a care home if you have to leave it to receive transition care.

June 29, 2019

IELTS Reading: which paragraph contains...?

Read the following passage, and try the exercise below it.

Language rhythms

A) When analysing the rhythm of spoken languages, some languages are referred to as syllable-timed, whereas others are commonly defined as stress-timed.

B) In a syllable-timed language, every syllable is perceived as taking up roughly the same amount of time. Syllable-timed languages tend to give syllables approximately equal prominence and generally lack reduced vowels. French, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Icelandic, Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese and Turkish are commonly quoted as examples of syllable-timed languages. This type of rhythm was originally metaphorically referred to as "machine-gun rhythm" because each underlying rhythmical unit is of the same duration, similar to the transient bullet noise of a machine-gun.

C) In a stress-timed language, syllables may last different amounts of time, but there is perceived to be a fairly constant amount of time (on average) between consecutive stressed syllables. Consequently, unstressed syllables between stressed syllables tend to be compressed to fit into the time interval. English, Thai, German, Russian, Danish, Swedish, Catalan, Norwegian, Faroese, Dutch, European Portuguese, and Persian are typical stress-timed languages.

D) There can be varying degrees of stress-timing within the different standards of a language. English, a stress-timed language, has become so widespread over the globe that some standards tend to be more syllable-timed than the British or North American standards, an effect which comes from the influence of other languages spoken in the relevant region. Indian English, for example, tends toward syllable-timing.

E) A better-documented case of these varying degrees of stress-timing in a language comes from Portuguese. European Portuguese is more stress-timed than the Brazilian standard. The latter has mixed characteristics and varies according to speech rate, sex and dialect. At fast speech rates, Brazilian Portuguese is more stress-timed, while in slow speech rates, it can be more syllable-timed.

(Source: wikipedia.org)

Which paragraphs contain the following information?

1. How one language’s stress rhythm can change according to how quickly the language is spoken.
2. Examples of languages that give more prominence to certain syllables during speech.
3. How stress-timing in one language may be affected by the rhythm of a different language.

June 22, 2019

IELTS Reading: which paragraph contains...?

Early modern policing

A) The first centrally organised police force was created by the government of King Louis XIV in 1667 to police the city of Paris, then the largest city in Europe. The task of the police was defined as "ensuring the peace and quiet of the public and of private individuals, purging the city of what may cause disturbances, procuring abundance, and having each and everyone live according to their station and their duties”. The word "police" was borrowed from French into the English language in the 18th century.

B) In 1797, Patrick Colquhoun, a Scottish merchant, was able to persuade the West Indies merchants who operated at the Pool of London on the River Thames, to establish a police force at the docks to prevent rampant theft that was causing annual estimated losses of £500,000 worth of cargo. The idea of a police, as it then existed in France, was considered as a potentially undesirable foreign import. However, Colquhoun used economic indicators to show that a police dedicated to crime prevention was "perfectly congenial to the principle of the British constitution”.

C) With an initial investment of £4,200, the new trial force of the Thames River Police began with about 50 men charged with policing 33,000 workers in the river trades. The force was a success after its first year, and Colquhoun’s men had "established their worth by saving £122,000 worth of cargo and by the rescuing of several lives”. Word of this success spread quickly, and the government passed the Marine Police Bill on 28 July 1800, transforming it from a private to public police agency; now the oldest police force in the world.

(Adapted from wikipedia.com)

Which paragraph contains the following information?

1. positive news that led to a new government policy
2. the origin of an English word
3. people’s reluctance to accept a foreign idea
4. a specific problem that needed to be solved

June 14, 2019

IELTS Reading: a review of this blog

For today's reading practice, I thought you might like to read a review of this website. It appeared in the latest issue of the English Australia Journal.

To go straight to the review, click here. I particularly like the reviewer's comments about my IELTS writing lessons in the fourth paragraph!

The review is full of useful English phrases. Note them down if you have time.

June 07, 2019

IELTS Reading: paragraph heading

Read the paragraph below and choose the best heading from the list.

Reading underwent serious changes in the 18th century. Until 1750, reading was done “intensively”: people tended to own a small number of books and read them repeatedly, often to a small audience. After 1750, people began to read “extensively”, finding as many books as they could, and increasingly reading them alone. Libraries that lent out their material for a small price started to appear, and occasionally bookstores would offer a small lending library to their patrons. Coffee houses commonly offered books, journals and sometimes even popular novels to their customers.

1. The appearance of the first public libraries.
2. Intensive and extensive reading habits.
3. The reading revolution.

May 31, 2019

IELTS Reading: more keywords

Here's another vocabulary table showing keywords from recent reading exercises here on the blog.

Quick question: What does 'sound' mean, in the context of the penultimate (second from bottom) row of the table?

May 24, 2019

IELTS Reading: yes, no, not given

Read the following passage about geometry:

Geometry (from the Ancient Greek: γεωμετρία; geo- "earth", -metron "measurement") is a branch of mathematics concerned with questions of shape, size, relative position of figures, and the properties of space. The earliest recorded beginnings of geometry can be traced to ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt in the 2nd millennium BC.

An important application of geometry is in the field of architecture. Apart from the mathematics needed when engineering buildings, architects use geometry for several reasons: to define the spatial form of a building; to create forms that are considered harmonious; to lay out buildings and their surroundings according to mathematical, aesthetic and sometimes religious principles; to decorate buildings with mathematical objects such as tessellations; and to meet environmental goals, such as to minimise wind speeds around the bases of tall buildings.

In the graphic arts, geometry can be seen in the use of perspective, which may be described as the approximate representation, generally on a flat surface (such as paper), of an image as it is seen by the eye. The two most characteristic features of perspective are that objects appear smaller as their distance from the observer increases, and that they are subject to foreshortening, meaning that an object's dimensions along the line of sight appear shorter than its dimensions across the line of sight.

(Adapted from Wikipedia)

Do the following statements agree with the passage?
Answer yes, no or not given.

1. Humans have used geometry for well over two thousand years.
2. Religious buildings are often decorated with geometric patterns.
3. Many artists do not realise that they are using geometry.
4. Perspective, in the graphic arts, involves the use of size to imply distance.

May 17, 2019

IELTS Reading: match the names

One type of question asks you to "match the names with the statements". You will see a list of people's names (often researchers or experts) and you have to match each name with a statement about what he/she did or said.

Here's some advice for this type of question:

1. Find all of the names in the passage first. Scan the whole passage quickly (this is probably the only type of exercise for which scanning works well) and underline all the names that the question asks you about.
2. Remember that academic articles often only use surnames. For example, if one of the names is Robert Smith, you might not see the first name 'Robert' in the passage. Just look for the surname 'Smith'.
3. Do difficult questions last. If one name is mentioned 3 times in 3 different paragraphs, it will be more difficult to match with a statement than a name that is only mentioned once. Start with the name that is only mentioned once.
4. When you find a match, put a cross next to the statement; you will only use each statement once.
5. As usual, look for "keywords" - words in the passage that are similar to words in the question statements.

May 10, 2019

IELTS Reading: useful question about keywords

A student asked me about the following question from Cambridge IELTS 9. The student was confused about whether 'amount' was a good synonym for 'rate'. How do you think I resolved this confusion? And what is the correct answer to the question?

Question (true, false or not given?)
The amount of information that can be sent in a given time period is determined with reference to the signal strength and noise level.

Relevant part of the passage:
In particular, Shannon showed that noise set a limit on the rate at which information can pass along communication channels while remaining error-free. This rate depends on the relative strength of signal and noise traveling down the communication channel and on its capacity (its "bandwidth").

May 03, 2019

IELTS Reading: matching exercise

Read the following passage and try the matching exercise below.

London Bridge

Many historical bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames in central London. The current crossing, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973, was built using concrete and steel. This replaced a 19th-century stone-arched bridge, which in turn superseded a 600-year-old medieval structure. This was preceded by a succession of timber bridges, the first built by the Roman founders of London.

“Old” London Bridge was built between 1176 and 1209, during the reign of King John. The bridge was around 8 metres wide and 250 metres long, and it had a drawbridge for the passage of tall ships up-river, and defensive gatehouses at both ends. By the fifteenth century there were some 200 buildings on the bridge. Some stood up to seven stories high, some overhung the river by seven feet, and some overhung the road, to form a dark tunnel through which all traffic had to pass. By the end of the 18th century, it was apparent that “Old” London Bridge, which was by then over 600 years old, needed to be replaced.

The “New” London Bridge was designed by John Rennie and opened in 1831. It was 283 metres long and 15 metres wide, and in 1896 it was the busiest point in London, with 8,000 pedestrians and 900 vehicles crossing it every hour. By 1962, “New” London Bridge was not sound enough to support the increased load of modern traffic, and it was sold by the City of London. The purchaser, an American entrepreneur called Robert P. McCulloch, bought the bridge as a tourist attraction for Lake Havasu in Arizona, USA. The bridge was taken apart, each piece was meticulously numbered, and the blocks were then shipped to Arizona, where the bridge was reconstructed.

Which bridge is described in each statement below? Choose A, B or C.

1. Many buildings were constructed on it.
2. It has a royal connection.
3. It was taken to a new location.
4. It had fortified entrances.
5. It could not cope with increasing congestion.

A - Old London Bridge
B - New London Bridge
C - The current London Bridge

April 26, 2019

IELTS Reading: when are the answers in order?

For the following question types, the answers are usually (almost always) in order in the passage:

1. All types of gap-fill (sentences, summaries, diagrams etc.)
2. True, false, not given
3. Yes, no, not given
4. Multiple choice
5. Matching sentence endings
6. 'Short answer' questions

However, answers to the following question types are never in order:

1. Matching paragraph headings
2. Which paragraph contains the information?
3. Matching names with statements or information

April 19, 2019

IELTS Reading: a tricky question

Here's a tricky question from Cambridge IELTS 11 (General test 3). What answer would you choose, and why?

Question statement (true, false or not given?):
Bus drivers do not give change so you must have the correct money for a ticket.

What the passage says:
Buy your bus ticket from the bus driver, with the correct money if possible.

April 12, 2019

IELTS Reading Advice: reading aims and habits

Yesterday I gave some advice about having the right aims. When you have an aim, the next step is to think about how to achieve it. You'll need to create work habits that take you in the right direction.

Assuming that your general aim is to get a higher score in the IELTS reading test, here are some questions regarding specific aims and habits:

• How can we break the general aim (improve my reading) into more specific, focused aims?
• What do you do each day to work on your reading?
• How could you improve these daily reading habits?

April 05, 2019

IELTS Reading: another keyword review

Here are some of the keywords from recent exercises here on the blog:

March 29, 2019

IELTS Reading: two questions about exam technique

1. Should you read the whole passage before looking at the questions?
2. Should you go to the questions first, then skim/scan to find the answers?

My answer to question 1 is no. You don't have time to read the whole passage unless your English is almost 'native speaker' level.

My answer to question 2 is yes and no.
Yes - go to the questions first.
No - don't skim or scan unless the question contains a name or number.

My advice is to do the questions one by one. Instead of skimming or scanning, read the passage carefully. The answers to most question sections will be in order in the passage, so you will gradually read the whole passage as you find the answers.

March 22, 2019

IELTS Reading: paragraph headings tips

Here are my top 4 tips for how to answer 'paragraph headings' questions:

1. Do these questions last
'Paragraph headings' questions are difficult, especially because the answers will not be in order in the text. For most other types of question, the answers will be in order in the text. So, do the other questions first, then you will be familiar with the text when you return to the 'paragraph headings' questions. You might even find that you are able to match some of the paragraphs really quickly because you remember what they were about.

2. Start with the shortest paragraphs
Instead of starting with the first paragraph, why not start with the shortest paragraph? If there is a really short paragraph, it should be easier to match it to a heading. Then you will have fewer headings to choose from for the longer paragraphs.

3. Look for similar words
As with most types of IELTS reading question, you should be able to find words in the paragraph that are similar to words in the heading.

4. Move on if you are spending too much time
'Paragraph headings' questions often take a long time. Don't allow yourself to use more than 20 minutes for each reading passage. If you haven't finished after 20 minutes, move on to the next passage.

March 15, 2019

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage about elephant intelligence.

Most contemporary ethologists view the elephant as one of the world's most intelligent animals. With a mass of just over 5 kg, an elephant's brain has more mass than that of any other land animal, and although the largest whales have body masses twenty times those of a typical elephant, a whale's brain is barely twice the mass of an elephant's brain. In addition, elephants have a total of 300 billion neurons. Elephant brains are similar to humans' and many other mammals' in terms of general connectivity and functional areas.

Elephants manifest a wide variety of behaviours, including those associated with grief, learning, mimicry, play, altruism, use of tools, compassion, cooperation, self-awareness, memory, and communication. Further, evidence suggests elephants may understand pointing: the ability to nonverbally communicate an object by extending a finger, or equivalent.

Elephants are thought to be highly altruistic animals that even aid other species, including humans, in distress. In India, an elephant was helping locals lift logs by following a truck and placing the logs in pre-dug holes upon instruction from the mahout (elephant trainer). At a certain hole, the elephant refused to lower the log. The mahout came to investigate the hold-up and noticed a dog sleeping in the hole. The elephant only lowered the log when the dog was gone.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1)  An elephant’s brain is larger than that of a whale.
2)  In some respects, an elephant’s brain resembles the human brain.
3)  Elephants can copy the behaviour of humans.
4)  Elephants may understand a certain type of body language.
5)  The story about an elephant in India is an example of altruism.

March 08, 2019

IELTS Reading: gap-fill

Read the following text about pedestrian zones in cities.

A large number of European towns and cities have made part of their centres car-free since the early 1960s. These are often accompanied by car parks on the edge of the pedestrianised zone, and, in the larger cases, park and ride schemes. Central Copenhagen is one of the largest and oldest examples: the auto-free zone is centred on Strøget, a pedestrian shopping street, which is in fact not a single street but a series of interconnected avenues which create a very large auto-free zone, although it is crossed in places by streets with vehicular traffic. Most of these zones allow delivery trucks to service the businesses located there during the early morning, and street-cleaning vehicles will usually go through these streets after most shops have closed for the night.

In North America, where a more commonly used term is pedestrian mall, such areas are still in their infancy. Few cities have pedestrian zones, but some have pedestrianised single streets. Many pedestrian streets are surfaced with cobblestones, or pavement bricks, which discourage any kind of wheeled traffic, including wheelchairs. They are rarely completely free of motor vehicles.

Fill the gaps below with NO MORE THAN 3 WORDS from the text.

1. In some cases, people are encouraged to park ________ of the town or city centre.
2. The only vehicles permitted in most pedestrian zones are those used for ________ or ________ cleaning.
3. Certain types of road surface can be used to ________ traffic.

March 01, 2019

IELTS Reading: 9 ways to use practice tests

Here are 9 different ways to use practice reading tests.

1. Do a full one-hour test to see what score you get.
2. Do a full test with no time limit (or a longer time limit, like 2 hours).
3. Do just one reading passage in 20 minutes.
4. Do one reading passage with no time limit (or longer than 20 minutes).
5. Work on a particular type of question only e.g. true, false, not given.
6. Do tests with the help of a dictionary, and see if that helps you score.
7. Simply read a full passage and see what you understand. Don't do the questions.
8. Get the answers from the back of the book, and try to prove why they are correct.
9. Make vocabulary lists and 'keyword' tables.

Instead of just testing yourself, try to use practice tests in a variety of ways. This will make your study time less boring, and you'll probably learn more. Maybe you can think of other creative ways to use practice tests.

February 22, 2019

IELTS Reading: yes, no, not given

Read the following passage about 'habits'.

“All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits,” William James wrote in 1892. Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision making, but they’re not. They’re habits. And though each habit means relatively little on its own, over time, the meals we order, what we say to our kids each night, whether we save or spend, how often we exercise, and the way we organize our thoughts and work routines have enormous impacts on our health, productivity, financial security, and happiness. One paper published by a Duke University researcher in 2006 found that 40 percent or more of the actions people performed each day weren’t actual decisions, but habits.

Do the statements below agree with the ideas expressed by the author? Write YES, NO or NOT GIVEN.

1. The majority of choices we make on a daily basis are conscious decisions.
2. Saving money is the key to financial security.
3. Habits account for at least 40 percent of the things we do each day.

Note:
The passage above comes from a book called The Power of Habit. If you're looking for a book to read, I definitely recommend it.

February 15, 2019

IELTS Reading: choose the headings

Read the passage below and match each paragraph with one of the following headings:

1. Lobster habitats
2. Why lobsters must be measured when caught
3. Adult male lobsters are a prime catch
4. Lobster fishing methods
5. The world’s heaviest lobster
6. Different types of American lobster

A) The American lobster is a species of lobster found on the Atlantic coast of North America, chiefly from Labrador to New Jersey. It is also known as Atlantic lobster, Canadian lobster, true lobster, northern lobster, Canadian Reds, or Maine lobster. It can reach a body length of 64cm, and a mass of over 20 kilograms, making it not only the heaviest crustacean in the world, but also the heaviest of all living arthropod species.

B) Most American lobsters come from the northeastern coast of North America, with the Atlantic Provinces of Canada and the U.S. state of Maine being the largest producers. They are caught primarily using lobster traps, although lobsters are also harvested as bycatch by bottom trawlers, fishermen using gillnets, and by scuba divers in some areas. Maine completely prohibits scuba divers from catching lobsters (violations could result in up to a $1000 fine).

C) In the United States, the lobster industry is regulated. Every lobster fisher is required to use a lobster gauge to measure the distance from the lobster's eye socket to the end of its carapace: if the lobster is less than 83mm long, it is too young to be sold and must be released back to the sea. There is also a legal maximum size of 130mm in Maine, meant to ensure the survival of a healthy breeding stock of adult males.

February 08, 2019

IELTS Reading: keyword review

The table below shows keywords from the last five reading exercises here on the blog.

Are you familiar with the following words / phrases?

- to undermine
- cutting-edge (adjective)
- to herald
- to lengthen / stretch out / draw out
- to emphasise / over-articulate / exaggerate

February 01, 2019

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

Here are two multiple choice questions from Cambridge IELTS 13. Choose the best answer for questions 27 and 28, and explain your answers if you can.

Relevant part of the passage:

The Painting Fool is one of a growing number of computer programs which, so their makers claim, possess creative talents. Classical music by an artificial composer has had audiences enraptured, and even tricked them into believing a human was behind the score. Artworks painted by a robot have sold for thousands of dollars and been hung in prestigious galleries. And software has been built which creates art that could not have been imagined by the programmer.

Human beings are the only species to perform sophisticated creative acts regularly. If we can break this process down into computer code, where does that leave human creativity? ‘This is a question at the very core of humanity,’ says Geraint Wiggins, a computational creativity researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London. ‘It scares a lot of people. They are worried that it is taking something special away from what it means to be human.’

Multiple choice questions:

27. What is the writer suggesting about computer-produced works in the first paragraph?

A  People’s acceptance of them can vary considerably.
B  A great deal of progress has already been attained in this field.
C  They have had more success in some artistic genres than in others.
D  The advances are not as significant as the public believes them to be.

28. According to Geraint Wiggins, why are many people worried by computer art?

A  It is aesthetically inferior to human art.
B  It may ultimately supersede human art.
C  It undermines a fundamental human quality.
D  It will lead to a deterioration in human ability.

January 25, 2019

IELTS Reading: examples from Cambridge 13

Here's an excerpt from reading test 1, passage 1 in Cambridge IELTS 13:

Tourism New Zealand website

On the website, visitors can search for activities not solely by geographical location, but also by the particular nature of the activity. This is important as research shows that activities are the key driver of visitor satisfaction, contributing 74% to visitor satisfaction, while transport and accommodation account for the remaining 26%. The more activities that visitors undertake, the more satisfied they will be. It has also been found that visitors enjoy cultural activities most when they are interactive, such as visiting a marae (meeting ground) to learn about traditional Maori life.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. It was found that most visitors started searching on the website by geographical location.
2. According to research, 26% of visitor satisfaction is related to their accommodation.
3. Visitors to New Zealand like to become involved in the local culture.

January 18, 2019

IELTS Reading: choose the title

Read the following article, and choose the best title from the list below.

The setting is decidedly modest: a utility room in a red-brick house at the end of a cul-de-sac in Wales. But if the hype turns out to be right, this may be the starting point for an energy revolution in the UK. Householder Mark Kerr has become the first British owner of a Tesla Powerwall, a cutting-edge bit of kit that the makers say will provide a “missing link” in solar energy.

Like many owners of solar panels, Kerr and his family have a basic problem. They tend to be out at work and school when the sun is shining and the 16 solar panels on the roof of their home in Cardiff are producing power. The excess they miss out on is fed into the grid and they make a return on it but it does not seem right that they do not get to use the power from their panels. However, from now, energy produced but not used during the day will charge the Powerwall and can then be used to provide them with the energy they need when they’re at home and their lights, music centres, computers, televisions and myriad other devices need feeding.

Choose title A, B, C or D. Can you explain why the others are wrong?

A) The UK energy revolution.
B) Wales at the forefront of technology.
C) New device could herald energy revolution.
D) The problem with solar panels.

January 11, 2019

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following text about photosynthesis in plants.

Although some of the steps in photosynthesis are still not completely understood, the overall photosynthetic equation has been known since the 1800s.

Jan van Helmont began the research of the process in the mid-1600s when he carefully measured the mass of the soil used by a plant and the mass of the plant as it grew. After noticing that the soil mass changed very little, he hypothesised that the mass of the growing plant must come from the water, the only substance he added to the potted plant. His hypothesis was partially accurate—much of the gained mass also comes from carbon dioxide as well as water.

In 1796, Jean Senebier, a Swiss pastor, botanist, and naturalist, demonstrated that green plants consume carbon dioxide and release oxygen under the influence of light. Soon afterwards, Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure showed that the increase in mass of the plant as it grows could not be due only to uptake of CO2, but also to the incorporation of water.

According to the text, are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. We now fully understand the process of photosynthesis.
2. Van Helmont's hypothesis did not take into account that plants consume carbon dioxide.
3. De Saussure demonstrated that both carbon dioxide and water contribute to an increase in mass in plants as they grow.

January 04, 2019

IELTS Reading: go deeper

When you do a practice reading test or even a short reading exercise, I think you can do more than just test yourself. You can go deeper into the passage and look at vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, coherence etc.

For example, did you think about the word 'parentese' when you read the passage in last Monday's lesson? And did you note down any vocabulary? e.g. drawn-out, plays a vital role in, is characterised by, verbal signal, capitalise on...

December 28, 2018

IELTS Reading: yes, no, not given

Read the following passage about how parents speak to infants.

'Parentese'

Parentese, the exaggerated, drawn-out form of speech that people use to communicate with babies, apparently is universal and plays a vital role in helping infants to analyse and absorb the phonetic elements of their parents’ language. An international study shows that infants are so good at analysing this speech that by the age of 20 weeks they are beginning to produce the three vowel sounds common to all human languages — “ee,” “ah” and “uu.”

“Parentese has a melody to it. And inside this melody is a tutorial for the baby that contains exceptionally well-formed versions of the building blocks of language,” explains Patricia Kuhl, a University of Washington neuroscientist.

The new study examined differences in how American, Russian and Swedish mothers speak to their infants and to other adults. The study shows that parentese is characterised by over-articulation that exaggerates the sounds contained in words. Mothers in the study were, in effect, sounding out “super-vowels” to help their infants learn the phonetic elements of language.

“In normal, everyday speech adults generally race along at a very fast pace,” Kuhl says. “But we know it is easier to understand a speaker when they stretch out sounds. That’s why we tend to speak more slowly and carefully to increase understanding when we teach in the classroom or talk to strangers. We also do this unconsciously with babies, giving them an improved verbal signal they can capitalise on by slowing down and over articulating.”

(Source: www.washington.edu)

Do the statements below agree with the author's claims?
Write yes, no or not given.

1. ‘Parentese’ is not common to all cultures.
2. Parents tend to lengthen and over-emphasise certain sounds when speaking to infants.
3. Adults are aware that they need to use parentese when speaking to babies.

December 21, 2018

IELTS Reading: more keywords

Here's a table showing the key vocabulary from the last few reading lessons here on the blog.

December 14, 2018

IELTS Reading: paragraph headings

Read the following passage about cognitive behavioural therapy:

A) Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapeutic approach: a talking therapy. CBT aims to solve problems concerning dysfunctional emotions, behaviours and cognitions through a goal-oriented, systematic procedure in the present.

B) The particular therapeutic techniques vary, but commonly may include keeping a diary of significant events and associated feelings, thoughts and behaviours; questioning and testing cognitions, assumptions, evaluations and beliefs that might be unhelpful and unrealistic; gradually facing activities which may have been avoided; and trying out new ways of behaving and reacting. Relaxation, mindfulness and distraction techniques are also commonly included.

C) Going through cognitive behavioural therapy is not an overnight process for clients; a typical course consists of 12-16 hour-long sessions. Even after clients have learned to recognise when and where their mental processes go awry, it can in some cases take considerable time or effort to replace a dysfunctional process or habit with a more reasonable and adaptive one. CBT is problem-focused and structured towards the client. It requires honesty and openness between the client and therapist, as a therapist develops strategies for managing problems and guiding the client to a better life.

Choose the best headings for paragraphs A, B and C from this list:

1. A slow process
2. A new type of therapeutic approach
3. The benefits and drawbacks of CBT
4. A goal-oriented therapeutic approach
5. CBT therapists are always honest with their clients
6. The range of CBT interventions

December 07, 2018

IELTS Reading: I can't read fast enough!

If you believe that you can't read fast enough, you've got the wrong idea about how to improve your reading score.

The key to IELTS reading is to learn to read better, not faster.

Reading better means that you understand what you are reading, and that you notice straight away when you reach the part of the passage that contains the answer. If you read too quickly, you'll probably miss the answer and waste time going back to look for it.

Note: If you really are a very slow reader (when reading English), this is probably because your overall level of English is low. In other words, you're at beginner to intermediate level at the moment, and you have to think about every word as you read. This is a normal stage in language learning, and you shouldn't rush to read more quickly.

November 30, 2018

IELTS Reading: choose the best summary

Read the following description of a book called 'What are Universities for?'.

Across the world, universities are more numerous than they have ever been, yet at the same time there is unprecedented confusion about their purpose and scepticism about their value. What Are Universities For? offers a spirited and compelling argument for completely rethinking the way we see our universities, and why we need them.

Stefan Collini challenges the common claim that universities need to show that they help to make money in order to justify getting more money. Instead, he argues that we must reflect on the different types of institution and the distinctive roles they play. In particular we must recognise that attempting to extend human understanding, which is at the heart of disciplined intellectual enquiry, can never be wholly harnessed to immediate social purposes - particularly in the case of the humanities, which both attract and puzzle many people and are therefore the most difficult subjects to justify.

At a time when the future of higher education lies in the balance, What Are Universities For? offers all of us a better, deeper and more enlightened understanding of why universities matter, to everyone.

Which statement best summarises the book's message?

A) We do not necessarily need universities nowadays
B) Universities should be harnessed for social purposes
C) Universities must justify the money they are given
D) We need to change our understanding of the role of universities

November 23, 2018

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

November 08, 2018

IELTS Reading: paragraph heading

Read the following paragraph about the inventor Thomas Edison.

Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention, and because of that, he is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory. Edison is the fourth most prolific inventor in history, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications.

Choose the best heading for the paragraph from the list below.

A) The creator of the first industrial research laboratory.
B) A pioneering and prolific inventor.
C) Edison’s contribution to mass communication.

November 01, 2018

IELTS Reading: 3 study tips

Here are 3 study tips to help you improve your reading:

1. The best way to get better at the reading test is by doing more reading. Do as many practice tests as you can, and read other things e.g. books, newspapers and online articles.
2. Try doing a reading test without a time limit, and with a dictionary. If you still can't get the score you need, you'll need to look carefully at what you are doing wrong.
3. Spend time analysing your mistakes and the correct answers. If you don't understand why an answer was right or wrong, ask a teacher to help you. You'll improve more quickly if you learn from your mistakes.

October 25, 2018

IELTS Reading: it's all about the paraphrasing!

There were some great examples of paraphrasing in the 'which paragraph?' exercise that I shared in last Monday's lesson.

Here's a table showing the key phrases:

AI = artificial intelligence

October 18, 2018

IELTS Reading: which paragraph contains?

Today's reading passage is a bit longer than usual, so I'm attaching it as a document. Click on the link below to download it.

Download 'which paragraph contains?' exercise

October 11, 2018

IELTS Reading: which paragraph contains...?

Click on the link below to try today's reading exercise. The questions are at the end of the passage.

Click here to open

October 04, 2018

IELTS Reading: practise the general test too!

The General Training reading test is a bit different to the Academic test. However, the techniques you need to use to find the answers are the same:

- Underline key words in the question.
- Look for those words, or words with the same meaning, in the passage.

General Training questions are easier than those in the Academic test, so I often give my students a section from a GT test as an introduction to the reading exam.

September 26, 2018

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage about ancient uses of the word 'talent'.

The word ‘talent’ comes from the Latin word ‘talentum’, meaning a sum of money, and from the Greek ‘talanton’, meaning a unit of money or weight. An ancient Greek talent was 26 kilograms, which was approximately the mass of water required to fill an amphora - an ancient jar or jug.

When used as a measure of money, the word ‘talent’ typically referred to a weight of gold or silver. A Roman talent was around 33 kilograms of gold, while an Egyptian talent was 27 kilograms and a Babylonian talent was 30.3 kilograms. At the current price of around 38 US dollars per gram, a Roman talent of gold would cost roughly 1.25 million dollars.

Another way to calculate the modern equivalent to a talent is from its use in estimating military pay. During the Peloponnesian war in Ancient Greece, a talent was the amount of silver needed to pay the crew of a trireme (a warship requiring about 170 oarsmen) for one month. Alternatively, a talent of silver was said to be equivalent to the value of nine years of one man’s skilled work.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. For the ancient Greeks, a talent was the weight of water in a particular container.
2. In modern terms, the Roman talent would be equivalent to a considerable amount of money.
3. A ‘trireme’ was the name of a group of ancient Greek warriors.
4. The Greeks were the first people to use the word talent in its modern sense.

September 20, 2018

IELTS Reading: which books to use

If you want to do some realistic IELTS reading practice, the only books that I recommend are Cambridge IELTS books and the two 'Official Practice Materials' books.

Here are some problems that I've seen in other 'unofficial' books:

• Tests can be too easy or too difficult.
• Topics may be covered that would never appear in a real test. For example, a passage about the politics of a particular country would not be used in a real test.
• The answers in the passage might not be in order. In real tests, answers to most question types are almost always in order.
• Questions are badly written and confusing.

You can still use unofficial books for reading practice. Just don't expect the tests in them to be realistic.

September 13, 2018

IELTS Reading: another keyword table

Here's a table of key vocabulary from the last five or six reading exercises here on the blog.

Remember: The aim of these tables is to highlight paraphrasing. The more you practise recognising paraphrasing, the better you'll get at the IELTS reading test.

September 06, 2018

IELTS Reading: gap-fill summary

Read the following passage about animal migration.
(Source: National Geographic)

Large migrations are some of nature's greatest spectacles. Wildebeest and zebra chase the rains through the Mara ecosystem every year, monarch butterflies trace a path from Mexico to Canada and back, and tiny songbirds fly nonstop for days at a time. And now scientists are starting to figure out how they know where to go, and when.

Some of these animals, they’ve found, have their migration pathways written into their genes. A songbird hatched in a laboratory, having seen nothing of the natural world, still attempts to begin migration at the right time of year and in the right cardinal direction.

But large mammals like bighorn sheep and moose are a different story. Wildlife researchers have long suspected that they require experience to migrate effectively, that their annual journeys are the result of learning from one another, not of genetic inheritance. A new study, published Thursday in the journal Science, suggests that those hunches may be correct—some animals must learn how to migrate.

The existence of collective information and knowledge, that can be passed from older animals to younger ones, is a form of “culture,” researchers explain. And when animals learn as a result of social interaction and the transfer of this information, that’s a type of cultural exchange—as opposed to genetic.

Fill each gap in the summary below with ONE word from the passage.

Scientists believe that ______ are responsible for some animal migrations. Songbirds, for example, do not need to learn when and in which ______ to migrate. On the other hand, bighorn sheep appear to ______ migration habits from the herd. They, and other mammals, seem to have a ______ that is passed from one generation to the next through interaction and exchange of ______.

August 30, 2018

IELTS Reading: 'keyword technique' steps

I often talk about the "keyword technique" in my reading lessons. But the "keyword technique" isn't special; it's just a convenient name that I use. Here's what I mean when I use this name:

1. Read the first question and underline "keywords". These are the words that you think you will need to search for in the passage. They are the words that communicate the meaning of the question: normally nouns, verbs and adjectives.
2. Read the passage at normal speed from the beginning. Look out for the keywords from the question, or any words which have a similar meaning (look for synonyms and paraphrasing).
3. Underline the keywords that you find in the passage.
4. Read the sentences around those keywords carefully. You may need to read them several times.
5. Check back to the question, and compare it with the relevant part of the passage.
6. Decide on the answer.

Note: The main point of the "keyword technique" is that you have some specific words to look for in the passage. But remember: Locating the answer is just the first step. The second step is reading carefully, making sure you understand what you are reading, and comparing with the question.

To see me use the "keyword technique" in a quick video lesson, click here.

August 23, 2018

IELTS Reading: easy 'General' reading

A few people have asked me to look at some examples from the General reading test. Try the exercise below; I'm sure you'll see that it's basically the same as Academic reading, just easier.

Read the following information about some medicine.

(Source: Cambridge IELTS book 3)

Do the following statements agree with the information above? Write YES, NO or NOT GIVEN.

1. You should lie down after you have taken the medicine.
2. You must stop taking the medicine if your eyesight is affected.
3. You must stop taking the medicine when you feel better.
4. The medicine is suitable for a person of any age.

Note:
What were the 'keywords' that gave you the answers?

August 16, 2018

IELTS Reading: is the answer in the first sentence?

Students often ask me this: Is it possible to match paragraph headings to the correct paragraphs by reading the first sentence of the paragraph only?

My answer is: sometimes. The problem is that this 'technique' doesn't always work. For example, try the following exercise.

Choose the best heading (1 or 2) for the paragraph below. Which sentence gave you the answer?

1. The impact of telecommunications on population distribution
2. The benefits of working together in cities

It was once assumed that improvements in telecommunications would lead to more dispersal in the population as people were no longer forced into cities. However, the ISTP team's research demonstrates that the population and job density of cities rose or remained constant in the 1980s after decades of decline. The explanation for this seems to be that it is valuable to place people working in related fields together. 'The new world will largely depend on human creativity, and creativity flourishes where people come together face-to-face.'

(Source: Cambridge IELTS 6, test 2)

August 09, 2018

IELTS Reading: locate, then understand

You've probably read my advice about underlining 'keywords' in the question and then searching for those words in the passage.

But people sometimes find the keywords and still get the wrong answer. Does this mean that the 'keyword technique' doesn't work? No. If you found the keywords but still got the wrong answer, the problem must be this: you didn't fully understand what you read.

Remember that the keyword technique involves 2 steps:

1. Locate the answer: underline keywords in the question, then read the passage until you find those words (or similar words that have the same meaning i.e. synonyms or paraphrasing).
2. Understand fully: read the relevant part of the passage carefully, make sure you understand it fully, and check it against the question until you are sure that you have the right answer.

Remember: Keywords don't automatically give you the answer. They help you to locate it, but then you'll need to understand the relevant sentence(s).

August 02, 2018

IELTS Reading: it's a vocabulary test!

I've said before that IELTS Reading is a vocabulary test. If you don't understand the words that you read in the questions or passage, you probably won't get the right answer. Here's an example from one of my video lessons:

Is the following statement true, false or not given?
Some sewage networks built by the Romans in the UK were made out of wood.

Relevant part of the passage:
Roman towns and garrisons in the United Kingdom between 46 BC and 400 AD had complex sewer networks sometimes constructed out of hollowed-out elm logs.

Tasks:
- What answer would you give (T, F or NG)?
- Which 'keywords' would you underline in the question and passage?
- Which words do you need to understand in order to get the answer?

July 26, 2018

IELTS Reading: choose the title

Read the following passage.

The cinematograph is a motion picture film camera which also serves as a film projector and developer. It was invented in the 1890s, but there is much dispute as to the identity of its inventor.

Some argue that the device was first invented and patented as "Cinématographe Léon Bouly" by French inventor Léon Bouly on February 12, 1892. Bouly coined the term “cinematograph”, which translates in Greek to “writing in movement”. It is said that Bouly was not able to pay the rent for his patent the following year, and that the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière bought the licence.

A more popular version of events is that Louis Lumière was the first to conceptualise the idea. The Lumière brothers shared the patent, and they made their first film, Sortie de l'usine Lumière de Lyon, in 1894.

Choose the best title for the whole passage from the list below.

A) How the cinematograph was invented
B) The first film projector
C) Who invented the cinematograph?
D) What is a cinematograph?

July 19, 2018

IELTS Reading: short answers

Read the following passage about compound words and hyphens.

A study of more than 10,000 compound words has found that four basic rules, regarding when to use a hyphen, will work 75 per cent of the time.

If the compound word is a verb (like to blow-dry), or an adjective (like world-famous), it probably needs a hyphen. For nouns with two syllables, like break-up and set-to, the rule is easy: use a hyphen only when the second word has two letters. If the second part of the word has more than two letters, it should be spelled as a single word, like coastline or bedroom. This explains why hotdog is not hyphenated. Finally, if the noun has three or more syllables, it is two separate words. Examples here include bathing suit and washing machine.

Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer, who is a linguistics professor at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, produced the simple set of rules after examining thousands of English words. She worked alongside a programmer and a statistician to find the patterns in the English language. She said: “A whole range of factors can have an influence on how compound words are typically spelled. But on a general level, it all boils down to a few simple guidelines.” She has published exceptions to the rules, and additional guidelines for hyphens, in a book called ‘English Compounds and their Spelling’.

(Adapted from www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech)

Answer each question below with just ONE word.

1. How many different rules for the use of hyphens did the study identify?
2. Are these rules always correct?
3. Do compound adjectives usually need a hyphen?
4. Do we normally use a hyphen when a compound noun has more than two syllables?
5. Did the linguistics professor carry out this research alone?

July 12, 2018

IELTS Reading: choose the heading

Choose the best heading for the following paragraph from the list below.

“Big data” is a term being used more and more by politicians. It refers to the concept that any problem – from underperforming pupils to failing hospitals – can be solved by collecting some tightly focused data, crunching it and making tweaks, such as moving pupils or changing nurses’ shifts, rather than dealing with bigger issues, such as poverty or spending cuts. This is an approach that focuses narrowly on “what works” without ever troubling to ask: “works for whom?” Its watchword is “smart”, which can easily be appreciated, rather than “right”, which can’t. Putting trust in highly educated technocrats, it is naturally less interested in public debate.

A) How data can be used to improve society.
B) Big data: a smart approach to politics that works for everyone.
C) A sceptical perspective on “big data”.
D) Why the public trusts technocrats more than politicians.

July 05, 2018

IELTS Reading: multiple choice practice

Read the following passage about the language known as 'Old English'.

Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest historical form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers probably in the mid-5th century, and the first Old English literary works date from the mid-7th century.

After the Norman conquest of 1066, English was replaced, for a time, as the language of the upper classes by Anglo-Norman, a relative of French. This is regarded as marking the end of the Old English era, as during this period the English language was heavily influenced by Anglo-Norman, developing into a phase known now as Middle English.

Like other old Germanic languages, Old English is very different from Modern English and difficult for Modern English speakers to understand without study. Old English grammar is quite similar to that of modern German: nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs have many inflectional endings and forms, and word order is much freer.

Choose the best answer, A, B or C, for the two questions below.

1. What happened in the 7th century?

A)  The English language was first established in Britain.
B)  The first oral stories in Old English were told.
C)  The earliest examples of creative writing in Old English come from that time.

2. Old English is…

A)  related to the French language.
B)  more easily understood by German speakers than English speakers.
C)  largely indecipherable to English speakers nowadays.

June 28, 2018

IELTS Reading: another keyword review

Let's review the keywords from the last four reading exercises here on the blog.

Remember: Most questions paraphrase a specific part of the passage. If you can find the paraphrasing, you've found the answer!

June 21, 2018

IELTS Reading: the importance of underlining

Hopefully you do this already, but it’s worth pointing out why underlining is so important when you’re doing an IELTS reading test. I tell my students to underline the main words in the question, then underline any similar words that they find as they read the passage.

There are 3 reasons why underlining is useful:

1. It encourages you to use the 'keyword technique' to find the answers.
2. You don't lose your place in the passage when you're turning pages to check between the question and the text.
3. The same information may be relevant for a later question (e.g. when you do a 'paragraph headings' section last).

I can always tell when students have worked hard on a reading paper by the amount of underlining or highlighting they have done. If you don't usually underline things, start now!

June 14, 2018

IELTS Reading: fill the gaps

Read the following excerpt from a newspaper article about the effects of humans on wild animals.

Humans are driving mammals including deer, tigers and bears to hide under the cover of darkness, jeopardising the health of the creatures that are only supposed to be active by day, new research his found. The presence of people can instil strong feelings of fear in animals and as human activities now cover 75 per cent of the land, we are becoming increasingly harder to avoid. Unable to escape during the day, mammals are forced to emerge during the night.

A team led by Kaitlyn Gaynor at the University of California, Berkeley arrived at this conclusion after analysing nearly 80 studies from six continents that monitored the activity of various mammals using GPS trackers and motion-activated cameras. The scientists used this data to assess the night time antics of the animals during periods of low and high human disturbance.

Such disturbances ranged from relatively harmless activities like hiking to overtly destructive ones like hunting, as well as larger scale problems like farming and road construction. Overall, the researchers concluded that from beavers to lions, there was an increase in nocturnal behaviour when humans were in the vicinity.

(Source: independent.co.uk)

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

A recent study has shown that many mammals are being forced to become ______ due to the presence of humans. Scientists reached these findings by ______ and analysing the movements of mammals in areas with different levels of ______. They showed that human activities, ranging from hiking to ______ to road building, made it more likely that mammals would ______ at night.

1. hunt
2. tracking
3. emerge
4. construction
5. nocturnal
6. agriculture
7. monitor
8. disturbance
9. active

June 07, 2018

IELTS Reading: more T, F, NG

Here's another quick true, false, not given exercise:

Trait Theory

In psychology, trait theory (also called dispositional theory) is an approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of traits, which can be defined as habitual patterns of behaviour, thought, and emotion. According to this perspective, traits are aspects of personality that are relatively stable over time, differ across individuals (e.g. some people are outgoing whereas others are not), are relatively consistent over situations, and influence behaviour. Traits are in contrast to states, which are more transitory dispositions.

In some theories and systems, traits are something a person either has or does not have, but in many others traits are dimensions such as extraversion vs. introversion, with each person rating somewhere along this spectrum.

There are two approaches to defining traits: as internal causal properties or as purely descriptive summaries. The internal causal definition states that traits influence our behaviours, leading us to do things in line with that trait. On the other hand, traits as descriptive summaries are descriptions of our actions that don't try to infer causality.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. A personality trait is similar to a feeling that may change from one moment to the next.
2. Some systems define traits on a scale from one descriptor to another.
3. Most psychologists believe that our traits cause us to act in certain ways.

May 24, 2018

IELTS Reading: paragraph headings

Read the following paragraph and choose the best heading.

‘Phonics’ refers to a method for teaching speakers of English to read and write that language. Young learners are taught to associate the sounds of spoken English with letters or groups of letters. For example, they might be taught that the sound /k/ can be represented by the spellings c, k, ck, ch, or q. Using phonics, the teacher shows the learners how to blend the sounds of letters together to produce approximate pronunciations of unknown words. Phonics is a widely used method of teaching children to read and decode words. Children begin learning to read using phonics usually around the age of 5 or 6.

A) A new method for language learning
B) How phonics benefits children in the UK
C) Children learn to link sounds with spellings
D) Children learn the rules of spelling

May 17, 2018

IELTS Reading: multiple choice about 'times tables'

Read the following passage about the teaching of multiplication tables in Britain.

Children will now have to know their 12 times tables by the age of nine, but it's not about rote learning, it's about revelling in the profusion of patterns, writes Rob Eastaway, maths writer and dad.

There was a time - several decades ago now - when the reason for learning the 12 times table was obvious. As a country using imperial measurements, we were all measuring in feet and inches and paying in shillings and pence, so multiplying by 12 was a common, everyday experience.

But for today's children this is all ancient history. Yes, we do still count eggs in dozens, and a lot of people - including most Americans - do still work in inches, but that's hardly justification for spending hours swotting those extra tables.

And yet, there's still a case for learning your "twelves", but the reason is to do with discovering patterns and building a confidence in handling numbers. Once children begin to get comfortable multiplying numbers larger than 10, they start to get a feel for big multiplications. Knowing your 11 and 12 times tables can introduce intriguing patterns that might be missed if you stop at 10.

(Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news)

Choose the correct answer to complete the two statements below.

1. In the past, British children learnt the 12 times table because

A)  rote learning was the traditional teaching method.
B)  it exposed them to new mathematical patterns.
C)  we used a different system of measurements and money.

2. The author believes that these days

A)  there is no justification for teaching the 12 times table.
B)  children should still learn to multiply numbers bigger than 10.
C)  children lack confidence when handling large numbers.

May 10, 2018

IELTS Reading: start with the 'general' test

I recently spoke to a student who was completely new to the IELTS test. He had never tried or even seen an IELTS reading test before, and he asked me how and where to begin. My advice to the student was this: start by doing a 'general' IELTS reading test.

There are three reasons why I tell new students to start with the general test:

1. because it's easier
2. because the question types are the same as those in the academic test (gap-fill, multiple choice, T/F/NG etc.)
3. because you can practise exam techniques that you'll be able to use when doing the academic test

May 03, 2018

IELTS Reading: match names with statements

Today I'm attaching a reading exercise that requires you to match names with statements. For this type of question, I'm going to recommend 3 things that contradict my normal advice:

1. First, scan the whole passage and underline the names. I don't normally recommend scanning, because students often miss the answers when they scan too quickly. However, scanning for names of people should be easy.
2. Second, underline keywords in all of the questions. I usually recommend doing just one question at a time, but I break this 'rule' for any type of question that involves matching.
3. Finally, instead of reading from the beginning of the passage (my usual approach), I recommend starting with the name that is accompanied by the smallest amount of information. In today's exercise, for example, I would start by reading the part about Karl Marx - only one sentence! Read that sentence and compare it with the question statements, looking for similar keywords as usual.

Try following these 3 steps to do the exercise attached below.

Click here to download the exercise

April 26, 2018

IELTS Reading: keyword review

Here's a quick review of the keywords in the last four reading lessons here on the blog. As usual, the similar words in the questions and in the passage are what led us to the correct answers.

April 19, 2018

IELTS Reading: 'short answer' questions

I haven't made many lessons about 'short answer' questions. They are not very common in the reading test, and I think they are quite easy. Try the example exercise below, and watch this video lesson if you want some more help and practice.

Read the following passage about humour.

Many theories exist about what humour is and what social function it serves. The prevailing types of theories attempting to account for the existence of humour include psychological theories, the vast majority of which consider humour-induced behaviour to be very healthy; spiritual theories, which may, for instance, consider humour to be a "gift from God"; and theories which consider humour to be an unexplainable mystery, very much like a mystical experience.

Answer the question below using ONE word only.

Which group of theories about humour describe it as being good for us?

April 12, 2018

IELTS Reading: gap-fill and keywords

Here's part of an exercise from Cambridge IELTS book 12 (test 5, passage 2). The exercise is quite easy, but it contains some good 'keywords'.

Collecting as a hobby

Many collectors collect to develop their social life, attending meetings of a group of collectors and exchanging information on items. This is a variant on joining a bridge club or gym, and similarly brings them into contact with like-minded people.

Another motive for collecting is the desire to find something special, or a particular example of a collected item, such as a rare early recording by a particular singer. Some may spend their whole lives in a hunt for this. Psychologically, this can give a purpose to a life that otherwise feels aimless.

Complete each sentence below with ONE word from the passage.

1. Collectors’ clubs provide opportunities to share ………. .
2. Collectors’ clubs offer ………. with people who have similar interests.
3. Collecting sometimes involves a life-long ………. for a special item.
4. Searching for something particular may prevent people from feeling their life is completely ………. .

Which 'keywords' in the questions and in the passage helped you to get the answers?

April 05, 2018

IELTS Reading: paragraph headings exercise

Match two of the following headings with the paragraphs below. I'll reveal the correct answers tomorrow.

1. Rapid sales of printing presses.
2. The revolutionary impact of the printing press.
3. New information and ideas.
4. The printing boom.

From a single point of origin, Mainz, Germany, printing spread within several decades to over two hundred cities in a dozen European countries. By 1500, printing presses in operation throughout Western Europe had already produced more than twenty million volumes. In the 16th century, with presses spreading further afield, their output rose tenfold to an estimated 150 to 200 million copies. The operation of a press became so synonymous with the enterprise of printing that it lent its name to an entire new branch of media, the press.

In Renaissance Europe, the arrival of mechanical movable type printing introduced the era of mass communication which permanently altered the structure of society. The relatively unrestricted circulation of information and ideas transcended borders and threatened the power of political and religious authorities. The sharp increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and learning and bolstered the emerging middle class.

March 29, 2018

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage and try the quick exercise below it.

Hell Creek is heaven for paleontologists. The Montanan wildlife refuge is rife with clay and stones that hold clues to our prehistoric past. It was in Hell Creek that researchers from the University of Kansas recently stumbled on the remains of a young Tyrannosaurus rex—they think.

Fossils from various periods have been found there, and this isn't the first T. rex fossil to be found, but University of Kansas scientists think it could be one of the most intact. The entire fossil remains of the upper part of the dinosaur's jaw, with all its teeth, was found. Paleontologists dug up parts of a skull, foot, hips, and backbones. If the remains do in fact belong to a T. rex, that would make them around 66 million years old. Adding to the rarity of the find is the fact that the fossils may belong to a juvenile.

Further work will determine whether the team actually has a T. rex on their hands, or possibly a Nanotyrannus, a tiny genus of tyrannosaur that's a matter of scientific debate. Many paleontologists think that so-called Nanotyrannus fossils are actually juvenile T. rex specimens.

(Source: news.nationalgeographic.com)

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. Researchers have discovered a new fossil in Hell Creek, Montana.
2. It is thought that the unearthed bones belong to a mature Tyrannosaurus rex.
3. Some paleontologists doubt whether the Nanotyrannus actually existed.

March 22, 2018

IELTS Reading: try this 'time' experiment

IELTS students often say that "not having enough time" is their biggest problem in the reading test. But is time really the problem?

Try this experiment to find out how time is affecting you:

1) Normal speed
Give yourself one hour to do a full reading test (from one of the Cambridge books). Or just take one passage and do that in 20 minutes. How many correct answers did you get?

2) Too fast
Give yourself just 30 minutes to do a full reading test, or only 10 minutes to do one passage. Use skimming, scanning, guessing, or any other 'trick' to get through all of the questions. This goes against my normal advice, but it's fine for this experiment.

3) Too slow
Give yourself 2 hours to do a full reading test, or 40 minutes to do one passage. Read everything slowly and carefully, and aim for a perfect score!

Results:
What happened when you performed this experiment? What scores did you get at normal, fast and slow speeds? Was time really the big problem, or did the experiment highlight any other difficulties?

March 15, 2018

IELTS Reading: two websites for daily reading

People often ask about extra reading practice: Is it a good idea to read newspapers or magazines, and which ones are the best for IELTS practice?

Two good places to find articles are The Economist and National Geographic. Try to spend a few minutes every day reading something from one of these sites. Make a note of some new words or phrases, and gradually your reading will improve.

March 08, 2018

IELTS Reading: try making your own questions

The people who write the questions for IELTS reading do something like this:

1. They take a reading passage.
2. They read through the passage and stop when they find something interesting.
3. They make a question about that part of the passage, usually by paraphrasing it. For example, if the passage contains the phrase "elderly people", the question writer might create a question with the words "senior citizens".

Have you ever tried writing your own IELTS reading questions? It's a good exercise to get you thinking like the question writer, and hopefully you'll see why the keyword technique is so useful.

Tip: If you try this, start by writing your own 'true, false, not given' questions.

March 01, 2018

IELTS Reading: more keywords

It's always a good idea to write down the 'keywords' from any reading test or exercise that you do. Here are the keywords from the last few reading lessons here on the blog:

February 22, 2018

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

Read the following passage and complete the multiple choice exercise below it.

The Suzuki method is an internationally known music curriculum and teaching philosophy dating from the mid-20th century, created by Japanese violinist and pedagogue Shinichi Suzuki (1898–1998). The method aims to create an environment for learning music which parallels the linguistic environment of acquiring a native language. Suzuki believed that this environment would also help to foster good moral character.

As a skilled violinist but a beginner at the German language who struggled to learn it, Suzuki noticed that children pick up their native language quickly, and even dialects adults consider "difficult" to learn are spoken with ease by children at age five or six. He reasoned that if children have the skill to acquire their native language, they have the necessary ability to become proficient on a musical instrument.

Suzuki believed that every child, if properly taught, was capable of a high level of musical achievement. He also made it clear that the goal of such musical education was to raise generations of children with "noble hearts", as opposed to creating famous musical prodigies.

Which THREE of the following statements are correct?

A) Suzuki saw similarities between learning languages and music.

B) He learnt German using his own method.

C) He found it easy to learn German.

D) He believed that all children have musical potential.

E) His aims went deeper than simply teaching music.

F) He hoped to create the next generation of famous musicians.

February 15, 2018

IELTS Reading: how 'deeply' do you read?

There are various different ways to read a text. If you're just gathering information, you might scan several articles or books quickly; perhaps you might choose to quickly skim the beginning and end of an article if you only need to get a general idea of what it's about. When surfing the Internet, we skim, scan, click on hyperlinks, and jump around reading bits of text from here and there.

However, if your aim is to learn a new language, you'll need to slow down and do some 'deep' reading.

Here are some deep reading tips:

• Choose one article per day. If you don't have much time, it should be a very short text, or you could choose to read only part of the article.
• Remove all other distractions. If you've chosen an online article, it might be better to print it, or at least copy it onto a Word document.
• Read the article through once at normal speed, and then see if you can write a summary of it in five sentences or less.
• Read the article a second time, and note down both the 'facts' and the 'opinions' that it contains. Is the writer of the article expressing an opinion or trying to persuade you to think in a certain way?
• Next, look at the vocabulary used in the article. Write any useful phrases in your notebook. Remember: knowing the meaning of a word is easy - the difficult thing is knowing how to use words correctly to express ideas. So focus on the way words are used together in collocations and phrases.
• If you have time to go deeper, you could look at sentence construction: the length of each sentence, the connectives (linking words) that are used, and the order of elements in each sentence.
• You could do the same for paragraphs: how does the writer maintain coherence between sentences, how are arguments developed or details added?
• You could then analyse grammar more closely: nouns, verbs, tenses, articles etc.

It's fine to do quick, 'superficial' reading too, but you should consider adding at least 15 minutes of focused, deliberate 'deep' reading to your daily study schedule.

February 07, 2018

IELTS Reading: a good study technique

When practising with the Cambridge IELTS books, try this study technique:

1. Choose a reading passage.
2. Go to the back of the book and get the correct answers.
3. Study the passage with the aim of proving why those answers are correct.
4. Make a keyword table.

When you know what the answers are, you can focus on exam technique: searching for keywords, then reading the relevant part of the passage carefully. You might find this helps you more than simply testing yourself would.

February 01, 2018

IELTS Reading: 'microplastics' passage

Read the following passage and answer the questions below it.

Microplastics are small pieces of plastic less than five millimetres in size. Some microplastics are manufactured, such as the microbeads added to health and beauty products, while others result from larger plastics gradually breaking down. These plastics are pervasive in marine environments, and they are known to harbour toxic substances such as heavy metals and phthalates.

Since many animals are known to eat microplastics, scientists are concerned about the toxic substances contained within them, as well as their capacity to accumulate within the animals and stop them from absorbing nutrients correctly.

Even the largest marine creatures are vulnerable to tiny fragments of plastic littering the world’s oceans. A new study has found whales and whale sharks – the largest fish in the world – are ingesting microplastics in alarming quantities. These creatures are filter feeders, meaning they consume large quantities of small prey by straining them out of the ocean water. In the process, they swallow hundreds to thousands of cubic meters of water daily, meaning there is the potential for them to take in substantial amounts of microplastic floating in the water.

Recently, plastic pollution has received a lot of attention for its effects on marine animals. In the UK, microbeads have been banned, and other plastic items such as water bottles and disposable coffee cups have also been in the firing line. However, while scientists agree that plastic pollution is a problem for marine animals, there is still a lot they do not know about the magnitude of its impact.

(Source: independent.co.uk)

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1) Harmful microplastics are widespread in the world’s oceans and seas.
2) Larger fish are the most likely to be harmed by these toxic plastics.
3) The only fish that ingest microplastics are those that swallow water.
4) Water bottles and disposable cups have been banned in the UK.
5) Scientists are yet to discover how serious the microplastic problem is.

January 25, 2018

IELTS Reading: environment gap-fill

Fill the gaps in the text using the 10 words below.

A _____ report says scientists are 95% certain that humans are the "dominant _____" of global warming since the 1950s. The report by the UN's climate panel details the physical _____ behind climate change. On the ground, in the air, in the oceans, global warming is "_____", it explained. The panel warns that continued _____ of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and changes in all aspects of the climate system. To contain these changes will require "substantial and sustained _____ of greenhouse gas emissions".

After a week of intense negotiations in the Swedish capital, the summary for policymakers on the physical science of global warming has finally been released. For the future, the report states that warming is _____ to continue under all _____. Prof Sir Brian Hoskins, from Imperial College London, told BBC News: "We are performing a very dangerous _____ with our planet, and I don't want my grandchildren to suffer the _____."

emissions, experiment, cause, unequivocal, landmark, consequences, reductions, scenarios, projected, evidence

Text adapted from BBC website

January 17, 2018

IELTS Reading: choose the best title

Read the following article and choose the best title from the list below.

A new survey reveals that a family sit-down at dinnertime may reduce a teenager’s risk of trying or using alcohol, cigarettes and drugs. The study surveyed more than 1,000 teens and found that those who dined with their families five to seven times a week were four times less likely to use alcohol, tobacco or marijuana than those who ate with their families fewer than three times a week.

A recent UK survey also found that dining together as a family is a key ingredient in ensuring a child's happiness. Children in the survey reported higher levels of happiness when they dined together with their families at least three times a week. "Contrary to the popular belief that children only want to spend time playing video games or watching TV," said researcher Dr. Maris Iacovou of the University of Essex, "we found that they were most happy when interacting with their parents or siblings."

A) Children's happiness
B) Why teenagers use alcohol, cigarettes and drugs
C) What teenagers really want
D) Why families should dine together

(article adapted from The Independent)

January 11, 2018

IELTS Reading: more useful keywords

Here's a table showing keywords from the last two reading exercises here on the blog (the exercise about the corpus and the one about the oak tree).

January 04, 2018

IELTS Reading: more multiple choice

Read the following text and answer the multiple choice questions below.

In linguistics, a corpus (plural corpora) is a large and structured set of texts (now usually electronically stored and processed). A corpus may be used to help linguists to analyse a language, or for the purpose of dictionary writing or language teaching. The British National Corpus (BNC) is a 100-million-word text corpus of samples of written and spoken English from a wide range of sources. The corpus covers British English of the late twentieth century from a wide variety of genres with the intention that it be a representative sample of spoken and written British English of that time.

1. What is a corpus?

A) A type of large dictionary.
B) A single written text.
C) A tool for language analysis.

2. Why was the BNC compiled?

A) For the purpose of language teaching.
B) To document written and spoken English from a particular period in time.
C) To document the history of the English language.

December 22, 2017

IELTS Reading: New Year's Resolutions

I usually write something about New Year's resolutions on January 1st, so here's some useful advice from a recent article on the Psychology Today website:
...

How to Keep Your New Year's Resolutions

While New Year’s resolutions are popular – about 40 percent of people make them, according to one source – few people actually succeed at keeping their resolutions. Researchers were able to draw some conclusions about why some people are successful at keeping resolutions, while others aren’t.

The most important factor in predicting success was self-efficacy – the belief in one's ability to get the job done. That likely means that you have spent some time thinking about and planning how to achieve your resolution, and also whether your resolution is realistic.

There is one other important note: Researchers found that people who were successful at keeping their New Year’s resolutions slipped, or made mistakes. In fact, 71 percent of people who were successful in their resolutions slipped in the first month. Interestingly, people who were not successful slipped at the same rate. But the people who were successful didn’t quit after making a mistake. And in many cases, they doubled their efforts after the slip. This demonstrates that persistence is also key.
...

Note:
In short, the advice is to think about your goals, believe that you can achieve them, and keep trying, even if you slip or make a mistake. Good advice for IELTS preparation.

Happy New Year!

December 13, 2017

IELTS Reading: gap-fill with words from the box

Read the following passage and complete the exercise below it.

The Major Oak is a large English oak tree in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire. According to local folklore, Robin Hood and his Merry Men used the Major Oak as their hideout. The size of the tree and its mythical status have led it to become a popular tourist attraction.

The Major Oak weighs an estimated 23 tons, has a girth of 10 metres, a canopy of 28 metres, and is about 800 to 1000 years old. In a 2002 survey, it was voted ‘Britain's favourite tree’, and in 2014 it was voted ‘England's Tree of the Year' in a public poll by the Woodland Trust.

(Major Oak. Click on image to enlarge)

There are several theories concerning why the Major Oak became so huge and oddly shaped. One theory is that the Major Oak may be several trees that fused together as saplings. An alternative explanation is that the tree may have been pollarded. Pollarding is a pruning system that can cause a tree’s trunk and branches to grow large and thick. Due to their size and weight, the tree’s massive limbs require the partial support of an elaborate system of scaffolding, which was first put in place during the Victorian era.

Interestingly, in 2002, someone attempted to illegally sell acorns from the Major Oak on an internet-based auction website.

Fill the gaps using words from the box.

1. Legend has it that the Major Oak was Robin Hood’s ______.
2. The ______ of the tree’s trunk is 10 metres.
3. The tree may actually be more than one tree that ______ together.
4. Some of the tree’s ______ have to be held up by props.
5. Acorns from the oak were once _____ for auction on the Internet.

December 05, 2017

IELTS Reading: true/false or yes/no?

Is there a difference between "true, false, not given" questions and "yes, no, not given" questions?

Yes, there is a small difference. When the questions are about facts in the passage, you'll be asked to decide whether the information is "true, false or not given". When the passage is about opinions rather than facts, you will be asked whether each statement agrees with the views given by the writer, and you'll have to answer "yes, no or not given".

Note: In terms of exam technique, this small difference doesn't really matter.
I approach both question types in the same way. I look for keywords, and decide whether the information in the question is correct, incorrect or not given.

There's a useful video lesson about these two types of question on my video course website.

November 29, 2017

IELTS Reading Advice: read 'real' things!

It's frustrating to see students who rely on textbooks to teach them everything about the English language. Why read an article in an 'upper intermediate' textbook (that was probably written 10 years ago) when you could be reading 'real' articles in newspapers or on the Internet?

Read articles because you find them interesting, not because they have been written to demonstrate a particular grammar point.

A suggestion: if you've read anything interesting recently, put a link to it (and maybe a quick summary if you have time) in the comments area below this lesson.

November 22, 2017

IELTS Reading: paragraph heading

Choose the correct heading for the paragraph from the list below.

A) The environmental impact of estuaries
B) The human impact on certain coastal areas
C) Why estuaries will disappear

An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries are amongst the most heavily populated areas throughout the world, with about 60% of the world’s population living along estuaries and the coast. As a result, estuaries are suffering degradation by many factors, including overgrazing and other poor farming practices; overfishing; drainage and filling of wetlands; pollutants from sewage inputs; and diking or damming for flood control or water diversion.

November 15, 2017

IELTS Reading: get to the end!

Many IELTS candidates fail to get to the end of the test; in other words, they don't reach question 40. My advice is to practise getting to the end with time to spare.

The key to getting to the end is to miss any difficult questions - as soon as you feel stuck on one question, miss it and move on quickly. You can return to the tricky questions later.

Note:
The advice above might seem obvious and easy. However, you'll need to practise this 'method' many times. See how quickly you can get to the end of a test, and count how many difficult questions you missed.

November 06, 2017

IELTS Reading: more keywords

Have you been noting the keywords every time you do an IELTS reading exercise? Here's a table showing keywords from the last two exercises here on the blog:

October 30, 2017

IELTS Reading: multiple choice about happiness

Read the following excerpt from an article about happiness.

The researchers who publish the annual World Happiness Report found that about three-quarters of human happiness is driven by six factors: strong economic growth, healthy life expectancy, quality social relationships, generosity, trust, and freedom to live the life that’s right for you. These factors don’t materialize by chance; they are intimately related to a country’s government and its cultural values. In other words the happiest places incubate happiness for their people.

To illustrate the power of place, John Helliwell, one of the report’s editors, analyzed 500,000 surveys completed by immigrants who’d moved to Canada from 100 countries over the previous 40 years, many from countries considerably less happy. Remarkably Helliwell and his colleagues discovered that, within a few years of arriving, immigrants who came from unhappy places began to report the increased happiness level of their adoptive home. Seemingly their environment alone accounted for their increased happiness.

(Source: National Geographic. Click here to read the full article)

Which TWO of the following statements are true according to the passage?

A) Personal autonomy was identified as one of the factors that lead to happiness.
B) No relationship between happiness and culture was found.
C) Canada is one of the world’s happiest countries.
D) Moving to live in a different country made some people happier.
E) Immigrants were found to be less happy than other individuals.

October 21, 2017

IELTS Reading: finding and understanding

IELTS reading is really a test of 2 things:

1. Can you find the part of the text that contains the answer?
2. Do you understand that part of the text?

Finding
You need to be able to find the right part of the text quickly. I practise this a lot with my students: we decide which words in the question we need to search for, then we try to locate those words (or words with the same meaning) in the text.

Understanding
When you have found where the answer is, you need to read that part of the text carefully. Read the sentences before and after the keywords that you found. Then it becomes a test of your vocabulary knowledge: if you don't understand the words that you are reading, it will be difficult to get the right answer.

October 14, 2017

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following excerpt from a passage about the benefits of exercise.

In a recent study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers looked at 10 pairs of male identical twins in their 30s. Each twin was similar to his brother in most ways, right down to their eating habits—except that one in each pair had stopped exercising regularly in adulthood.

Despite the fact that the less active twins had the exact same DNA as their fit brothers, after just three sedentary years, they had begun to develop insulin resistance (a precursor to diabetes), had more body fat and lower endurance—and, perhaps most notably, had less grey matter in the brain regions responsible for motor control and coordination. While the study was small, it is evidence that exercise may have as large an effect on your health as your genes do.

(Source: Time magazine)

Are the following statements true, false, or not given?

1. The twins in the study were very similar, but they had different diets.
2. The fitter twins had less body fat than their brothers.
3. The less active twins performed badly in tests of coordination.
4. The size of the study means that no conclusions can be drawn.

October 07, 2017

IELTS Reading: if you're stuck, diagnose the problem

This week a student asked me for help with a common problem: what can you do if you keep getting the same score (for example 6.5)? Maybe you've followed my advice, tried all of the techniques, and done lots of practice, but nothing seems to work. You're stuck!

Before you can solve a problem, you need to diagnose what the problem is. Here are some steps that you could take to do this with regard to IELTS reading:

1. Get a copy of one of the Cambridge IELTS books, ideally the newest one.
2. Do the first reading test in the book in one hour, like a real exam.
3. Check your answers with the correct answers at the back of the book.

Now comes the important part.

4. Analyse the mistakes that you made very carefully, and ask yourself the following questions:

• Did you lose marks because you ran out of time or had to rush?
• Were there any answers that you had trouble finding?
• Were there any vocabulary problems i.e. key words that you didn't understand?
• Did any of your mistakes surprise you? In other words, were there any answers that turned out to be wrong, even though you were very confident that they were right?

The aim of the four questions above is to diagnose whether your reading problems are related to time, finding answers, understanding vocabulary, or confusion between answers.

You might need to do several tests and a lot of careful analysis of your mistakes to really find out what's going wrong. But then you'll know what to work on.

September 30, 2017

IELTS Reading: collecting vocabulary

Whenever you read something in English, it's a good idea to write useful vocabulary in a notebook. But don't just write individual words, write the related words too. For example, do you know which verb is usually used with the noun "commitment"?

As an example, read the following short text:

A New Year’s resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to a personal goal, project, or the reforming of a habit in the coming year. Some examples include resolutions to lose weight, learn something new, or give up a habit such as smoking.

Recent research shows that while 52% of participants in a resolution study were confident of success with their goals, only 12% actually achieved their goals. A separate study in 2007 at the University of Bristol showed that 78% of those who set New Year’s resolutions fail.

Men achieved their goal 22% more often when they engaged in goal setting, a system where small measurable goals are set, while women succeeded 10% more when they made their goals public and got support from their friends.

Here is some key vocabulary from the text:

• make a commitment to something
• give up a habit
• be confident of something
• set measurable goals
• make something public
• get support from

Remember: understanding the meaning of a word is not the same as being able to use it correctly.

September 23, 2017

IELTS Reading: recent keywords

Here's another keyword table, showing vocabulary from the three most recent reading lessons here on the blog.

Note:
Did you notice that the word "weed" appears twice in this table? In the first row of the table, "weed" is a noun, but in the sixth row it becomes part of the phrasal verb "weed out", which means "eliminate" or "remove".

September 14, 2017

IELTS Reading: choose the title

Read the following extract from an article in National Geographic magazine (September 2017 edition, page 26).

The Brazilian pepper tree, an invasive plant in the southern United States, is showing great potential in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. A team of scientists studied historical accounts of its use in traditional South American medicine from as early as 1648. Focusing their experiments on its fruits, which reportedly were used to treat wounds, they then produced an extract that’s able to disarm a virulent type of Staphylococcus bacterium.

Modern antibiotics are designed to kill bacteria. But some bacterial cells survive and pass on their resistance to their offspring, making it increasingly difficult for physicians to fight tenacious infections that threaten their patients’ lives. The Brazilian pepper tree extract deploys an unconventional tactic against infections. It prevents bacterial cells from communicating, which keeps them from ganging up to create tissue-destroying toxins. That, in turn, gives the body’s immune system a change to mount it’s own defence against the bacteria.

One of the four titles below is the real title of the article. Which do you think it is? Try to explain why.

A)  A weed that busts bacteria
B)  Traditional medicines make a comeback
C)  The problem of resistant bacteria
D)  New plant-based medicines are on the way

August 30, 2017

IELTS Reading: paraphrasing

Yesterday I wrote about paraphrasing in the context of writing task 1. But paraphrasing is even more important in the reading test.

In every IELTS reading test, the majority of questions paraphrase something from the passage. If you can find and understand the part of the test that has been paraphrased for each question, you'll probably get the right answers. When I write about the "keyword technique" in my lessons, I'm really talking about paraphrasing.

August 21, 2017

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

Read the following summary of a book called Deep Work.

“Deep work” is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfilment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a super power in our increasingly competitive twenty-first century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep, spending their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not even realising there's a better way.

In Deep Work, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four "rules," for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill. A mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, Deep Work is an indispensable guide to anyone seeking focused success in a distracted world.

Choose the best answer to each of the questions below.

1. What is “deep work”?

A)  a skill that takes a short time to master
B)  a skill that few people develop nowadays
C)  a skill that modern communication tools can enhance

2. What does the author of Deep Work aim to do in the first part of the book?

A)  convince us that working deeply has great value
B)  expose the negative effects of tools like social media
C)  guide readers towards success in life

August 09, 2017

IELTS Reading: keyword review

The table below shows "keywords" from the three most recent reading lessons here on the blog.

Note:
Did you know the phrases "over time" and "from the ground up"? Can you make your own sentences that include these two phrases?

August 01, 2017

IELTS Reading: choose the correct statements

Read the following passage and complete the task below it.

Cultivation Theory

Cultivation theory examines the long-term effects of television. Its primary proposition is that the more time people spend 'living' in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality aligns with reality portrayed on television.

Cultivation theory suggests that exposure to television, over time, subtly "cultivates" viewers' perceptions of reality. Researchers George Gerbner and Larry Gross, the originators of this idea, assert: "Television is a medium of the socialisation of most people into standardised roles and behaviours. Its function is in a word, enculturation”.

Initial research on the theory establishes that concern regarding the effects of television on audiences stem from the unprecedented centrality of television in American culture. Gerbner posited that television as a mass medium of communication had formed into a common symbolic environment that bound diverse communities together, socialising people into standardised roles and behaviours. He thus compared the power of television to that of religion, stating that television was to modern society what religion once was in earlier times.

Which THREE of the following statements correctly describe cultivation theory?

1. It looks at the physical impact of watching too much television.
2. It proposes that television influences the way we see the world.
3. It suggests that the effects of television occur gradually.
4. It is an established theory that is widely accepted by researchers.
5. It refers to a uniquely American phenomenon.
6. It looks at the role of television in society.

July 12, 2017

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

Read the following passage and answer the two questions below it.

Physicist Richard Feynman returned over and over to an idea that drove his groundbreaking discoveries. His approach was documented by his Caltech colleague David Goodstein in the book Feynman’s Lost Lecture about physics classes Feynman taught in the 1960s:

Once, I said to him, “Dick, explain to me, so that I can understand it, why spin one-half particles obey Fermi-Dirac statistics.” Sizing up his audience perfectly, Feynman said, “I’ll prepare a freshman lecture on it.” But he came back a few days later to say, “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t reduce it to the freshman level. That means we don’t really understand it.”

Feynman didn’t mean all human knowledge must be distilled into an introductory college course. His point was that we need to build our grasp of science and technology from the ground up if we are to master it, not to mention reimagine how it works. Feynman was famous as a student for redoing many of physics’ early experiments himself to build a foundational understanding of the field. By mastering these first principles, Feynman often saw things that others did not in quantum mechanics, computing, and nuclear physics, earning him the Nobel Prize in 1965.

(Source: this article on qz.com)

1. When asked to explain a difficult concept, physicist Richard Feynman

A  immediately replied that he could not
B  replied that he had already prepared a lecture on it
C  said that he did not understand the concept either
D  promised to give his answer in an introductory lesson

2. Feynman believed that

A  scientists should master basic scientific principles first
B  early physics experiments need to be redone
C  most science students do not have a good foundation in physics
D  his knowledge of first principles earned him a Nobel Prize

July 03, 2017

IELTS Reading: more keywords

Here's a table that reviews keywords from the last three reading lessons here on the blog. Check that you understand the matched phrases.

June 26, 2017

IELTS Reading: multiple choice practice

Let's have a look at some multiple choice questions from Cambridge IELTS 5, test 1, passage 3.

Excerpt from the passage, which is about the environment:

Secondly, environmental groups need to be noticed by the mass media. They also need to keep the money rolling in. Understandably, perhaps, they sometimes overstate their arguments. In 1997, for example, the Worldwide Fund for Nature issued a press release entitled: 'Two thirds of the world's forests lost forever'. The truth turns out to be nearer 20%.

Though these groups are run overwhelmingly by selfless folk, they nevertheless share many of the characteristics of other lobby groups. That would matter less if people applied the same degree of scepticism to environmental lobbying as they do to lobby groups in other fields. A trade organisation arguing for, say, weaker pollution controls is instantly seen as self-interested. Yet a green organisation opposing such a weakening is seen as altruistic, even if an impartial view of the controls in question might suggest they are doing more harm than good.

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

1) The writer quotes from the Worldwide Fund for Nature to illustrate how

A  influential the mass media can be.
B  effective environmental groups can be.
C  the mass media can help groups raise funds.
D  environmental groups can exaggerate their claims.

2) What is the writer's main point about lobby groups?

A  Some are more active than others.
B  Some are better organised than others.
C  Some receive more criticism than others.
D  Some support more important issues than others.

Feel free to share your answers in the "comments" area below this lesson. Maybe you could also tell us which 'keywords' gave you the answers.

June 18, 2017

IELTS Reading: yes, no, not given

The following passage is about some recent photos of Mars.

Nasa has released stunning photos of something like "Niagara falls" on Mars – except even more stunning than the one on Earth. The flows are made of flowing molten lava that once moved over the Red Planet's surface, and have been pictured in stunning new 3D images. The photos were sent back by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which was launched in 2005 and has been sending images back of the planet's surface since soon after that.

Nasa notes that a lot of time is spent wondering about and searching for proof of liquid water on Mars, which would be a signal of life. But the new pictures show that the planet itself was once far more alive than it is today – made up of flowing molten lava that spread across its surface.

(Source: independent.co.uk)

Do the statements below agree with the views of the author of the article? Answer yes, no or not given.

1. Lava flows on Mars are more beautiful than one of Earth’s most famous waterfalls.
2. Nasa has just released the first ever 3D images of Mars.
3. The new photographs prove that liquid may be present on Mars.
4. The photos show that the surface of Mars is more active than ever.

June 10, 2017

IELTS Reading: gap-fill from words in the box

Read the passage and complete the summary using words from the box below it.
NB You will not need to use all of the words.

Bilinguals and Personality

Many people believe that bilinguals have two different personalities, one for each of the languages they speak, and that switching between languages makes bilinguals act differently. Although this may seem unbelievable to some, research actually supports this idea.

According to various studies, bilinguals who are also bicultural and are actively involved in both of their cultures, interpret situations differently depending on which language they speak in. Although everyone, monolinguals and bilinguals alike, is able to change the way they feel and interpret events (a phenomenon known as frame-shifting), biculturals do this without realising when switching between languages.

The changes are not only linguistic. As an English-Spanish bicultural myself I do find I act differently depending on which culture I'm immersed in at the time. I'm often aware of the fact that when I speak to other Spanish speakers my voice is slightly louder and I gesticulate more than when I talk to English speakers. Could we then say that bilinguals have two different personalities?
(Source: bilingualbicultural.com)

Summary

There is some _____ to show that people who are bilingual exhibit a different _____ depending on which language they are speaking. Some bilinguals also have two _____ cultural identities, meaning that they are able to _____ their behaviour effortlessly according to their cultural _____. This may involve changes in _____ of speech or in the use of _____ language.

June 03, 2017

IELTS Reading: topic research

As I'm sure you know, reading also benefits your writing. As an example, let's look at an article that discusses the 'homework' topic that we've been working on in recent writing lessons here on the blog.

Click here to read the article.

Here are some sentences using vocabulary from the passage. Can you fill the gaps that I've left?

1. Homework bridges a ______ between learning at school and at home.
2. How relevant is homework to the ______ generation?
3. Homework helps children to develop time ______ skills.
4. Students can revise what they have learnt without any ______.
5. Teachers can ______ the progress that their students are making.
6. However, homework eats up* students' ______ ______.
7. Students may also feel burnt ______*.
8. The demands of homework can lead to stress and sleep ______.
9. Some parents help their children too ______.
10. A busy homework schedule may take its ______ on children's wellbeing.

*These expressions are a little informal.

May 20, 2017

IELTS Reading: another keyword review

Here's my keyword table for the last two reading exercises that I've shared here on the blog:

...
Record the keywords like this whenever you do a reading test or exercise. If you do enough practice, the keywords (and therefore the answers) start to "jump out of the page at you"!

May 06, 2017

IELTS Reading: match the headings

Read the following passage about migrating birds.

A) A tiny bird from the Farne Islands off Northumberland, England has clocked up the longest migration ever recorded. The Arctic tern’s meandering journey to Antarctica and back saw it clock up 59,650 miles, more than twice the circumference of the planet. The bird, which weighs just 100g, left its breeding grounds last July and flew down the west coast of Africa, rounded the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean and arrived in Antarctica in November. Its mammoth trek was recorded by a tiny device attached to its leg, weighing 0.7g - too light to affect its flight.

B) “It’s really quite humbling to see these tiny birds return when you consider the huge distances they’ve had to travel and how they’ve battled to survive,” said Richard Bevan at Newcastle University and part of the tracking team. The birds survive the vast journey by dipping down to the sea surface to catch fish and other food as they travel. “They live in the fast lane all the time, constantly on the move,” said Bevan. “They have to flap all the time. It is an incredibly energetic lifestyle.”

C) Like all migratory animals, the birds travel to take advantage of food that is available in particular seasons. Arctic terns perform the longest migrations but another bird, the bar-tailed godwit, completes its marathon from the Arctic to New Zealand in eight days straight, without stopping to feed. Whales undertake the longest mammal migrations and leatherback turtles and some dragonflies also travel over 9,321 miles.

(Source: theguardian.com)

Choose the best heading from the list below for each paragraph above.

i      Migration and food
ii     Survival of the fittest
iii    A record-setting bird
iv    Other incredible animal migrations
v     A new device for tracking bird migrations
vi    How do migrating Arctic terns manage such a feat?

April 28, 2017

IELTS Reading: tricky paragraph headings exercise

Here's a 'paragraph headings' question that many students find tricky. It is taken from Cambridge IELTS book 1.

Paragraph:
For the first time, dictionary publishers are incorporating real, spoken English into their data. It gives lexicographers (people who write dictionaries) access to a more vibrant, up-to-date vernacular language which has never really been studied before. In one project, 150 volunteers each agreed to discreetly tie a Walkman recorder to their waist and leave it running for anything up to two weeks. Every conversation they had was recorded. When the data was collected, the length of tapes was 35 times the depth of the Atlantic Ocean. Teams of audio typists transcribed the tapes to produce a computerised database of ten million words.

Which paragraph heading would you chose, and why?

1. New method of research
2. The first study of spoken language

Feel free to discuss this question in the "comments" area below this lesson. I'll give you my answer and explanation tomorrow.

April 22, 2017

IELTS Reading: practise both academic and general

There is a difference between the types of articles used in the academic and general reading tests. However, the types of questions and the techniques for answering them are the same. For this reason, I recommend using both types of exam paper for practice.

The main technique for finding answers in both reading tests is the 'keyword' technique: search in the passage for the key words in each question.

Here's a table of keywords from the GT test in Cambridge book 6, page 118:

April 15, 2017

IELTS Reading: first sentence of each paragraph?

People often ask me whether reading the first sentence of each paragraph is a useful "trick". Is it a good idea to read the first sentence of each paragraph before you attempt any questions? Does this "trick" work for 'paragraph headings' exercises?

My simple answer is no*

I'm not a fan of "tricks" like skimming, scanning or reading first or last sentences of paragraphs. My approach is simple: read the question, underline words that you think you need to find, then read at normal speed until you find the relevant part of the passage. I have some different tips for paragraph matching questions, but my advice does not include reading the first sentence of each paragraph - that strategy is risky because it may lead you to the wrong answer.

*The only time that I would recommend reading the first sentence of each paragraph is if you're rushing to finish a 'paragraph headings' exercise in the last few minutes of your exam. It is sometimes possible to get the answer from the first sentence, so save this trick for an emergency (when time is running out).

April 05, 2017

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Here's the passage from last week's lesson, but this time we have some 'true, false, not given' questions.

Chores for children

Assigning new jobs for children as they mature will develop their work ethic, says Gregg Murset, CEO of BusyKid, a chore and allowance tracking app. “The most important thing is to challenge them,” he says. “Once they have some proficiency you need to make them stretch to do the next job.” Mr. Murset, a father of six children ages 10 to 20, believes parents should teach children to do housework when they’re young, no matter if it yields imperfect results. “Even though it’s easier to just clean the toilet by yourself and be done with it, you have to take the long view and realise that these fundamental life skills are so important,” he says.

Attaching an allowance to chores teaches children not to expect handouts, says Michael Eisenberg, a financial advisor and member of the National Financial Literacy Commission. “At earlier ages, it instills within children the reality that you do something and you get paid for it,” he says. “Later on in life, they learn that the only way we get money is if we produce stuff at our jobs.” Some 68% of U.S. parents say they pay an allowance to their children, at an average rate of $67.80 per month, according to a 2016 survey of 1,005 adults. More than 80% of respondents who pay an allowance say they want to teach their child the value of money and financial responsibility, the survey found.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. Gregg Murset’s experiences of fatherhood led him to develop the BusyKid app.
2. Michael Eisenberg believes in giving children financial incentives to do certain tasks.
3. The majority of U.S. parents give their children pocket money.

March 28, 2017

IELTS Reading: match the names

Read the following passage and complete the task below it.

Chores for children

Assigning new jobs for children as they mature will develop their work ethic, says Gregg Murset, CEO of BusyKid, a chore and allowance tracking app. “The most important thing is to challenge them,” he says. “Once they have some proficiency you need to make them stretch to do the next job.” Mr. Murset, a father of six children ages 10 to 20, believes parents should teach children to do housework when they’re young, no matter if it yields imperfect results. “Even though it’s easier to just clean the toilet by yourself and be done with it, you have to take the long view and realise that these fundamental life skills are so important,” he says.

Attaching an allowance to chores teaches children not to expect handouts, says Michael Eisenberg, a financial advisor and member of the National Financial Literacy Commission. “At earlier ages, it instills within children the reality that you do something and you get paid for it,” he says. “Later on in life, they learn that the only way we get money is if we produce stuff at our jobs.” Some 68% of U.S. parents say they pay an allowance to their children, at an average rate of $67.80 per month, according to a 2016 survey of 1,005 adults. More than 80% of respondents who pay an allowance say they want to teach their child the value of money and financial responsibility, the survey found.

Who expressed the four opinions below? Answer by choosing A, B or C.

1) Children should learn that you don’t get something for nothing.
2) Parents should give their children tasks of increasing difficulty.
3) Children should learn to manage their money carefully.
4) Parents should think about the future benefits of giving chores to their children.

A  Gregg Murset
B  Michael Eisenberg
C  most American parents

(Source: wsj.com)

March 23, 2017

IELTS Reading: keyword review

When you're doing practice reading tests, it's always a good idea to review the 'keywords' that gave you the answers. Here's a table showing keywords from the three most recent exercises on this website:

March 18, 2017

IELTS Reading: more 'true, false, not given'

Read the following passage about large and important cities.

A ‘megacity’ is usually defined as a metropolitan area with a total population in excess of ten million people. A megacity can be a single metropolitan area or two or more metropolitan areas that converge. The terms conurbation, metropolis and metroplex are also applied to the latter. As of 2017, there are 37 megacities in existence. The largest of these are the metropolitan areas of Tokyo and Shanghai, each of these having a population of over 30 million inhabitants, with 38.8 million and 35.5 million respectively. Tokyo is the world's largest metropolitan area, while Shanghai has the world's largest city proper population. The UN predicts there will be 41 megacities by 2030.

By contrast, a ‘global city’, also called ‘world city’ or sometimes ‘alpha city’ or ‘world center’, is a city generally considered to be an important node in the global economic system. The Institute for Urban Strategies at The Mori Memorial Foundation in Tokyo issued a comprehensive study of global cities in 2016. The ranking is based on six overall categories: Economy, Research & Development, Cultural Interaction, Livability, Environment, and Accessibility. According to this particular ranking system, the top three ‘global cities’ at present are London, New York and Tokyo.

Are the statements below true, false or not given?

1. The term ‘megacity’ refers to population size, whereas the term ‘global city’ is primarily used to denote economic importance.
2. Currently there are 37 cities with a population of over 10 million people.
3. London is classified as being both a megacity and a global city.

March 09, 2017

IELTS Reading: no or not given?

A student asked me about the 'yes, no, not given' question below.

Question statement:
Thirty per cent of deaths in the United States are caused by smoking-related diseases.

Relevant part of the passage:
Smoking, it is believed, is responsible for 30 per cent of all deaths from cancer and clearly represents the most important preventable cause of cancer in countries like the United States today.

(Click here to see the full passage and exercise)

The official correct answer to this question is 'no'. However, the student who asked me about this question believes that we should answer 'not given'. His reason for this is that we have no information about deaths that aren't caused by cancer. Maybe smoking does cause 30% of all deaths.

What do you think? Is this student 'overthinking'? How can we explain why 'no' is the correct answer?

March 01, 2017

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

Read the passage and choose the correct answers to the questions below.

A new ‘super-Earth’ has been discovered that could have a life-supporting climate and water. The planet, given the catchy name HD 40307g, was discovered in a multi-world solar system 42 light years from the Sun and lies at exactly the right distance from its star to allow liquid surface water. It orbits well within the star's “habitable” or “Goldilocks” zone - the region where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold to sustain life.

Professor Hugh Jones, from the University of Hertfordshire said: “The longer orbit of the new planet means that its climate and atmosphere may be just right to support life. Just as Goldilocks liked her porridge to be neither too hot nor too cold but just right, this planet or indeed any moons that is has lie in an orbit comparable to Earth, increasing the probability of it being habitable.” The ‘super earth’ is one of six planets believed to circle the dwarf star HD 40307 in the constellation Pictor. All the others are located outside the habitable zone, too close to their parent star to support liquid water.

(Taken from this article in The Independent)

1. Why is it thought that the planet may be able to support life?

A) It has been shown to have water.
B) It is 42 light years from the Sun.
C) It orbits its own star at the perfect distance.
D) It has several moons.

2. Which statement is true of the “Goldilocks” zone?

A) It is the region of a planet which has a habitable climate.
B) It refers to a zone which is too close to the parent star.
C) It refers to a planet with several moons and a long orbit.
D) It is an orbit region which is comparable to the Earth’s.

PS. If you don't know who Goldilocks is, click here!

February 20, 2017

IELTS Reading: read phrase by phrase

People who read too quickly in the IELTS test often miss the answers. If you go too fast, you won't really understand what you're reading, and you'll start to panic when you don't find what you're looking for.

On the other hand, some people read too slowly; they read each word as if it were a separate item on the page. These people tend not to finish the test.

Instead of skimming too quickly or reading each word slowly, I recommend that you read phrase by phrase. For example, read the first sentence of this lesson as three phrases:

People who read too quickly .....  in the IELTS test ..... often miss the answers.

Try to get into the habit of reading phrase by phrase. You should find that you can go at a reasonable speed and that you'll understand (almost) everything.

February 13, 2017

IELTS Reading: complete the table

Look back over the last four reading exercises that I've given you here on the site, and see if you can fill the gaps in the table below.

February 08, 2017

IELTS Reading: gap-fill not in order

In gap-fill exercises the answers can usually be found in order in the passage. However, today I'm attaching a tricky exercise in which one of the answers breaks this 'rule'.

Click here to download the exercise, and see if you can fill the gaps.

Tip: It's quite rare for an answer to be "in the wrong order", so you should first search for answers in order in the passage. Miss out any difficult questions, and return to them when you've done the rest of the exercise.

January 30, 2017

IELTS Reading: choose the title

Read the passage and choose the best title from the list below it.

Finland’s education system is considered one of the best in the world. In international ratings, it’s always in the top ten. However, the authorities there aren’t ready to rest on their laurels, and they’ve decided to carry through a real revolution in their school system. Finnish officials want to remove school subjects from the curriculum. There will no longer be any classes in physics, math, literature, history, or geography.

Instead of individual subjects, students will study events and phenomena in an interdisciplinary format. For example, the Second World War will be examined from the perspective of history, geography, and math. And by taking the course ”Working in a Cafe," students will absorb a whole body of knowledge about the English language, economics, and communication skills.

The Finnish education system encourages collective work, which is why the changes will also affect teachers. The school reform will require a great deal of cooperation between teachers of different subjects. Around 70% of teachers in Helsinki have already undertaken preparatory work in line with the new system for presenting information, and, as a result, they’ll get a pay increase. The changes are expected to be complete by 2020.

A)  The world's best education system.
B)  Finland plans to scrap school subjects.
C)  Teachers in Finland welcome education reform.

Note:
What do you think of the idea described in the passage?

(Source: click here for full article)

January 20, 2017

IELTS Reading: match the headings

Today's exercise is on the worksheet attached below. Feel free to share your answers (and 'keywords' if you have time) in the comments area.

Click here to download the worksheet

January 13, 2017

IELTS Reading: gap-fill with letters

Try the gap-fill exercise below the following passage. It's the same passage that we saw in last week's lesson.

A Work of Genius

By the beginning of the 15th century, after a hundred years of construction, Florence Cathedral was still missing its dome. The building required an octagonal dome which would be higher and wider than any that had ever been built, with no external buttresses to keep it from spreading and falling under its own weight.

The building of such a masonry dome posed many technical problems. Filippo Brunelleschi, who is now seen as a key figure in architecture and perhaps the first modern engineer, looked to the great dome of the Pantheon in Rome for solutions. The dome of the Pantheon is a single shell of concrete, the formula for which had long since been forgotten. Soil filled with silver coins had held the Pantheon dome aloft while its concrete set. This could not be the solution in the case of the Florence Cathedral dome, due to its size. Another possible solution, the use of scaffolding, was also impractical because there was not enough timber in the whole of the region of Tuscany.

Brunelleschi would have to build the dome out of brick, due to its light weight compared to stone and being easier to form, and with nothing under it during construction. His eventual success can be attributed, in no small degree, to his technical and mathematical genius. Brunelleschi used more than four million bricks to create what is still the largest masonry dome in the world.

Fill each gap in the summary with a letter A - I.

Due to the 1)______ and 2)______ of the required structure, the construction of a dome for the cathedral in Florence had challenged architects for many years. A method employed by the Romans, using 3)______ to support a dome while it was being built, was not suitable, and an insufficient supply of 4)______ meant that scaffolding could not be used either. The architect Brunelleschi finally 5)______ in building the largest 6)______ dome in the world.

January 09, 2017

IELTS Reading: more 'true, false, not given'

Read the passage and answer the questions below it.

A Work of Genius

By the beginning of the 15th century, after a hundred years of construction, Florence Cathedral was still missing its dome. The building required an octagonal dome which would be higher and wider than any that had ever been built, with no external buttresses to keep it from spreading and falling under its own weight.

The building of such a masonry dome posed many technical problems. Filippo Brunelleschi, who is now seen as a key figure in architecture and perhaps the first modern engineer, looked to the great dome of the Pantheon in Rome for solutions. The dome of the Pantheon is a single shell of concrete, the formula for which had long since been forgotten. Soil filled with silver coins had held the Pantheon dome aloft while its concrete set. This could not be the solution in the case of the Florence Cathedral dome, due to its size. Another possible solution, the use of scaffolding, was also impractical because there was not enough timber in the whole of the region of Tuscany.

Brunelleschi would have to build the dome out of brick, due to its light weight compared to stone and being easier to form, and with nothing under it during construction. His eventual success can be attributed, in no small degree, to his technical and mathematical genius. Brunelleschi used more than four million bricks to create what is still the largest masonry dome in the world.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. For many years, people had believed that construction of such a huge dome would be impossible.
2. The architect Brunelleschi employed a building method that had previously been used by the Romans.
3. Brunelleschi was not able to use wooden scaffolding when building the dome.
4. The Cathedral’s dome is still the biggest of its kind.

December 25, 2016

IELTS Reading: keyword review

The table below shows 'keywords' (similar words in the questions and passage) from four recent reading lessons here on the blog.

The reading test certainly becomes easier as you get better at noticing keywords, so it's always a good idea to review them.

December 17, 2016

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following excerpt from a passage about animal behaviour.

Thousands of experiments have been performed to study the preferences of hungry and thirsty animals. The results are universal: all animals are highly sensitive to subtle differences in amount of food or water.

Consider experiments using hungry pigeons. A pigeon is trained to peck at an illuminated button on the wall of its cage, and the experimenter follows each peck with delivery to the pigeon of a small amount of mixed grain. The pigeon soon learns to peck the button. Then the experimenter puts two illuminated buttons, a red one and a green one, side by side on the wall. If the pigeon pecks the red button, it gets 2 ounces of food; if it pecks the green button, it gets 1 ounce of food. Almost all pigeons soon learn to peck the red one and ignore the green one.

However, the results are completely different when a time delay is introduced after the red button is pecked. Virtually all pigeons strongly prefer 1 ounce of food delivered immediately to 2 ounces delayed by only 4 seconds.

(adapted from 'The Science of Self Control' by Howard Rachlin)

Are the statements below true, false or not given?

1. Experiments using hungry and thirsty animals give inconsistent results.
2. Pigeons can be taught to do simple actions in order to get a reward.
3. Hungry pigeons choose the larger reward, regardless of whether they have to wait for it.

December 05, 2016

IELTS Reading: the future of cars

Read this article entitled 'Driving Lessons', and answer the questions below.

1) In paragraph 1, what does 'radical overhaul' mean?
2) In paragraph 2, who is Joshua Brown?
3) What is "Autopilot", and how safe is it?
4) In paragraph 4, what cost was hard to imagine a century ago?
5) In paragraph 5, why does the writer mention pods and minivans?

Note: You won't see this style of question in the IELTS test. The above questions are very open, and everyone will answer in a slightly different way. I'm only asking these questions to encourage you to read the article.

November 29, 2016

IELTS Reading: 'not given'

There was a good example of a tricky 'not given' answer in last week's reading exercise. Let's look at question 2 again.

Question 2:
The optimal amount of physical activity for children is 10 minutes.

Relevant part of the passage:
short bursts of physical activity - 10 minutes or less - increased pupils’ attention in the classroom

Why is the answer 'not given'? Well, the key word in the question is 'optimal' - it might help if we replace this word with the word 'best'. Does the passage tell us that 10 minutes is the best amount of physical activity? No, we only know that 10 minutes or less is enough exercise to increase pupils' attention. Maybe 15 minutes works even better; we don't know.

Sometimes it is just one key word that makes the answer 'not given'.

November 24, 2016

IELTS Reading: yes, no, not given

Read the following passage and answer the questions below it.

The evidence is crystal clear: Physical activity is great for children. Researchers around the world agree that young people who are active have better brain function, higher self-esteem, more motivation and better school performance.

During the school day, children do not need to exercise for long periods of time. A review of studies published in 2011 found that short bursts of physical activity - 10 minutes or less - increased pupils’ attention in the classroom. Children who took short breaks for physical activity also performed better in school and displayed lower stress levels and better moods.

What about linking physical activity with teaching? A review published in 2015 found that when children learn while moving their bodies, they perform significantly better on standardised tests. There are all sorts of examples of how to make this happen, such as doing jumping jacks while spelling words.

(Adapted from this article on the Psychology Today website)

Do the statements below agree with the views expressed in the passage? Answer YES, NO or NOT GIVEN.

1. Physical exercise can make children feel better about themselves.
2. The optimal amount of physical activity for children is 10 minutes.
3. Children can benefit when tasks provide both mental and physical stimulation.

November 16, 2016

IELTS Reading: a good website

Psychology, children's development, family and education are common topics in the IELTS reading test. A good place to read articles about these topics is the "Psychology Today" website.

For example, click here to read a recent article about the benefits of exercise for children. It's good reading practice, and you'll find some great vocabulary that you could use in the writing and speaking tests.

November 08, 2016

IELTS Reading: difficult gap-fill

Try the following exercise from Cambridge IELTS book 10 (test 2, passage 2). My students found the two questions quite difficult.

Part of the passage about 'gifted children':

A very close positive relationship was found when children’s IQ scores were compared with their home educational provision (Freeman, 2010). The higher the children’s IQ scores, especially over IQ 130, the better the quality of their educational backup, measured in terms of reported verbal interactions with parents, number of books and activities in their home etc.

To be at their most effective in their self-regulation, all children can be helped to identify their own ways of learning - metacognition - which will include strategies of planning, monitoring, evaluation, and choice of what to learn. Emotional awareness is also part of metacognition, so children should be helped to be aware of their feelings around the area to be learned, feelings of curiosity or confidence, for example.

Fill the gaps below with no more than TWO words from the passage.

1. One study found a strong connection between children’s IQ and the availability of ………. and ………. at home.
2. Metacognition involves children understanding their own learning strategies, as well as developing ………. .

November 01, 2016

IELTS Reading: more keywords

Here's a keyword table with vocabulary from the last two reading exercises on this blog. I always recommend keeping a list of keywords, even the easy ones.

October 15, 2016

IELTS Reading: match the synonyms

This isn't an exercise that you would ever see in a real test, but it's a useful way to look at vocabulary and synonyms.

Use the following passage to help you with the exercise below it.

A fundamental question in ageing research is whether humans and other species possess an immutable life-span limit. A theoretical study suggested the maximum human lifespan to be around 125 years. The longest-living person whose dates of birth and death were verified to the modern norms of Guinness World Records and the Gerontology Research Group was Jeanne Calment, a French lady who lived to 122.

Reduction of infant mortality has accounted for most of the increased average life span longevity, but since the 1960s, mortality rates among those over 80 years have decreased by about 1.5% per year. The progress being made in lengthening lifespans and postponing senescence is entirely due to medical and public-health efforts, rising standards of living, better education, healthier nutrition and more salubrious lifestyles.

Match the words in column A with their synonyms in column B.
Try to do this without a dictionary; use the passage above instead.

September 30, 2016

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Here's an easy exercise to illustrate the difference between true, false and not given answers.

Passage:

Redevelopment of the library's main reading room is planned for the first week of November, and it is anticipated that the necessary building work will be completed during that time. All other areas of the library will remain open to the public as normal, but the main help desk will be temporarily located in the entrance hall. Members of staff will be on hand to direct you to books, journals or other materials that have been moved while the reading room is being refurbished.

Question statements (true, false or not given?):

1. The project to redevelop the reading room should take just one week.
2. Access to the rest of the library will be limited due to the building work.
3. Library employees will still be able to enter the reading room to find materials.

September 23, 2016

IELTS Reading: topic research

Reading can also be good preparation for the writing test. Just search online for a writing task 2 topic, and read some newspaper articles about it.

For example, last week we looked at the topic of "high salaries" in writing task 2. So let's see if we can find something to read about this topic.

Click here to see a newspaper article that I found when I put the phrase "maximum wage" into Google. It's full of great vocabulary for the high salaries topic (e.g. grossly-inflated pay, inequality in the workplace, pay gap), and you might find it interesting that British politicians are debating this issue.

September 17, 2016

IELTS Reading: keywords from blog exercises

The table below shows keywords from the two matching exercises that I've recently shared here and here on the blog.

September 09, 2016

IELTS Reading: match the names

Read the following passage about the history of the computer.

The history of the computer can be traced back around 2000 years to the birth of the abacus. However, construction of the first digital computer is usually attributed to the French inventor Blaise Pascal. In 1642, Pascal built a mechanical calculating machine which added numbers entered with dials. In the early 19th century, Charles Babbage, an English mechanical engineer, originated the concept of a programmable computer. His ‘Analytical Engine’ incorporated an arithmetic logic unit, control flow in the form of conditional branching and loops, and integrated memory, making it the first design for a general-purpose computer that could be described in modern terms.

The era of modern computing began with a flurry of development before and during World War II. The ‘Z2’ was one of the earliest examples of an electro-mechanical relay computer, and was created by German engineer Konrad Zuse in 1939. In the same year, electro-mechanical devices called bombes were built by British cryptologists to help decipher secret wartime messages. The initial design of the bombe was produced by Alan Turing, who was the first scientist to describe the principle of the modern computer. He proved that a machine would be capable of performing any conceivable mathematical computation if it were representable as an algorithm.

The Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine, nicknamed ‘Baby’, was the world's first stored-program computer. It was invented by Frederic Williams and Tom Kilburn, and ran its first program in 1948. Although the computer was considered "small and primitive" by the standards of its time, it was the first working machine to contain all of the elements essential to a modern electronic computer.

Which scientist or inventor...

1. designed a computer to aid military intelligence gathering?
2. introduced the concept of the computer as a programmable machine?
3. built the first electronic computer that had all the basic features of the computers we use today?
4. built the first mechanical computer?

Choose your answers from the following list:

A - Blaise Pascal
B - Charles Babbage
C - Konrad Zuse
D - Alan Turing
E - Frederic Williams and Tom Kilburn

August 24, 2016

IELTS Reading: 'scanning made me panic'

I've written before about the problems of skimming and scanning (e.g. here). Over the weekend I taught an IELTS course here in Manchester, and we found another problem with scanning. I'll try to explain below.

In one practice test passage, the first question contained a name, and we decided to scan for it. We quickly found the name in one of the later paragraphs in the passage, and so we jumped straight to that paragraph and found the answer. The problem came later. Because we hadn't read the passage from the beginning, we didn't really understand what the whole article was about, and we felt lost when doing some of the other questions. "Scanning made me panic" is how one of my students described it.

Scanning encourages you to 'jump around' the passage in a disjointed way. It might help you to find one answer, but it will probably make your life more difficult overall.

Sometimes "slower is faster". Get into the habit of reading the passage at normal speed from the beginning. Go through it question by question, and resist the urge to jump around.

August 10, 2016

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage about the scientist Michael Faraday.

Michael Faraday, (1791 - 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. Although Faraday received little formal education he was one of the most influential scientists in history, and historians of science refer to him as having been the best experimentalist in the history of science.

The young Michael Faraday, who was the third of four children, having only the most basic school education, had to educate himself. At fourteen he became the apprentice to George Riebau, a local bookbinder and bookseller. During his seven-year apprenticeship he read many books, including Isaac Watts' The Improvement of the Mind, and he enthusiastically implemented the principles and suggestions contained therein.

In 1812, at the age of twenty, and at the end of his apprenticeship, Faraday attended lectures by the eminent English chemist Humphry Davy. Faraday subsequently sent Davy a three-hundred-page book based on notes that he had taken during these lectures. Davy's reply was immediate, kind, and favourable. When one of the Royal Institution's assistants was sacked, Davy was asked to find a replacement, and appointed Faraday as Chemical Assistant at the Royal Institution.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. Many experts regard Faraday as the foremost experimentalist of all time.
2. Faraday educated himself by reading books that were recommended to him by George Riebau.
3. Faraday came to the attention of a famous chemist after he wrote a book based on the chemist's lectures.

July 30, 2016

IELTS Reading: a student's question

A student called Shakhzod asked about the following question from test 2, passage 1 in Cambridge IELTS 11. The passage is about a ship called the 'Mary Rose' that sank in the 16th century and has recently been recovered.

Question 3 (true, false or not given):
Most of one side of the Mary Rose lay undamaged under the sea.

Relevant part of the passage:
Because of the way the ship sank, nearly all of the starboard half survived intact.

Task:
Do you think the answer is true, false or not given? Which keywords gave you the answer?

July 09, 2016

IELTS Reading: how to do multiple choice

Try following these steps when doing multiple choice questions:

1. Read the question and underline the "keywords" - these are the words that you will try to find in the passage (the main words that give the meaning of the question).
2. Read the choices and underline one or two keywords for each one. Focus on words that make the difference between each choice.
3. Go to the passage and look for the keywords from the question.
4. When you have found the right part of the passage, look for keywords from the choices.
5. Read the relevant part of the passage carefully, comparing it to each choice.
6. To be sure you have the right answer, you should be able to show that the other answer choices are wrong.

June 26, 2016

IELTS Reading: easy examples of T,F,NG

To demonstrate the difference between answering true, false or not given, I usually show my students some easy examples from a General Reading exam.

The following examples come from Cambridge IELTS 7, pages 119-120.

Question statements:
1. The entrance to the campsite is locked after 10 p.m.
2. No dogs are allowed on the campsite.
3. You are not allowed to cook food on open fires.

Passage:
Don't make any noise after 10 o'clock at night or before 7.30 in the morning. Dogs must be kept on a lead. Owners of dogs that disturb other campers by barking through the night will be asked to leave. The lighting of fires is strictly prohibited.

Task:
Decide whether the question statements are true, false or not given. Then try to explain what we can learn from this exercise about the differences between true, false and not given.

June 19, 2016

IELTS Reading: don't 'over-think' the answer

I've noticed that many students get the wrong answer because they think too much! They worry about small differences in meaning. For example, look at the following part of a reading passage:

The two week planned study into the psychological impact of prison life...

Now decide whether the following statement is true, false or not given:

The study aimed to investigate the mental and behavioural effects of life in prison.

The statement is true, but many students put not given because they "over-think" the meaning of 'psychological'. They think that the definition of psychological must be more complex than 'mental and behavioural'.

Don't think too hard about small differences in meanings. 'Mental and behavioural' might not be a perfect definition of 'psychological', but the overall meaning is the same (a simple definition of psychology is the study of the mind and behaviour).

June 11, 2016

IELTS Reading: choose the title

Read the following passage, and choose the best title from the list below.

Dennis Tito, an American engineer and multimillionaire, was the first space tourist to fund his own trip into space. In 2001, he spent nearly eight days in orbit as a crew member of ISS EP-1, a visiting mission to the International Space Station, after being accepted by the Russian Federal Space Agency as a candidate for a commercial spaceflight. Tito met criticism from NASA before the launch, primarily from Daniel Goldin, at that time the Administrator of NASA, who considered it inappropriate for a tourist to take a ride into space.

In the decade since Dennis Tito journeyed to the International Space Station, eight private citizens have paid the $20 million fee to travel to space, but it is believed that this number could increase fifteen-fold by 2020. A web-based survey suggested that over 70% of those surveyed were interested in travelling to space, 88% wanted to spacewalk, and 21% liked the idea of staying in a space hotel.

A) A giant leap for tourism in the 21st century.
B) The first space tourist.
C) The pros and cons of space tourism.

June 04, 2016

IELTS Reading: more keywords from book 11

Here's my keyword table for test 3, passage 2 in Cambridge IELTS book 11.

Note: gulls and terns are types of bird

May 26, 2016

IELTS Reading: true, false or not given?

Read the following passage about "mass media".

In the late 20th century, mass media could be classified into eight mass media industries: books, the Internet, magazines, movies, newspapers, radio, recordings, and television. The explosion of digital communication technology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries gave rise to the question: what forms of media should be classified as "mass media"? For example, it is controversial whether to include cell phones and video games in the definition.

Each mass medium has its own content types, creative artists, technicians, and business models. For example, the Internet includes blogs, podcasts, web sites, and various other technologies built atop the general distribution network. Internet and mobile phones are often referred to collectively as digital media, and radio and TV as broadcast media. Some argue that video games have developed into a distinct mass form of media, in the sense that they provide a common experience to millions of people across the globe and convey the same messages and ideologies to all their users.

Are the statements below true, false or not given?

1. In the 21st century, it is widely accepted that there are now more than eight mass media industries.
2. Digital media can be subdivided into various content types.
3. Video games are the newest mass media platform.

May 18, 2016

IELTS Reading: academic and general

If you are preparing for the academic IELTS test, you might never have tried a general reading paper. I recommend that you do. The techniques that you'll need to use are the same for both papers, and because the general test is easier, it serves as good practice.

Here's my keyword table for the general test questions on page 122 of Cambridge book 4:

Notice how the people who write the IELTS reading test use paraphrasing to make the questions. When you see 'keywords' like cultivation = growing, elderly = aged, or beach = coastal, you know you have the answer.

May 01, 2016

IELTS Reading: Cambridge book 11

Last week I used Cambridge IELTS book 11 for the first time. Here's my first keyword table for this book; it's for test 1, passage 2.

April 23, 2016

IELTS Reading: multiple choice exercise

Read the following excerpt from a passage about ethnography.

Ethnography, from the Greek ethnos (folk, people, nation) and grapho (I write), is the systematic study of people and cultures. It is designed to explore cultural phenomena where the researcher observes society from the point of view of the subject of the study.

According to the leading social scientist, John Brewer, ethnographic data collection methods are meant to capture the “social meanings and ordinary activities” of people (known as “informants”) in “naturally occurring settings” that are commonly referred to as “the field”. The goal is to collect data in such a way that the researcher imposes a minimal amount of personal bias. Methods of data collection can include participant observation, field notes, interviews, and surveys.

According to the passage, which TWO of the statements below are true?

A) Ethnography is a field of study that began in Greece.
B) Ethnographic research is concerned with ancient cultures and societies.
C) The subjects of ethnographic research are referred to as "informants".
D) Ethnographers try to make their research as objective as possible.
E) Observation is the most effective form of data collection.

April 13, 2016

IELTS Reading: which paragraph contains...?

"Which paragraph contains the following information?" This type of question is not the same as "match the headings to the paragraphs".

Here are some tips for "which paragraph contains?" questions:

• Instead of looking for the main idea of each paragraph, you need to find one piece of information.
• Some paragraphs might not contain any answers.
• The same paragraph might contain more than one answer.
• It's not usually difficult to understand the question or answer, but it is difficult to find the answer.
• Do these questions last. By doing other questions first, you will become familiar with the passage, and you might remember where some of the answers are.
• Look for the easiest information first: questions that contain names, numbers or big/unusual words might be easier to find.

Click here to try an example "which paragraph contains?" question from the official IELTS website.

April 07, 2016

IELTS Reading: how questions are made

The people who write the questions for IELTS reading do something like this:

1. They take a reading passage.
2. They read through the passage and stop when they find something interesting.
3. They make a question about that part of the passage, usually by paraphrasing it. For example, if the phrase "staff salaries" is used in the passage, the question writer might create a question with the words "employees' wages".

In other words, they use the "keyword technique" to write the questions, which is why you should use it to find the answers.

March 31, 2016

IELTS Reading: more keywords from book 10

Here's a keyword table for test 1, passage 3 in Cambridge IELTS book 10. If you have book 10, try this test and underline the phrases below.

March 21, 2016

IELTS Reading: keyword demonstration

The following question demonstrates the 'keyword technique'.

Question (true, false or not given?)
New trainees who want work experience should check out vacancies before they depart.

Passage
What's more important to you - travel or work experience? You can be flexible with travel plans but you must research job opportunities in advance.

Task
The correct answer is 'true', but can you complete the keyword table below to show how we found this answer?

March 12, 2016

IELTS Reading: improve your vocabulary

Whenever you practise doing an IELTS reading test, you should treat it as an opportunity to improve your vocabulary knowledge. Look carefully at the phrases used, and the way ideas are expressed.

For example, did you notice this vocabulary in last week's lesson?

• change (verb) over time
• make use of
• gather knowledge about
• apply a method
• make inferences about
• trace something back to
• is derived from

Try making your own sentences to practise using some of these phrases.

March 03, 2016

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

Read the following excerpt from a passage about etymology.

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time. For a language with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages, and texts about the languages, to gather knowledge about how words were used during earlier periods of their history and when they entered the languages in question.

Etymologists also apply the methods of comparative linguistics to reconstruct information about languages that are too old for any direct information to be available. By analysing related languages with a technique known as the comparative method, linguists can make inferences about their shared parent language and its vocabulary. In this way, word roots have been found that can be traced all the way back to the origin of, for instance, the Indo-European language family.

The word etymology is derived from the Greek word ἐτυμολογία, etymologia, itself from ἔτυμον, etymon, meaning "true sense", and the suffix -logia, denoting "the study of".

Which TWO of the following statements agree with the information above?

A) Etymology involves the study of historical texts.
B) Some languages are too old for linguists to understand.
C) The ancient Greeks were the first to study the origins of words.
D) Most words have their origins in Indo-European languages.
E) The word ‘etymology’ derives from a word meaning ‘the study of true sense’.

February 25, 2016

IELTS Reading: keyword gap-fill

Here's a keyword table for a 'true, false, not given' section in Cambridge IELTS book 10 (page 121). I've left some gaps to encourage you to study the keywords carefully.

Use the following words:
restaurant, vacancies, purpose, soon, leavers, catering, dream

February 05, 2016

IELTS Reading: 'paragraph headings' keywords

Over the weekend I ran an IELTS preparation course here in Manchester. We did some good work on 'paragraph headings' questions, and one of the exercises that we used was test 3, passage 2 in Cambridge IELTS book 5.

Here are the keywords from the 'paragraph headings' section in that test:

Note: I always recommend doing paragraph matching questions last. They are much easier if you are already familiar with the passage, having done other question sections first.

January 29, 2016

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage and answer the questions below it.

Learning a second language can boost thinking skills, improve mental agility and delay the ageing of the brain, according to scientists who believe that speaking minority languages should be positively encouraged in schools and universities. Studies have found that children and adults who learn or speak another language benefit from the extra effort it takes to handle two sets of vocabularies and rules of grammar.

“Fewer parents speak minority languages to their children because of the perceived lack of usefulness. Many people still think that a minority language makes children confused and puts them at a disadvantage at school,” said Antonella Sorace of the University of Edinburgh. “These feelings clash with much research on bilingualism, which shows instead that when there are differences between monolingual and bilingual children, these are almost invariably in favour of bilinguals,” Dr Sorace said.

“Bilingual children tend to have enhanced language abilities, a better understanding of others’ points of view, and more mental flexibility in dealing with complex situations,” she told the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington.

(Source: independent.co.uk)

Are the following statements TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN?

1. Some scientists believe that the teaching of minority languages should be promoted.
2. Research into bilingualism supports the idea that learning two languages can be detrimental to children.
3. Bilingual children tend to get high scores in intelligence tests.

January 20, 2016

IELTS Reading: false or not given?

Here are two tricky questions that people have asked me about. For each question, decide whether the answer is false or not given, and try to explain why.

Question 1 (Cambridge 7, test 3)
Problems in Nordic countries were excluded because they are outside the European Economic Community.

Relevant part of the passage:
Their initial task was to decide which of the many forest problems of concern to Europe involved the largest number of countries and might be subject to joint action. Those confined to particular geographical areas, such as countries bordering the Mediterranean or the Nordic countries therefore had to be discarded.

Question 2 (Cambridge 10, test 3)
Tourism contributes over six per cent of the Australian gross national product.

Relevant part of the passage:
This industry (tourism) is the world's leading industrial contributor, producing over 6 per cent of the world's gross national product.

January 14, 2016

IELTS Reading: another keyword table

Over the weekend I ran an IELTS preparation course here in Manchester. One of the reading exercises that we did came from Cambridge 5 (test 1, passage 2). The topic of the passage was a famous psychology experiment.

My students found the 'which paragraph contains?' exercise particularly tricky. Here's a keyword table for that exercise:

Note:
Psychology is quite a common topic in the reading test. If you're interested in this topic, try reading about the Stanford prison experiment and John Bowlby's Attachment theory.

January 04, 2016

IELTS Reading: choose the heading

Read the following passage and choose the best heading.

The environmental challenges posed by agriculture are huge, and they’ll only become more pressing as we try to meet the growing need for food worldwide. We’ll likely have two billion more mouths to feed by mid-century - more than nine billion people. But sheer population growth isn’t the only reason we’ll need more food. The spread of prosperity across the world, especially in India and China, is driving an increased demand for meat, eggs and dairy, boosting pressure to grow more corn and soybeans to feed more cattle, pigs and chickens. If these trends continue, the double whammy of population growth and richer diets will require us to roughly double the amount of crops we grow by 2050.

(Source: National Geographic)

A) Two key trends driving the demand for food worldwide.
B) The impact of agriculture on the natural world.
C) Growing populations and their need for food.

December 28, 2015

IELTS Reading: question types and techniques

Later today I'll publish a video lesson that summarises my advice for IELTS reading. Before you see it, think about the following questions:

1. Do you know how many types of question there are?
2. What is the main technique that I recommend for IELTS reading?
3. Do any of the question types require a different technique?

December 16, 2015

IELTS Reading: false or not given?

Over the weekend I taught an IELTS course here in Manchester, and my students found the following question tricky. (Cambridge IELTS book 10, page 67)

Here's the question. Is this statement true, false or not given?:
Tourism has a social impact because it promotes recreation.

Here's the relevant sentence from the passage:
Tourism has a profound impact both on the world economy, and because of the educative effect of travel and the effects on employment, on society itself.

What's the answer?
My students were sure that the answer would be "false". According to the passage, the social impact of tourism is related to education and employment. However, the correct answer is "not given".

Why?
There is no mention of "recreation" in the passage. For the answer to be "false", the passage would need to tell us that recreation is not part of the social impact of tourism.

Remember:
The answer is "false" when the information in the passage contradicts the question statement. If any of the information is missing, we have to answer "not given".

December 08, 2015

IELTS Reading: imagine it's a game

Finding the answers in the IELTS reading test is a bit like doing a "treasure hunt". The answers are all hidden in the passage, and the questions are the "clues" that you follow to find the "treasure".

The next time you do a practice reading test, imagine that it's a game of treasure hunt. The IELTS test writers are your opponents, but if you know how questions are made, you can learn to beat them!

December 02, 2015

IELTS Reading: 3 study tips

Here are 3 tips to help you prepare for IELTS reading:

Materials
First, for test practice I only recommend the official Cambridge IELTS books. These contain real exam papers from previous years, so you can trust that the difficulty level will be accurate. Second, for advice, techniques and quick exercises, use the lessons here on the blog. Finally, read as much English as you can (in newspapers, books, on the Internet etc.) and write new or useful vocabulary in a notebook.

Method
There are just two things that you need to do in the reading test: find and understand. First, you need to find where the answer is in the passage. Then you need to read and understand that part of the passage in order to get the right answer. Look through my lessons here on the blog to find more advice about the "keyword technique". I've also explained the keyword technique in this video and in all of the reading lessons on my video course website.

Improving your score
To improve your score, you need to work on two things: exam technique and your overall knowledge of the English language. With practice, you'll get better at using the "keyword technique" to find answers. However, if you don't understand the passage, you'll find it very hard to get the right answers. To improve your overall language knowledge, read as much English as you can, and write new or useful vocabulary in a notebook.

November 24, 2015

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following text, then answer the questions below it.

John Dewey (1859 to 1952) was an American philosopher and psychologist who is perhaps best known for his ideas in the field of education. He saw education and learning as social and interactive processes, and the school itself as a social institution through which social reform can and should take place. In addition, he believed that students thrive in an environment where they are allowed to experience and interact with the curriculum, and that all students should have the opportunity to take part in their own learning.

While many people at the time believed that education’s purpose was to train students for work by providing them with a limited set of skills and information to do a particular job, Dewey argued that the school and the classroom teacher have a wider responsibility to produce psychological and social goods that will lead to both present and future social progress. As Dewey noted, "The business of the teacher is to produce a higher standard of intelligence in the community. Skill, ability to act wisely and effectively in a great variety of occupations and situations, is a sign of the degree of civilization that a society has reached.”

Are these statements TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN?

1. Dewey’s ideas about education have been highly influential in American society.
2. He disagreed with the narrow view of education of many of his contemporaries.
3. Dewey believed that teachers needed to be more intelligent.

November 08, 2015

IELTS Reading: choose the best title

Read the following passage, then choose the best title from the list below it.

According to a new review of studies related to running and health, jogging for as few as five or six miles per week could substantially improve someone’s health. “It seems like the maximum benefits of running occur at quite low doses,” said Dr. Carl J. Lavie, medical director of cardiac rehabilitation and prevention at the Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans. As little as “one to two runs per week, or three to six miles per week, and well less than an hour per week” can be quite beneficial, he said.

However, there may be an upper limit to the desirable mileage if your primary goal is improved health. Some evidence, he said, suggested that running strenuously for more than about an hour every day could slightly increase someone’s risks for heart problems, as well as for running-related injuries and disabilities.

Choose title A, B, C or D.

A) The health benefits of jogging
B) How much running is best?
C) Surprising findings about running
D) The benefits and drawbacks of regular jogging

November 03, 2015

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

My students found the following multiple choice question quite difficult. Choose the best answer and explain which 'keywords' helped you to get that answer.

Question:
According to the writer, there are difficulties explaining how the Lapita* accomplished their journeys because

A) the canoes that have been discovered offer relatively few clues.
B) archaeologists have shown limited interest in this area of research.
C) little information relating to this period can be relied upon for accuracy.
D) technological advances have altered the way such achievements are viewed.

Part of the passage:
There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: how did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No-one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights, for they turn into myths long before they reach as far back in time as the Lapita.

Source: Cambridge IELTS 10, page 75.
*The Lapita were an ancient tribe / people

October 24, 2015

IELTS Reading: similar words

Here are some of the key words and phrases that helped my students to get the answers to reading test 4.1 in Cambridge IELTS book 7:

uncannily: means strangely or extraordinarily

October 14, 2015

IELTS Reading: new video lesson (free)

I've just published a video lesson about "matching sentence endings" questions in the IELTS reading test. You can watch the lesson here.

October 08, 2015

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage about the performer Houdini.

Harry Houdini (1874 to 1926) was a Hungarian-American illusionist and stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts. He first attracted attention as "Harry Handcuff Houdini" on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to hold his breath inside a sealed milk can.

In 1904, thousands watched as Houdini tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London's Daily Mirror newspaper. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface. While many suspected that these escapes were faked, Houdini presented himself as the scourge of fake magicians and spiritualists. As President of the Society of American Magicians, he was keen to uphold professional standards and expose fraudulent artists. He was also quick to sue anyone who pirated his stunts.

Are the following statements true, false, or not given in the text?

1. Houdini was more successful in Europe than in America.
2. Many people were skeptical about Houdini’s escape acts.
3. He took legal action against those who tried to copy him.

September 30, 2015

IELTS Reading: 6 tips

How can you improve your reading? Here are 6 tips:

1. If you want to improve your reading, the first thing to do is read a lot. There are no shortcuts or secret techniques; you will only improve with time and practice.
2. Anything you read in English is good practice, so read about subjects that interest you. Try to enjoy reading in English.
3. English is the most used language on the Internet. Whenever you search for information on the net, try searching in English first.
4. Remember that "understanding is not the same as using". Keep a notebook with useful words and phrases that you find when you're reading, and try using them in your own sentences.
5. Apart from reading things that interest you, you also need to read lots of IELTS passages. If you've done all of the tests in the Cambridge books, read the passages again without doing the questions. Use a dictionary, take notes, and try to fully understand each passage.
6. Another way to use the Cambridge tests is to look at the correct answers to each question first. Then, your task is to find out why those answers are correct by analysing the passage carefully and finding the 'keywords'.

I'm sure you can think of other suggestions. Be creative with your reading practice, try to enjoy the learning process, and trust that you will improve if you persist.

September 18, 2015

IELTS Reading: are you seeing the pattern?

Over the weekend I ran an IELTS preparation course. After a full morning of IELTS reading work, one of my students said this: "I'm starting to see the pattern."

So, what pattern was he talking about? The 'keyword' pattern.

Here's an example from one of the tests that we worked through:

The more practice you do, the better you'll get at finding the answers by recognising the similar 'keywords' in the questions and in the passages. The IELTS reading test really does get easier as you get used to seeing this pattern.

September 13, 2015

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage about cities and the environment.

It’s easy to see why economists would embrace cities, warts and all, as engines of prosperity. It has taken a bit longer for environmentalists. By increasing income, cities increase consumption and pollution too. If what you value most is nature, cities look like concentrated piles of damage - until you consider the alternative, which is spreading the damage. From an ecological standpoint, says Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, a back-to-the-land ethic would be disastrous. Cities allow half of humanity to live on around 4 percent of the arable land, leaving more space for open country.

Per capita, city dwellers tread more lightly in other ways as well, as David Owen explains in Green Metropolis. Their roads, sewers, and power lines are shorter and so use fewer resources. Their apartments take less energy to heat, cool, and light than do houses. Most important, people in dense cities drive less. Their destinations are close enough to walk to, and enough people are going to the same places to make public transit practical. In cities like New York, per capita energy use and carbon emissions are much lower than the national average.

Are the following statements true, false, or not given?

1) Both economists and environmentalists may now see the benefits of cities.
2) A return to rural living would be a bad idea ecologically speaking.
3) City dwellers are more environmentally aware than the average person.

September 05, 2015

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

Read the following text and choose the best answer for each question.

The term "IQ" comes from German "Intelligenz-Quotient", coined by the German psychologist William Stern in 1912, who proposed a method of scoring children's intelligence tests. Since the early 20th century, scores on IQ tests have increased in most parts of the world. The phenomenon of rising score performance means that if test-takers are scored by a constant standard scoring rule, IQ test scores have been rising at an average rate of around three IQ points per decade. This phenomenon was named the Flynn effect in the book The Bell Curve after James R. Flynn, the author who did the most to bring this phenomenon to the attention of psychologists.

1. “IQ” refers to

A) a type of intelligence test for children
B) a means of rating intelligence tests
C) an area of psychology

2. Flynn noticed that

A) IQ scores were constant around the world
B) IQ was a global phenomenon
C) intelligence scores had gradually risen over several decades

August 27, 2015

IELTS Reading: techniques

In case you haven't seen them before, here are my six main tips for IELTS reading. Notice that 'skimming and scanning' are not on the list - it's usually best to read at normal speed.

August 22, 2015

IELTS Reading: more 'short answer' questions

For today's quick exercise, you'll need to click here and look at an article on the National Geographic website.

Answer each question using a maximum of THREE words from the article.

1. What name has been given to the field of research that is concerned with bringing extinct animals back to life?
2. What, according to Maura O'Connor, is affecting habitats and environments?
3. What phrase is used to decribe the difficulty of defining a species?

August 15, 2015

IELTS Reading: 'paragraph headings' keywords

Over the weekend I ran an IELTS preparation course here in Manchester. We did some good work on 'paragraph headings' questions, and one of the exercises that we used was test 2, passage 1 in Cambridge IELTS book 10.

Here are the keywords from the 'paragraph headings' section in that test:

Note: I always recommend doing paragraph matching questions last. They are much easier if you are already familiar with the passage, having done other question sections first.

August 09, 2015

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

The Paper Clip

According to the Early Office Museum, the first patent for a bent wire paper clip was awarded in the United States to Samuel B. Fay, in 1867. This clip was originally intended primarily for attaching tickets to fabric, although the patent recognized that it could be used to attach papers together. Although functional and practical, Fay's design along with the 50 other designs patented prior to 1899 are not considered reminiscent of the modern paper clip design known today.

The most common type of wire paper clip still in use, the Gem paper clip, was never patented, but it was most likely in production in Britain in the early 1870s by "The Gem Manufacturing Company", according to the American expert on technological innovations, Professor Henry J. Petroski.

Are the following statements true, false, or not given in the text?

1. Samuel B. Fay’s paper clip was only patented for one specific use.
2. Fay’s paper clip was not as practical as those we use today.
3. Nobody has a patent on the paper clip that most people use today.

August 02, 2015

IELTS Reading: read articles, take notes

Reading is probably the best way to expand your knowledge of English vocabulary. And if you want to make faster progress, I recommend keeping a notebook for useful words and phrases that you find.

For example, I came across this interesting article the other day. Have a look at the article, and note down any useful words or phrases that you find. Feel free to share your notes in the 'comments' area below.

July 25, 2015

IELTS Reading: keywords (book 9, test 2)

Here's a keyword table for test 2 in Cambridge IELTS book 9:

Even if you don't have a copy of the book, I think you can still learn something from this table. Look at the use of synonyms and similar words (e.g. worldwide / international, regulations / standards, current / modern).

Also, did you know the meanings of words like vulnerable, auditory and impairment? Look these words up in a dictionary, and see if you can use them in your own sentences.

July 09, 2015

IELTS Reading: advice and techniques

I've published this lesson before, but I think it's worth repeating it for people who have been asking me for reading tips. Here's my list of advice and techniques for IELTS reading:

1. Don't read the whole text; you haven't got enough time. Just go straight to the questions.
2. 'Paragraph' questions are much easier if you do them last. Do other sections first.
3. The answers to most questions should be in the correct order in the text, so you don't need to go back to the beginning to start looking for the next answer.
4. Read all instructions carefully.
5. Look for 'keywords'. There are usually words in the questions that are similar to words you need to find in the text. For example, if the text contains the word "global", the question might use the word "international". If you find the similar words, you have probably found the answer.
6. You must get to the end and answer every question. If you don't finish, you might miss some easy points.
7. Some questions are difficult because their aim is to separate band 8 and band 9. Don't waste time on difficult questions. Miss them, finish the exam, and return to them at the end.

July 03, 2015

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

Look at the following question (from Cambridge IELTS 5) and the section of text that contains the answer. I've underlined the key words.

Question:

The writer suggests that newspapers print items that are intended to

A) educate readers
B) meet their readers' expectations
C) encourage feedback from readers
D) mislead readers

Passage:

A third source of confusion is the attitude of the media. People are clearly more curious about bad news than good. Newspapers and broadcasters are there to provide what the public wants. That, however, can lead to significant distortions of perception.

Task:

Which keywords in the passage match the keywords in the question? What is the correct answer? Why?

June 26, 2015

IELTS Reading: choose the title

Choose the best title for the following passage from the list below it.

How we deal with the most challenging children remains rooted in B.F. Skinner's mid-20th-century philosophy that human behaviour is determined by consequences, and that bad behaviour must be punished. During the 2011-12 school year, the US Department of Education counted 130,000 expulsions and roughly 7 million suspensions among 49 million primary and secondary students - one for every seven children. Furthermore, it is estimated that there are a quarter of a million instances of corporal punishment in US schools every year.

But contemporary psychological studies suggest that, far from resolving children's behaviour problems, these standard disciplinary methods often exacerbate them. They sacrifice long-term goals (student behaviour improving definitively) for the short-term gain of momentary peace in the classroom.

Choose one title from the following list:

A) Behaviour management in US schools may do more harm than good.
B) How to improve behaviour in schools.
C) The US education system in crisis.
D) The long-term goals of discipline in schools.

June 20, 2015

IELTS Reading: more keywords

The table below shows 'keywords' from the exercise in this lesson. Notice, in particular, the different ways to describe years.

June 13, 2015

IELTS Reading: choose the title

Read the following passage, and choose the best title from the list.

Using a laser scan of Bourges cathedral in France, a team led by John Ochsendorf of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have 3D-printed thousands of bricks and are building an exact 1:50 replica. The researchers hope to use the mock-up to devise a way to gauge the stability, and thus safety, of historical buildings built of brick and stone.

Building the replica is painstaking work, but Ochsendorf thinks the process itself may be as valuable as the mechanics uncovered. For students of architecture and structural engineering, hands-on experience has largely given way to computer modelling. Techniques like 3D printing could be a way of reconnecting them with the craft behind the science, he says.

(New Scientist, 14.2 14.)

A) 3D printing a historical structure.
B) The benefits of 3D printing.
C) Computer modelling or hands-on experience?
D) A damaged cathedral is rebuilt.

June 05, 2015

IELTS Reading: paragraph headings

Try this 'paragraph headings' question from Cambridge IELTS 7, page 48-50.

Choose the correct heading for the paragraph below.

1. Co-operation of district officials.
2. Government authorities' instructions.

It would have been easy to criticise the MIRTP for using in the early phases a 'top-down' approach, in which decisions were made by experts and officials before being handed down to communities, but it was necessary to start the process from the level of the governmental authorities of the district. It would have been difficult to respond to the requests of villagers and other rural inhabitants without the support and understanding of district authorities.

Note:
Is it true that the answer is always in the first sentence of the paragraph?

May 28, 2015

IELTS Reading is a vocabulary test

You can't get a high score in the IELTS reading test without learning a lot of vocabulary.

For example, here are some words and phrases that my students needed to know for a reading test that we did:

• remained = stayed
• took a long time = slow
• of varying (size, price etc) = of different (size, price)
• virtually any = almost any
• non-stop = continuous
• unblemished = perfect, without a mark or scratch
• molten (glass or metal) = in liquid form due to heat
• instant commercial success = made a profit straight away
• flaws = faults, mistakes, weaknesses
• detecting = locating, finding, discovering

Write the new words and phrases that you read or hear in a notebook - that's the best way to improve your vocabulary knowledge.

May 18, 2015

IELTS Reading: gap-fill

Read the following text about universities.

Religion was central to the curriculum of early European universities. However, its role became less significant during the 19th century, and by the end of the 1800s, the German university model, based on more liberal values, had spread around the world. Universities concentrated on science in the 19th and 20th centuries, and became increasingly accessible to the masses. In Britain, the move from industrial revolution to modernity saw the arrival of new civic universities with an emphasis on science and engineering.

The funding and organisation of universities vary widely between different countries around the world. In some countries, universities are predominantly funded by the state, while in others, funding may come from donors or from fees which students attending the university must pay.

Complete the sentences below with NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage.

1. The German university model, which became popular in the 19th century, promoted ______.

2. Over the last 200 years, a university education has become ______ the general public.

3. Depending on the country, universities may be funded by the state, by donors, or by fee-paying ______.

May 09, 2015

IELTS Reading: recent keywords

Here's a keyword table for the two most recent exercises that I put here on the blog. Click here to see one of them, and here to check the other.

Note: Don't just have a quick look at this table. Look carefully at the vocabulary, and make a note of anything useful.

May 03, 2015

IELTS Reading: confusing choices

This week I'm making a video lesson about multiple choice questions in the reading test. To give you an idea of how confusing these questions can be, let's look at an example from the Official IELTS Practice Materials book.

I've underlined keywords in the question, choices and passage. Notice that words from all four choices are mentioned in the passage. But which choice is correct?

Question:

The Library of Congress offers and opportunity to

A) borrow from their collection of Dutch maps
B) learn how to restore ancient and fragile maps
C) enjoy the atmosphere of the reading room
D) create individual computer maps to order

Excerpt from passage:

The world’s largest collection of maps resides in the basement of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The collection, consisting of up to 4.6 million map sheets and 63,000 atlases, includes magnificent bound collections of elaborate maps - the pride of the golden age of Dutch cartography. In the reading room scholars, wearing thin cotton gloves to protect the fragile sheets, examine ancient maps with magnifying glasses. Across the room people sit at their computer screens, studying the latest maps. With their prodigious memories, computers are able to store data about people, places and environments - the stuff of maps - and almost instantly information is displayed on the screen in the desired geographic context, and at the click of a button, a print-out of the map appears.

April 13, 2015

IELTS Reading: paragraph headings

Match the correct headings with the paragraphs below.

1. The causes of stress among employers and employees
2. The increase in work-related stress
3. The increase in visits to physicians
4. Stress has wide-ranging effects on the body and on behaviour

A) The number of stress-related disability claims by American employees has doubled according to the Employee Assistance Professionals Association in Arlington, Virginia. Seventy-five to ninety percent of physician visits are related to stress and, according to the American Institute of Stress, the cost to industry has been estimated at $200 billion-$300 billion a year.

B) It is clear that problems caused by stress have become a major concern to both employers and employees. Symptoms of stress are manifested both physiologically and psychologically. Persistent stress can result in cardiovascular disease, a weaker immune system and frequent headaches, stiff muscles, or backache. It can also result in poor coping skills, irritability, jumpiness, insecurity, exhaustion, and difficulty concentrating. Stress may also perpetuate or lead to binge eating, smoking, and alcohol consumption.

April 09, 2015

IELTS Reading: general reading keywords

Here's a keyword table from the general reading test on pages 41-42 of Official IELTS Practice Materials book 2.

I tell all of my students to practise both academic and general reading tests. The techniques that we use are the same, and the vocabulary is always useful.

March 14, 2015

IELTS Reading: gap-fill video lesson

I've nearly finished my first video lesson for IELTS Reading. I'll start by looking at 'gap-fill' questions, and the lesson will cover various types of gap-fill task:

• Fill the gaps in a summary with words from the passage.
• Fill the gaps in a summary using words from a given list.
• Fill the gaps to complete a table of information.
• Fill the gaps to label a diagram.

If you haven't practised these four types of gap-fill question, don't worry. The task is basically the same, and the method that I suggest for finding the answers is also the same for each type. If you've followed my reading lessons here on the blog, you can probably guess which method I'll be using!

The video lesson should be ready later today or early tomorrow.

March 07, 2015

IELTS Reading: 'paragraph headings' keywords

The table below shows keywords for the paragraph headings exercise on page 14 of the book called Official IELTS Practice Materials 2. If you can find a copy of this passage (about 'Seaweeds of New Zealand'), it's a good one to try.

February 17, 2015

IELTS Reading: always record keywords

When practising IELTS reading at home, it's always a good idea to write down the 'keywords' that helped you to find the correct answers.

I recommend doing this even if the keywords seem easy. Personally, I've done so much reading practice (in my lessons) that I notice keywords very quickly - they jump out of the page! With time, I believe that you can develop the same ability.

Here are the easy keywords from last week's exercise:

February 06, 2015

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage about the 'Beaufort scale'.

The Beaufort scale is an empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land. Its full name is the Beaufort wind force scale, although it is a measure of wind speed and not of force in the scientific sense.

The scale was devised in 1805 by Francis Beaufort, an Irish Royal Navy officer. In the early 19th century, naval officers made regular weather observations, but there was no standard scale and so they could be very subjective. The initial scale of thirteen classes (zero to twelve) did not reference wind speed numbers but related qualitative wind conditions to effects on the sails of a frigate, then the main ship of the Royal Navy.

In 1916, to accommodate the growth of steam power, the descriptions were changed to how the sea, not the sails, behaved. The Beaufort scale was extended in 1946, when forces 13 to 17 were added. Today, hurricane force winds are sometimes described as Beaufort scale 12 to 16.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. The Beaufort scale is a scientific measure of wind force.
2. In the early 1800s, naval officers demanded a more accurate way to measure weather conditions.
3. The original scale measured the effect of wind on a ship’s sails.
4. Today, the Beaufort scale is still the predominant scale for wind description.

January 31, 2015

IELTS Reading: collocations

Read the following text about 'collocation':

Collocation is defined as a sequence of words or terms which co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. Collocation comprises the restrictions on how words can be used together, for example which prepositions are used with particular verbs, or which verbs and nouns are used together. An example of this (from Michael Halliday) is the collocation strong tea. While the same meaning could be conveyed through the roughly equivalent powerful tea, the fact is that English prefers to speak of tea in terms of being strong rather than in terms of being powerful. A similar observation holds for powerful computers which is preferred over strong computers.

If the expression is heard often, the words become 'glued' together in our minds. 'Crystal clear', 'middle management', 'nuclear family', and 'cosmetic surgery' are examples of collocated pairs of words. Some words are often found together because they make up a compound noun, for example 'text message' or 'motor cyclist'.

Are the statements below true, false or not given in the text?

1. It is possible, but not normal, to say 'powerful tea'.
2. It is equally acceptable in English to say 'powerful computers' or 'strong computers'.
3. Our brains remember some pairs of words better than others.

January 25, 2015

IELTS Reading: false or not given?

Students are often confused by the difference between 'false' and 'not given'.

You should choose false if the information in the passage directly contradicts the question statement; in other words, you need to be able to show that a different answer would be true. Choose not given only when there is no information, or not enough information.

Click here to see two example questions. The answer to the first one is 'false', and the answer to the second is 'not given'. Hopefully my explanations will help you to see the difference.

January 13, 2015

IELTS Reading: difficult vocabulary

Some IELTS reading questions cause problems because of difficult vocabulary.

Read the following sentences from Cambridge IELTS 4, page 46.

• We've had a tradition of doctors being fairly powerful and I guess they are pretty loath to allow any pretenders to their position to come into it.
• A better educated and less accepting public has become disillusioned with the experts in general, and increasingly sceptical about science.
• Those surveyed had experienced chronic illnesses, for which orthodox medicine had been able to provide little relief.

Find the words in the sentences above which have the following meanings:

1. long-term or persistent
2. having doubts or reservations
3. reluctant or unwilling
4. conventional or normal
5. disappointed when something is not as good as you thought it was

January 06, 2015

IELTS Reading: yes, no, not given

Read the following passage about 'uni-tasking' and 'multi-tasking'.

The human brain evolved to focus on one thing at a time. This enabled our ancestors to hunt animals, to create tools, and to protect their clan from predators or invading neighbours. In parallel, an attentional filter evolved to help us to stay on task, letting through only information that was important enough to deserve disrupting our train of thought.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the twenty-first century: The plethora of information and the technologies that serve our brain changed the way we use it. Increasingly, we demand that our attentional system try to focus on several things at once. Uni-tasking is getting harder and harder to do. The information age now buries us in data coming at us from every which way. We are bombarded with more information than at any time in history - the equivalent of 175 newspapers a day, five times as much information as we took in thirty years ago.

If we want to be more productive and creative, and to have more energy, the science suggests that we should tame the multi-tasking and immerse ourselves in a single task for sustained periods, say 30 to 50 minutes.

According to the author, are the following statements correct?
Answer YES, NO or NOT GIVEN.

1) The human brain is set up to perform many tasks at once.
2) The information age is characterised by our exposure to an abundance of data.
3) Multi-tasking may reduce human performance.

December 30, 2014

IELTS Reading: keywords

Did you make a keyword table for last week's paragraph matching task?
Here's mine:

December 23, 2014

IELTS Reading: which paragraph contains...?

Read the following passage about the tutorial method of teaching, which is used in some universities.

A) The tutorial method of teaching, where students are taught individually or in very small groups of two or three, developed as the collegiate system in Oxford and Cambridge Universities established itself. Teaching has existed in Oxford since the 11th century, and the role of tutors was documented in the 15th century, when Oxford tutors were described as ‘having responsibility for the conduct and instruction of their younger colleagues’ (Moore, 1968). Thus, the early role of the tutor was both pastoral as well as academic.

B) One of the foundations of Oxford’s academic excellence is the dialectic of the individual, discussion-based tutorial which is reputed to have reached its unique status in the middle of the 19th century. Professor Benjamin Jowett, classicist and Master of Balliol College, Oxford, is traditionally credited with having been the guiding influence behind the establishment of the tutorial system based on the Socratic method. His students said of Jowett, ‘his great skill consisted, like Socrates, in helping us to learn and think for ourselves’ (Markham, 1967). When Jowett took up the mantle of Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University in 1882, his teaching method of Socratic dialogue became established as a ‘pattern for the whole university’ (Markham, 1967).

C) In the last decade, multiple studies have been conducted exploring the unique learning benefits of the tutorial method. 130 years after it was formally established as the cornerstone of Oxford education, the tutorial method retains its prestige and effectiveness. As the present university website states, it is through the tutorial system that ‘students develop powers of independent and critical thought, analytical and problem-solving abilities, and skills in both written and oral communication and argument'.

(Source: http://www.greenes.org.uk/our-history/the-history-of-the-tutorial/)

Which paragraph contains the information in the statements below?

1. The tutorial is still a key part of the Oxford education system.
2. The tutorial method encourages students to learn independently.
3. The tutorial method features in Oxford University marketing.
4. Traditionally, Oxford tutors had more than just an academic role.

December 14, 2014

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage and answer the questions below.

‘Biometrics’ refers to the identification of humans by their characteristics or traits. Biometric identifiers are often categorised as physiological versus behavioural characteristics. Physiological characteristics are related to the shape of the body. Examples include fingerprint, face recognition, DNA, Palm print, hand geometry and iris recognition. Behavioural characteristics are related to the behaviour of a person, including typing rhythm, gait, and voice.

More traditional means of identification include token-based systems, such as a driver's license or passport, and knowledge-based systems, such as a password or personal identification number. Since biometric identifiers are unique to individuals, they are more reliable in verifying identity than token and knowledge-based methods; however, the collection of biometric identifiers raises privacy concerns about the ultimate use of this information.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. There are two main types of biometric identifier.
2. Fingerprinting is the best known biometric identification system.
3. The use of a password is another example of biometric identification.
4. Some people may worry about how biometric data is used.

November 29, 2014

IELTS Reading: choose the title

Choose the best title for the passage below.

A) The story of a visionary cycling coach.
B) Cycling’s ‘marginal gains’ theory and its application in schools.
C) The man behind Britain’s Olympic cycling success.
D) How cyclists implement the ‘marginal gains’ concept.
E) Schools have improved since the Olympic Games.

One simple, but highly effective, lesson from the Olympics comes from the visionary British cycling coach, Dave Brailsford. Brailsford believes that by breaking down and identifying every tiny aspect of an athlete's performance and then making just a 1% improvement in each area, the athlete's overall performance can be significantly enhanced. His concept of 'the aggregation of marginal gains' has been making transformative ripples in classrooms and schools ever since the cycling team came to prominence a few years ago.

What is so brilliant about Brailsford's marginal gains concept is that it is so flexible. It provides an accessible, precise and useful language for achieving success in a school context in various ways: from students improving their learning, to teachers looking to enhance their pedagogy, and, more broadly, school leaders looking to make small, but highly significant improvements.

(Adapted from The Guardian)

November 21, 2014

IELTS Reading: recent vocabulary

Here's another keyword table with some of the vocabulary from recent lessons here on the blog. It's always useful to make keyword tables, no matter how easy the vocabulary might seem.

November 14, 2014

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage about the daily life of a philosopher.

For 27 years the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer followed an identical routine. He rose every morning at seven and had a bath but no breakfast; he drank a cup of strong coffee before sitting down at his desk and writing until noon. At noon he ceased work for the day and spent half an hour practicing the flute, on which he became quite a skilled performer. Then he went out for lunch at his favourite restaurant. After lunch he returned home and read until four, when he left for his daily walk; he walked for two hours no matter what the weather. At six o’clock he visited the reading room of the library and read The Times. In the evening he attended the theatre or a concert, after which he had dinner at a hotel or restaurant. He got back home between nine and ten and went early to bed. He was willing to deviate from this routine in order to receive visitors.

Are the following statements true, false or not given in the passage?

1. Schopenhauer got up at the same time every day.
2. He dedicated the whole day to his work.
3. He ate the same meal every evening.
4. Schopenhauer allowed nothing to interrupt his daily routine.

November 07, 2014

IELTS Reading: keywords

The following question demonstrates the 'keyword technique' perfectly.

Question (true, false or not given?)
If you return unwanted shoes straightaway, with a receipt, the shop will probably give you a refund.

Passage
Go back to the shop with proof of purchase. If you return faulty shoes at once, you have a right to insist on a refund. It is also likely that you will get one if you change your mind about the shoes and take them back immediately.

Task
The correct answer is 'true', but can you complete the keyword table below to show how we found this answer?

October 29, 2014

IELTS Reading: match the headings

The space agency NASA proposes six "lunar exploration themes" to answer the question, "Why should we return to the Moon?"
.....

Match each heading from the following list with one of the themes described below.

A) Economic Expansion
B) Scientific Knowledge
C) Global Partnerships
D) Human Civilisation
E) Public Engagement
F) Exploration Preparation
.....

1. Extend human presence to the Moon to enable eventual settlement.

2. Pursue scientific activities that address fundamental questions about the history of Earth, the solar system and the universe; and therefore, about our place in them.

3. Test technologies, systems, flight operations and exploration techniques to reduce the risks and increase the productivity of future missions to Mars and beyond.

4. Provide a challenging, shared and peaceful activity that unites nations in pursuit of common objectives.

5. Expand Earth's economic sphere, and conduct lunar activities with benefits to life on the home planet.

6. Use a lively space exploration program to engage the public, encourage students and help develop the high-technology workforce that will be required to address the challenges of tomorrow.

(Source: Wikipedia)

October 18, 2014

IELTS Reading: multiple choice practice

The document attached below contains a multiple choice exercise from the official IELTS website, ielts.org. Here's some advice before you try the exercise:

1. First, underline the 'keywords' in the question. In the first question, for example, I would underline research, 1982, United States and soil erosion.
2. Second, underline the keywords in each of the four choices e.g. reduced productivity by 20% in choice A, and India and China in choice B.
3. Next, search for the keywords from the question. I'd look for 1982 first, then find the other keywords.
4. Finally, read the relevant section of the text carefully, and compare what it says with the information in the four choices. In question 1, you'll need to think carefully about answers A and C.

To download the exercise click here.

October 11, 2014

IELTS Reading: keyword table

Here's another keyword table with vocabulary from Cambridge IELTS 5, test 4, passage 1. Look carefully at the paraphrasing used.

October 03, 2014

IELTS Reading: match the phrases

The phrases below come from Cambridge IELTS 5 (test 3, passage 1). Match the similar phrases from the two lists, and look up any new vocabulary in a dictionary.

1) a cross-section of socio-economic status
2) positive outcomes
3) supplied support and training
4) insufficient funding
5) scored highly in listening and speaking
6) bore little or no relationship to

A) too little money was invested
B) had nothing to do with
C) a variety of poor and wealthy families
D) the results were phenomenal
E) guidance was provided
F) were more advanced in language development

September 24, 2014

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

Read the following passage about 'mindsets' and success.

According to Carol Dweck, individuals can be placed on a continuum according to their implicit views of where ability comes from. Some believe their success is based on innate ability; these are said to have a "fixed" theory of intelligence (fixed mindset). Others, who believe their success is based on having opposite mindset, which involves hard work, learning, training and doggedness are said to have a "growth" or an "incremental" theory of intelligence (growth mindset).

Individuals may not necessarily be aware of their own mindset, but their mindset can still be discerned based on their behaviour. It is especially evident in their reaction to failure. Fixed-mindset individuals dread failure because it is a negative statement on their basic abilities, while growth mindset individuals do not mind or fear failure as much because they realise their performance can be improved and learning comes from failure. These two mindsets play an important role in all aspects of a person's life. Dweck argues that the growth mindset will allow a person to live a less stressful and more successful life.

Which TWO of the following statements agree with the ideas of the writer?

A) Dweck believes that success depends on inherited intelligence.
B) Dweck classifies people according to their beliefs about ability and success.
C) We do not always realise which mindset we have.
D) Fixed-mindset individuals fail more often than those who have a growth mindset.

September 18, 2014

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage about the extinction of species.

There are a variety of factors that can contribute directly or indirectly to the extinction of a species. Extinction may come suddenly when an otherwise healthy species is wiped out completely, such as when toxic pollution renders its entire habitat unlivable, or it may occur gradually over thousands or millions of years, such as when a species gradually loses out in competition for food to better adapted competitors. Extinction may occur a long time after the events that set it in motion, a phenomenon known as extinction debt.

Currently, environmental groups and some governments are concerned with the extinction of species caused by humanity, and they try to prevent further extinctions through a variety of conservation programmes. Humans can cause extinction of a species through over-harvesting, pollution, habitat destruction, introduction of invasive species (such as new predators and food competitors), and over-hunting.

Are the following statements true, false, or not given?

1. In most cases of extinction, the species slowly dies out over a period of many years.
2. 'Extinction debt' refers to cases of species dying out long after the initial event that triggered the extinction took place.
3. Human activity is the principal cause of the extinction of species.

September 03, 2014

IELTS Reading: it's a vocabulary test!

Here's my keyword table for a general reading test section in Cambridge IELTS book 5 (page 121-122).

IELTS reading is really a vocabulary test.

For example, if you know that 'communal bathrooms' means 'shared bathrooms', you'll be able to match that with 'do not have your own bathroom'. If you don't know the meaning of 'communal', it will be difficult to get the right answer.

August 17, 2014

IELTS Reading: more keywords

Here are some keywords from a General Reading test in Cambridge IELTS book 9. You don't need to do this test; just look at the vocabulary and make sure it's part of your 'repertoire'.

August 09, 2014

IELTS Reading: official sample papers

Have you tried doing the test samples on the official IELTS website (ielts.org)? Click here to go to the academic reading download page, then here for the general reading samples.

Note: I recommend doing the exercises for both academic and general. Although there are differences between these two tests, the techniques that you'll use to find the answers are the same (especially the keyword technique).

July 30, 2014

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

Read the passage and choose the best answers to the questions below.

Ecotourism is a form of tourism where tourists visit fragile, pristine, and relatively undisturbed natural areas. Its purpose may be to educate the traveller, to provide funds for ecological conservation, to directly benefit the economic development and political empowerment of local communities, or to foster respect for different cultures and for human rights.

However, ecotourism operations occasionally fail to live up to conservation ideals. Even a modest increase in population puts extra pressure on the local environment and necessitates the development of additional infrastructure. The construction of water treatment plants, sanitation facilities, and lodges come with the exploitation of non-renewable energy sources and the utilisation of already limited local resources. The environment may suffer because local communities are unable to meet these infrastructure demands.

1. One aim of ecotourism is to

A) allow people to visit areas that were previously restricted.
B) educate local communities in fragile areas.
C) raise money for environmental projects in natural areas.

2. However, ecotourism can cause problems when

A) the local population does not welcome visitors.
B) extra facilities and amenities are required to cope with a population increase.
C) communities do not have the funds to improve local facilities.

July 17, 2014

IELTS Reading: both true, but why?

A student asked me about the following passage and questions from Cambridge IELTS 8. The answer to both questions is "true", but the student asked me to explain why. Can you help?

Part of the passage:

The nineteenth century saw considerable interest in the nature of genius, and produced not a few studies of famous prodigies... However, the difficulty with the evidence produced by these studies, fascinating as they are in collecting together anecdotes and apparent similarities and exceptions, is that they are not what we would today call norm-referenced. In other words, when, for instance, information is collated about early illnesses, methods of upbringing, schooling, etc., we must also take into account information from other historical sources about how common or exceptional these were at the time. For instance, infant mortality was high and life expectancy much shorter than today, home tutoring was common in the families of the nobility and wealthy, bullying and corporal punishment were common at the best independent schools and, for the most part, the cases studied were members of the privileged classes. It was only with the growth of paediatrics and psychology in the twentieth century that studies could be carried out on a more objective, if still not always very scientific, basis.

Questions (true, false or not given):

1. Nineteenth-century studies of the nature of genius failed to take into account the uniqueness of the person's upbringing.
2. Nineteenth-century studies of genius lacked both objectivity and a proper scientific approach.

July 09, 2014

IELTS Reading: always note keywords

It's always a good idea to note the 'keywords' whenever you do an IELTS reading exercise, even a short or easy one. Here are the keywords from the last two reading exercises that I put here on the site:

July 03, 2014

IELTS Reading: choose the title

Read the following passage and choose the best title from the list below.

The attitude of the scientific community towards the unconscious mind has shifted dramatically in recent years. While once viewed as a lazy reservoir of memories and non-task oriented behaviour, the unconscious is now regarded as an active and essential component in the processes of decision making.

Historically, the unconscious mind was considered to be the source of dreams and implicit memory (which allows people to walk or ride a bicycle without consciously thinking about the activity), as well as the storing place for memories of past experiences. But recent research reveals that the unconscious brain might also be an active player in decision making, problem solving, creativity and critical thinking. One familiar example of the operation of the unconscious in problem solving is the well-known phenomenon of the "eureka moment", when a solution to a problem presents itself without the involvement of active thinking.

A) Scientists present new findings about the unconscious mind
B) Our growing understanding of the role of the unconscious
C) How humans solve problems
D) What is a “eureka moment”?

June 21, 2014

IELTS Reading: notice the vocabulary

In all IELTS reading tests you'll find good vocabulary. When you read a good word or phrase, do you notice it, write it down, and try to use it?

Here's some good vocabulary from last week's reading exercise:

• the ease
• our modern workday
• come at the expense of
• longevity
• long stretches of time
• increases the odds of
• an untimely death
• engage in leisurely pursuits
• shortening their lifespan
• sedentary
• moderate to vigorous exercise
• mortality
• inactive
• fared the worst
• premature death
• lesser amounts of
• prolonged

This is the kind of "less common vocabulary" that could help you to get a band 7 or higher in the writing and speaking tests. Can you use these words and phrases in your own sentences?

June 15, 2014

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage about a study into 'sitting'.

The ease of our modern workday could come at the expense of our longevity. A new study of older women in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds that sitting for long stretches of time increases the odds of an untimely death. The more hours women in the study spent sitting at work, driving, lying on the couch watching TV, or engaged in other leisurely pursuits, the greater their odds of dying early from all causes, including heart disease and cancer.

Even women who exercised regularly risked shortening their lifespan if most of their daily hours were sedentary ones. “Even if you are doing the recommended amount of moderate to vigorous exercise, you will still have a higher risk of mortality if you’re spending too many hours sitting,” says Dr. JoAnn Manson, one of the study’s authors.

How much sitting can you safely do in a day? In the study, women who were inactive for 11 or more hours a day fared the worst, facing a 12% increase in premature death, but even lesser amounts of inactive time can cause problems. “Once you’re sitting for more than 6 to 8 hours a day, that’s not likely to be good for you,” Dr. Manson says. You want to avoid prolonged sitting and increase the amount of moderate or vigorous exercise you do each day, she adds.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. The study looked at the effects of sitting on elderly women only.
2. A link was found between hours spent sitting and serious health problems.
3. The warnings about sitting do not apply to people who exercise regularly.
4. Less than 6 hours a day is a safe amount of sitting.

(Source: Harvard Medical School)

June 12, 2014

IELTS Reading: keywords

Did you make a keyword table for last week's reading exercise? Here's mine:

June 05, 2014

IELTS Reading: match the names

Read the following passage about the meaning of 'genius'.

A genius is a person who displays exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of an unprecedented leap of insight. Various philosophers have proposed definitions of what genius is.

In the philosophy of David Hume, a genius is seen by others as a person disconnected from society, who works remotely, away from the rest of the world. For Immanuel Kant, genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person. Arthur Schopenhauer defined a genius as someone in whom intellect predominates over "will". According to Bertrand Russell, a genius possesses unique qualities and talents that make him or her especially valuable to society.

Match each of the following statements to one of the philosophers below.

1. A genius is someone who does not require instruction.
2. We tend to regard geniuses as solitary figures.
3. A genius has the ability to make an exceptional contribution to society.

A) Hume
B) Kant
C) Schopenhauer
D) Russell

May 18, 2014

IELTS Reading: work on vocabulary

If you want to improve your IELTS reading score, the most important thing to work on is your knowledge of vocabulary. Exam techniques are of little use if you don't understand the words that you are reading.

I tell my students to keep a vocabulary notebook, and to use a dictionary to find meanings and examples of usage. Here are some words and phrases that we noted in an IELTS reading lesson that I taught last week:

• exclusive of
• to dab
• to mimic
• a static image
• mastery
• cognitive
• a pitfall
• ground rules
• the likelihood
• to pick up a signal

To help my students, I tried to explain the meanings and to give some example sentences. Can you write your own sentences to show that you can use the vocabulary above?

May 11, 2014

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following paragraph about 'minority languages'.

Minority languages are occasionally marginalised within nations for a number of reasons. These include the small number of speakers, the decline in the number of speakers, and their occasional consideration as uncultured, primitive, or simple dialects when compared to the dominant language. Support for minority languages is sometimes viewed as supporting separatism. Immigrant minority languages are often also seen as a threat and as indicative of the non-integration of these communities. Both of these perceived threats are based on the notion of the exclusion of the majority language speakers. Often this is added to by political systems which do not provide support (such as education and policing) in these languages.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. Minority languages sometimes disappear.
2. Minority languages are simpler to learn than majority languages.
3. Minority languages are sometimes considered to be harmful.

May 04, 2014

IELTS Reading: another keyword table

Here's the key vocabulary that helped my students to get the answers to reading test 2, passage 3 in Cambridge IELTS book 9.

April 26, 2014

IELTS Reading: vocabulary exercise

Read the following text about bad behaviour in schools.

The misbehaviour of children is common in all schools, although most schools manage to maintain tolerable standards of discipline. Low levels of indiscipline can result in a detrimental working environment for children, while poor disciplinary management within a school can cause a more general breakdown in order.

Problems with school discipline have also led to a reduction in the number of people willing to become teachers, especially in schools regarded as difficult. Student misbehaviour and rudeness is the leading cause of teacher resignations. In some areas and countries, this has led to a severe teacher shortage, with classes either not taught, or taught by an unqualified person. In some schools, a class may have up to a dozen different teachers in a single year, as the replacements decide to leave rather than deal with student behaviour. Many countries are now trying to offer incentives to new teachers to remain in such schools, but with very limited success.

Find words or phrases in the text that are similar to those in the list below.

1. sufficient levels
2. negative
3. resulted in
4. main reason for
5. serious
6. as many as twelve

April 18, 2014

IELTS Reading: improve your vocabulary

Whenever you practise doing an IELTS reading test, you should treat it as an opportunity to improve your vocabulary knowledge. Look carefully at the phrases used, and the way ideas are expressed.

For example, did you notice this vocabulary in last week's lesson?

• pose a challenge
• a pressing challenge
• meet the growing need for
• more mouths to feed
• sheer population growth
• the spread of prosperity
• driving demand
• boosting pressure
• the double whammy of... and...

Try making your own sentences to practise using some of these phrases.

March 30, 2014

IELTS Reading: find the keywords

The following exercise comes from a 'match the headings' question in Cambridge IELTS book 5. I have given you the correct heading for each description, but can you find the 'keywords' that prove why the two answers are correct?

Description 1:
This book describes the creativity of Aboriginal people living in the driest parts of Australia. Stunning reproductions of paintings, beautiful photography and informative text.

Answer:
Guide to the Art of the Australian Desert

Description 2:
Graphic artists have worked with researchers and scientists to illustrate how these prehistoric animals lived and died on the Australian continent.

Answer:
A Pictorial History of the Dinosaur in Australia

March 22, 2014

IELTS Reading: keywords from recent exercises

The table below contains keywords from two recent exercises here on the blog. The first three rows of the table refer to this exercise about the effects of television, and the last three rows refer to this passage about the performer Houdini.

March 04, 2014

IELTS Reading: when to skim or scan

From my experience practising IELTS reading with students, skimming and scanning are techniques that don't usually help. When students try to skim or scan, they often miss the answers completely.

For example, if you are scanning for the word "buy" but the passage contains the synonym "purchase", you probably won't find the answer.

So what is the solution? Instead of skimming or scanning, I tell my students to read at normal speed. Only scan quickly if you are searching for a name or a number.

February 19, 2014

IELTS Reading: keyword table

Here's a keyword table for test 3, passage 3 in Cambridge IELTS book 5.

Notice the expressions "to coin a term" (to invent a new term) and "to move the goal-posts" (to change the aim). My students didn't know these phrases.

Note: the "opposite of" phrases were from 'false' answers.

February 12, 2014

IELTS Reading: topic research

The exercise below serves as both IELTS reading practice and topic research for this week's writing lesson (about 'telework').

Fill the gaps in the passage with the following words:
commute, mobility, instant, efficient, remote, smartphones, locations

Telecommuting, ______ work, or telework is a work arrangement in which employees do not ______ to a central place of work. A person who telecommutes is known as a "telecommuter", "teleworker", and sometimes as a "home-sourced," or "work-at-home" employee. Many telecommuters work from home, while others, sometimes called "nomad workers", use mobile telecommunications technology to work from coffee shops or other ______.

Telework is facilitated by tools such as groupware, virtual private networks, conference calling and videoconferencing. It can be ______ and useful for companies since it allows workers to communicate over long distances, saving travel time and cost. Furthermore, with their improving technology and increasing popularity, ______ are becoming widely used in telework. They substantially increase the ______ of the worker and the degree of coordination with their organization. The technology of mobile phones allows ______ communication through text messages, camera photos, and video clips from anywhere and at any time.

February 02, 2014

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following article about the effects of television on young children.

Watching television makes toddlers fatter and stupider at primary school, according to new research. Scientists who tracked the progress of pre-school children found that the more television they watched the worse they were at mathematics, the more junk food they ate, and the more they were bullied by other pupils.

The findings, which support earlier evidence indicating television harms cognitive development, prompted calls for the Government to set limits on how much children should watch. American paediatricians advise that under-twos should not watch any television and that older children should view one to two hours a day at most. France has banned shows aimed at under-threes, and Australia recommends that three to five year-olds watch no more than an hour a day. Britain has no official advice.

Researchers said that pre-school is a critical time for brain development and that TV watching displaced time that could be spent engaging in "developmentally enriching tasks". Even incremental exposure to TV delayed development, said the lead author Dr Linda Pagani, of Montreal University.
(The Independent)

According to the article, are these statements TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN?

1. Scientists believe that there is a link between the amount of television young children watch and their mental ability.
2. Shows aimed at under-twos are banned in the USA.
3. Children’s television programming is more strictly controlled in France than in Britain.

January 25, 2014

IELTS Reading: another keyword table

Here's a table of key vocabulary from Cambridge IELTS 8 (test 1, passage 1).

Remember that there are always words in the passage that are similar to words in the questions. If you find the similar words, you've found the answers.

January 21, 2014

IELTS Reading: gap-fill from a useful website

The articles used in the IELTS reading test often come from magazines like The Economist or The New Scientist. Why not practise for the exam by reading articles from these magazines?

Here are a few paragraphs from an article about the use of wireless communications to improve health care. I've made it into a gap-fill exercise.

Fill the gaps with one of the following words: cutting, advances, track, coming, empower, chief, developing

Pundits have long predicted that ______ in genetics will usher in a golden age of individually tailored therapies. But in fact it is much lower-tech wireless devices and internet-based health software that are precipitating the mass customisation of health care, and creating entirely new business models in the process.

The hope is that nimble new technologies, from smart-phones to health-monitoring devices, will ______ patients and doctors, and thus improve outcomes while ______ costs. The near ubiquity of mobile phones is the ______ reason to think this optimistic scenario may come true. Patients with smart-phones can certainly benefit from interactive “wellness” applications that track diet, exercise and vital signs.

Many companies are ______ up with “home health” devices embedded with wireless technology. Some are overtly clinical in nature: Medtronic, a devices giant, is ______ a bedside monitor that wirelessly tracks the blood sugar levels in diabetic children sleeping nearby. GE has come up with “body sensor networks”, tiny wireless devices that ______ the vital signs of those who wear them.

Full article: Apr 8th 2010, From The Economist

January 16, 2014

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following text and answer true, false or not given.

Coffee consumption has been shown to have minimal or no impact, positive or negative, on cancer development. However, researchers involved in an ongoing 22-year study by the Harvard School of Public Health state that "the overall balance of risks and benefits [of coffee consumption] are on the side of benefits."

Other studies suggest coffee consumption reduces the risk of being affected by Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, cirrhosis of the liver, and gout. A longitudinal study in 2009 showed that those who consumed a moderate amount of coffee or tea (3–5 cups per day) at midlife were less likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer's disease in late-life compared with those who drank little coffee or avoided it altogether.

1. Scientists have linked coffee consumption to accelerated cancer development.
2. Some scientists believe that the benefits of drinking coffee outweigh the drawbacks.
3. Recent research links coffee consumption with a reduced risk of some illnesses.

January 06, 2014

IELTS Reading: more keywords

My students and I did a quick exercise from the general reading test on page 109 of Cambridge IELTS book 9. It's a good example of the importance of searching for 'keywords'.

Here's our keyword table:

November 21, 2013

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following excerpt from a book review:

What constitutes the good life? What is the true value of money? Why do we work such long hours merely to acquire greater wealth? These are some of the questions that many asked themselves when the financial system crashed in 2008. This book tackles such questions head-on. The authors begin with the great economist John Maynard Keynes. In 1930, Keynes predicted that within a century people’s basic needs would be met, and no one would have to work more than fifteen hours a week.

Clearly, he was wrong: though income has increased as he envisioned, our wants have seemingly gone unsatisfied, and we continue to work long hours. The authors explain why Keynes was mistaken. Then, arguing from the premise that economics is a moral science, they trace the concept of the good life from Aristotle to the present and show how our lives over the last half century have strayed from that ideal. Finally, they issue a call to think anew about what really matters in our lives and how to attain it.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. Before 2008, people were less concerned about economics.
2. Keynes’ prediction about working hours was wide of the mark.
3. The book asks us to consider what is important in life.

November 11, 2013

IELTS Reading: another keyword table

The table below shows the keywords that my students found in reading test 3, passage 3 in Cambridge IELTS book 4.

October 28, 2013

IELTS Reading: video lesson

Here's the short video lesson that I promised for today:

If you don't have access to YouTube, try watching on Vimeo by clicking here.

October 21, 2013

IELTS Reading: practice test with 'paragraph' questions

Today I'm attaching part of a real IELTS reading test. You'll see that the first section asks "Which paragraph contains the following information?" Try doing these "paragraph" questions last; hopefully you'll find them easier when you've done the other questions and become familiar with the passage.

Click here to download the reading test

Feel free to share your answers in the "comments" area.

September 20, 2013

IELTS Reading: how we get the answers

The answers to last week's reading exercise were B, C and F. We get those answers by doing two things:

1. First, we search for keywords in the passage (see the table below).
2. Then we read the relevant part of the passage carefully, checking and comparing with the question until we are sure of the answer.

September 13, 2013

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

Read the following passage about a tunnel in London.

The Thames Tunnel is an underwater tunnel that was built beneath the River Thames in London between 1825 and 1843. It is 396 metres long, and runs at a depth of 23 metres below the river surface. It was the first tunnel known to have been constructed successfully underneath a navigable river.

Although it was a triumph of civil engineering, the Thames Tunnel was not a financial success, with building costs far exceeding initial estimates. Proposals to extend the entrance to accommodate wheeled vehicles failed, and it was used only by pedestrians. However, the tunnel did become a major tourist destination, attracting about two million people a year, each of whom paid a penny to pass under the river.

The construction of the Thames Tunnel showed that it was indeed possible to build underwater tunnels, despite the previous scepticism of many engineers. Its historic importance was recognised on 24th March 1995, when the structure was listed Grade II* in recognition of its architectural importance.

Which THREE of the following statements are correct?

A) The Thames Tunnel was the world’s first ever tunnel.
B) Construction of the tunnel was more expensive than predicted.
C) There were plans to allow vehicles to use the tunnel.
D) Tourism eventually made the tunnel profitable.
E) Many engineers had already tried to build underwater tunnels.
F) The Thames Tunnel is now considered to be a significant work of architecture.

September 08, 2013

IELTS Reading: more keywords!

My students and I worked through passage 2 of test 3 in Cambridge IELTS book 9 (page 67). Here's a table of the keywords that gave us the answers:

August 31, 2013

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following text about volcanoes in Iceland.

Iceland has a high concentration of active volcanoes due to unique geological conditions. The island has about 130 volcanic mountains, of which 18 have erupted since the settlement of Iceland, circa 900 CE. Over the past 500 years, Iceland's volcanoes have erupted a third of the total global lava output.

Geologists explain this high concentration of volcanic activity as being due to a combination of the island's position on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and a volcanic hotspot underneath the island. The island sits astride the boundary between the Eurasian and North American Plates, and most volcanic activity is concentrated along the plate boundary, which runs across the island from the south-west to the north-east of the island. Some volcanic activity occurs offshore, especially off the southern coast. This includes wholly submerged submarine volcanoes and even newly formed volcanic islands such as Surtsey and Jólnir.

The most recent volcanic eruption in Iceland was that of Eyjafjallajökull, which started on April 14, 2010. The Eyjafjallajökull eruption closely followed an eruption in Fimmvörðuháls, which had erupted on March 20.

Are the statements below true, false or not given?

1. People first settled in Iceland around the beginning of the 10th century.
2. The island is situated at the point where two of the earth's plates meet.
3. Volcanic activity also takes place in the ocean near Iceland.

August 23, 2013

IELTS Reading: practice test

Find the reading test on page 74-77 in Cambridge IELTS book 4.

Use the key vocabulary in the table below to help you with the test. Don't worry about the time; just try to get all of the answers right.

July 08, 2013

IELTS Reading: more keywords

Here's my keyword table for test 1, passage 2 in Cambridge IELTS 7:

Do you make keyword tables like this when you do IELTS reading tests at home? The more practice you do, the better you'll get at noticing the keywords and finding the answers.

July 04, 2013

IELTS Reading: paragraph heading

Read the following paragraph and choose the best heading.

Melbourne has topped the list of the best cities in the world to live in, according to a new report by The Economist Intelligence Unit. Vienna in Austria and Vancouver in Canada came in second and third place respectively on the Global Livability Ranking. Cities across the world are awarded scores depending on lifestyle challenges faced by the people living there. Each city is scored on its stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. This is the third time that the Australian city has topped the list. Unfortunately, UK cities fared worse on the list with London coming 55 out of 140 cities while Manchester was ranked 51. The report also shows that livability across the world has fallen by 0.6 per cent.

A) Livability survey produces some surprising results.
B) How cities are ranked.
C) Results of the latest “Most Livable Cities Index”.
D) Melbourne is top city for tourists.

June 27, 2013

IELTS Reading: keyword technique

What do I mean by the 'keyword' technique?

By 'keywords' I mean: words in the text that have a similar meaning to words in the questions.

The table below shows the keywords that helped my students to find the answers to the test on page 122 of Cambridge IELTS 6.

Note: this comes from a General Training test, but the technique is the same for both general and academic tests.

June 08, 2013

IELTS Reading: real test samples

Have you done the free practice tests from the official IELTS website (ielts.org)?

If you haven't, click the link below. There are 7 sample tasks that you can download and print. The answers are at the bottom of each page.

Click here to go to reading samples page

May 31, 2013

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage and answer the questions below.

A Stradivarius is one of the violins, cellos, and other stringed instruments built by members of the Stradivari (Stradivarius) family, particularly Antonio Stradivari, during the 17th and 18th centuries. According to their reputation, the quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or equal it, though this belief is disputed. The name "Stradivarius" has become a superlative often associated with excellence, and the fame of Stradivarius instruments is widespread, appearing in numerous works of fiction.

Depending on condition, instruments made during Stradivari's "golden period" from 1700 to about 1725 can be worth millions of dollars. In 2011, his "Lady Blunt" violin from 1721, which is in pristine condition, was sold at Tarisio auctions for £9.8 million.

These instruments are famous for the quality of sound they produce. However, the many blind tests from 1817 to the present have never found any difference in sound between Stradivari's violins and high-quality violins in comparable style of other makers and periods, nor has acoustic analysis. In a particularly famous test on a BBC Radio programme in 1977, the violinists Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman and the violin expert and dealer Charles Beare tried to distinguish between the "Chaconne" Stradivarius and three other violins, including one made in 1976, played behind a screen by a professional soloist. None of the listeners identified more than two of the four instruments. Two of the listeners identified the 20th-century violin as the Stradivarius.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. The superior reputation of Stradivarius instruments has never been questioned.
2. The “Lady Blunt” Stradivarius is the most expensive violin every sold.
3. Tests have shown that experts are able to distinguish the famous Stradivarius sound.

PS. Thanks to those of you who wished me a nice holiday!

May 19, 2013

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following text about sharks, then answer the questions below.

Contrary to the common wisdom that sharks are instinct-driven "eating machines", recent studies have indicated that many species possess powerful problem-solving skills, social skills and curiosity. The brain- to body-mass ratios of sharks are similar to those of mammals and birds, and migration patterns in sharks may be even more complex than in birds, with many sharks covering entire ocean basins. However, shark behaviour has only begun to be formally studied, so there is much more to learn.

A popular myth is that sharks are immune to disease and cancer; however, this remains to be proven. The evidence that sharks are at least resistant to cancer and disease is mostly anecdotal and there have been few, if any, scientific or statistical studies that show sharks to have heightened immunity to disease.

According to the text, are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. Research shows that sharks are more intelligent than most people think.
2. Relative to their body size, sharks have bigger brains than birds.
3. There is no real evidence proving that sharks are resistant to diseases.

May 11, 2013

IELTS Reading: always review keywords

Every time you do a practice IELTS reading test, remember to keep a record of the 'keywords' that helped you to find the correct answers.

Did you make a keyword table for the exercise in last week's lesson?

March 23, 2013

IELTS Reading: matching exercise

Today I've attached a matching exercise. The answers are given on the last page, but try not to look at them until you've done the exercise.

Click here to download

March 04, 2013

IELTS Reading: always review vocabulary

Even if you find a reading exercise easy, it's always useful to review the key vocabulary that helped you to get the answers.

Here's my review of the vocabulary from last week's exercise:

February 09, 2013

IELTS Reading: more vocabulary

The table below shows the key vocabulary for test 4, passage 2 in Cambridge IELTS book 4. Try this test if you have a copy of it. My table should help you to get the correct answers.

January 27, 2013

IELTS Reading: more keywords

My students and I did test 1, passage 1 in Cambridge IELTS book 4. The table below shows some of the keywords that helped us to find the correct answers:

This table shows how important it is to look for similar words in the reading test. It also shows that IELTS reading is a test of your vocabulary knowledge. For example, do you know the difference between 'yes/no questions' and 'open-form questions'? Do you know what 'coverage' and 'misconceptions' mean?

January 22, 2013

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

Read the following text and answer the questions below.

The ethos of the aristocracy, as exemplified in the English public schools, greatly influenced Pierre de Coubertin. The public schools subscribed to the belief that sport formed an important part of education, an attitude summed up in the saying 'mens sana in corpore sano', a sound mind in a sound body. In this ethos, a gentleman was one who became an all-rounder, not the best at one specific thing. There was also a prevailing concept of fairness, in which practising or training was considered tantamount to cheating.

1. De Coubertin agreed with the idea that:

A) sport is an activity for gentlemen.
B) schooling should promote both physical and mental health.
C) sport is the most important part of a child's education.

2. In De Coubertin's view:

A) it is easier to be good at many sports, rather than the best at one sport.
B) training is necessary if you want to be an all-rounder.
C) training gives the athlete an unfair advantage.

January 02, 2013

IELTS Reading: when to 'skim' or 'scan'

Many IELTS books talk about 'skimming' and 'scanning' to find answers in the reading test. But the danger is that students focus more on these techniques than on the passage that they are reading, with the result that they often miss the answers by skimming or scanning past them!

Here's some simple advice:

Skimming basically means 'reading very quickly'. Only skim if you are looking for a distinctive word that doesn't have any synonyms e.g. "Manchester".

Scanning basically means 'looking for something without reading'. Only scan if you're searching for a number e.g. "1999".

For all other questions, forget about skimming and scanning; just read the passage carefully at normal speed.

December 13, 2012

IELTS Reading: more keywords

Here's my keyword table for test 1, passage 3 in Cambridge IELTS 6:

Note:
Did you study this table carefully? Did you know the words credibility, hardships, sustenance, struggle, harsh, abandon?

December 07, 2012

IELTS Reading: easy keywords

Here are some easy 'keywords' that helped my students to get the answers for the General reading test on page 116 of Cambridge IELTS 6:

November 30, 2012

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage about a method for music teaching.

The Suzuki method is a method of teaching music conceived and executed by Japanese violinist Shin'ichi Suzuki (born 1898, died 1998), dating from the mid-20th century. The central belief of Suzuki is that all people are capable of learning from their environment. The essential components of his method spring from the desire to create the "right environment" for learning music. He also believed that this positive environment would also help to foster character in students.

As a skilled violinist but a beginner at the German language who struggled to learn it, Suzuki noticed that children pick up their native language quickly, and even dialects adults consider "difficult" to learn are spoken with ease by 5-year-olds. He reasoned that if children have the skill to acquire their mother tongue, then they have the necessary ability to become proficient on a musical instrument. He pioneered the idea that pre-school age children could learn to play the violin if learning steps were small enough and if the instrument was scaled down to fit their body.

Decide whether the following statements are true, false or not given.

1. Suzuki believed that environment is crucial for anyone learning a musical instrument.
2. His method helped him to learn German.
3. Suzuki compared language learning with learning to play an instrument.
4. He introduced new ideas about teaching music to infants.

November 18, 2012

IELTS Reading: fill the gaps

The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were two American brothers, inventors, and aviation pioneers who were credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903. In the two years afterward, the brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft.

The brothers' fundamental breakthrough was their invention of three-axis control, which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium. This method became standard and remains standard on fixed-wing aircraft of all kinds. From the beginning of their aeronautical work, the Wright brothers focused on developing a reliable method of pilot control as the key to solving "the flying problem". This approach differed significantly from other experimenters of the time who put more emphasis on developing powerful engines. Using a small homebuilt wind tunnel, the Wrights also collected more accurate data than anyone had before, enabling them to design and build wings and propellers that were more efficient than rival models.

They gained the mechanical skills essential for their success by working for years in their shop with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and other machinery. Their work with bicycles in particular influenced their belief that an unstable vehicle like a flying machine could be controlled and balanced with practice.

Fill each gap in the summary below with a maximum of 2 words.

In 1903, the Wright brothers completed development of the first airplane that was capable of sustaining controlled ______. The key to their success was a system that gave the pilot the means to control and ______ the airplane. This set them apart from other inventors who had focused on building ______. The brothers had previous experience with a wide variety of ______, but it was their work with ______ that had the greatest influence on their ideas.

November 03, 2012

IELTS Reading: keywords

Here's my keyword table for last week's true, false, not given exercise:

Notice how the questions almost always paraphrase parts of the passage, using synonyms or words with a similar meaning (e.g. regard - refer to, foremost - best, famous - eminent). If you do enough practice, you'll get used to finding and recognising these similar words, and your scores should improve!

October 07, 2012

IELTS Reading: more vocabulary!

My students and I did test 2, passage 2 in Cambridge IELTS book 8 ('The Little Ice Age'). This is quite a tricky test because one or two of the questions are not in order in the passage. Here are some of the keywords that helped us to get the correct answers:

Note: 'far from' can be used to mean 'the opposite of' e.g. "I am far from happy" means "I am not happy at all".

September 30, 2012

IELTS Reading: gap-fill summary

Read the following passage about the discovery of penicillin.

Fill the gaps in the summary below using words from the passage.

Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin by ______ on September 28, 1928. He found that the growth of bacteria on a petri dish was ______ by a blue-green mould that had contaminated the culture. He realised that the mould was producing a substance that was responsible for ______ bacterial growth.

September 23, 2012

IELTS Reading: more key vocabulary

On Saturday I taught an IELTS reading and writing course here in Manchester. My students and I did reading test 2, passage 3 in Cambridge IELTS book 8.

Here are some of the keywords that helped us to find the correct answers:

September 12, 2012

IELTS Reading: matching similar words

To find answers in the reading test, look for words or phrases in the passage that are similar to words in the questions.

In the test mentioned below, you need to know that 'exaggerate' is similar to 'overstate', or that 'urgent' is similar to 'pressing'.

The table below shows similar words/phrases for the test on page 24 of Cambridge IELTS book 5.

August 12, 2012

IELTS Reading: vocabulary

Did you note down the key vocabulary from last week's gap-fill exercise? Here's my keyword table in case you didn't:

August 01, 2012

IELTS Reading: gap-fill

Read the following passage about creative writing.

New research, prompted by the relatively high number of literary families, shows that there may be an inherited element to writing good fiction. Researchers from Yale in the US and Moscow State University in Russia launched the study to see whether there was a scientific reason why well-known writers have produced other writers.

The study analysed the creative writing of 511 children aged eight to 17 and 489 of their mothers and 326 fathers. All the participants wrote stories on particular themes. The stories were then scored and rated for originality and novelty, plot development and quality, and sophistication and creative use of prior knowledge. The researchers also carried out detailed intelligence tests and analysed how families functioned in the Russian households.

Taking into account intelligence and family background, the researchers then calculated the inherited and the environmental elements of creative writing. They found what they describe as a modest heritability element to creative writing.

Fill each gap in the summary below using a maximum of 2 words.

Creative writing ability may be ______ from parents, according to a new study. Researchers compared ______ written by children and their parents, looking at elements such as originality and use of ______. After conducting intelligence tests and allowing for ______, they concluded that there is a ______ link between genetics and creative writing.

July 07, 2012

IELTS Reading: paragraph questions

There are 2 types of questions that ask you about paragraphs:

1. Paragraph headings - match the sub-headings with the paragraphs.
2. Specific information - which paragraph contains the following information? Try an example: IELTS Reading: Which paragraph?

• For 'paragraph headings' questions, you need to find the main idea of each paragraph. I usually recommend starting with the shortest paragraph first.

• For 'specific information' questions, remember that one paragraph can contain more than one piece of information (e.g. "paragraph A" could be the answer for questions 1 and 2). Some paragraphs may not contain any information, so it doesn't help to start with the shortest one.

Both types of question are easier if you do the other question sections first (gap-fill, true/false/not given etc.). You will then be more familiar with the text, and you might even remember where some of the 'paragraph' answers are.

June 27, 2012

IELTS Reading: how questions are made

The people who create the IELTS reading tests do so by paraphrasing parts of the passage for each question. In other words, they choose a word or phrase in the passage that they want to test you on, and they write a question using words which have a similar meaning.

The table below shows the similar words from last week's exercise:

Note:
The words highlighted in blue were the correct answers because the same meaning was expressed in the passage and the question.

The phrases in black do not express exactly the same meaning (e.g. the fact that climbers have died does not mean that it is the most dangerous mountain). These answers were therefore wrong.

June 23, 2012

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

Read the following short text, and answer the question below.

The Eiger is a mountain in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. Since 1935, at least sixty-four climbers have died attempting the Eiger’s north face, earning it the German nickname Mordwand, literally "murder wall" - a pun on its correct title of Nordwand (North Wall). Before it was successfully climbed, in 1938, most of the attempts on the face ended tragically and the Bernese authorities even banned climbing it and threatened to fine any party that should attempt it again. Since the first successful attempt, the north face has been climbed many times, but even today it is regarded as a formidable challenge.

Which TWO of the following statements are true according to the text?

A) The Eiger is the most dangerous mountain in the Bernese Alps.
B) The north face of the mountain has an infamous history.
C) The Nordwand was finally conquered in 1938.
D) The Bernese authorities fined climbers who attempted the north face.
E) Climbers consider the north face to be the world’s most challenging climb.

June 07, 2012

IELTS Reading: the importance of vocabulary

IELTS Reading is basically a vocabulary test. If you don't understand words or phrases in the text, it will be difficult to get the right answers.

Try doing the test on page 46-49 of Cambridge IELTS book 4. Here is some of the key vocabulary from this test:

When I did this test with my students, nobody knew that a "chronic" illness means a "long-term" illness. The words "disillusioned" and "sceptical" also caused problems.

If you didn't know these words, look them up and write them down in your notebook. If you don't have a vocabulary notebook, you should start one now!

April 28, 2012

IELTS Reading: another keyword table

Here's my keyword table for test 1.3 in Cambridge IELTS book 4:

This test also contains some tricky words to describe shapes and movement. Look them up in a dictionary if you don't understand them. Line shapes: curved, wavy, bent, dashed. Movement: spinning, wobbling, jerking.

April 21, 2012

IELTS Reading: more keywords

Last week I did a reading test from Cambridge IELTS 7 (page 48-52) with one of my classes. Here is some of the vocabulary that helped us to get the answers:

The fifth row of the above table is interesting: "20% outside the local area" means the same as "80% was within the local area".

Another question confused some of my students: If a survey showed that "households spent seven hours a day on transporting themselves and their goods", does this mean that it was "a survey of household expenditure on transport"?

March 28, 2012

IELTS Reading: keywords

Here's a table showing the keywords that helped us to get the correct answers to last week's Yes, No, Not Given exercise.

Remember: you can only be sure that you have the correct answer when you can point to specific words in the passage that have a similar meaning to the words in the question.

March 07, 2012

IELTS Reading: keyword table

The table below shows some of the keywords that help you to find the answers to test 4, passage 1 in Cambridge IELTS book 6.

If you have book 6, try the test using the table to help you.

February 16, 2012

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Look at the following extract from a text about diaries:

Many diaries of notable figures have been published and form an important element of autobiographical literature. Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) is the earliest diarist who is well-known today; his diaries, preserved in Magdalene College, Cambridge, were first transcribed and published in 1825. Pepys was amongst the first who took the diary beyond mere business transaction notation, into the realm of the personal.

According to the text, are the following statements true, false, or not given?

1. Samuel Pepys is more famous today than he was during his own lifetime.
2. Pepys kept a diary for purely business reasons.

Please share your answers in the "comments" section below. Can you explain your answers? I'll add the correct answers tomorrow.

January 31, 2012

IELTS Reading: multiple choice exercise

Read the following passage about 'learning styles'.

The term ‘learning styles’ refers to a variety of ways of learning. The ‘learning styles’ theory is based on the observation that most people prefer an identifiable method of interacting with, taking in, and processing stimuli or information. The idea of individualised ‘learning styles’ originated in the 1970s, and acquired enormous popularity. Proponents say that teachers should assess the learning styles of their students and adapt their classroom methods to best fit each student's preference.

The basis and efficacy of these proposals are extensively criticised. Although children and adults express personal preferences, there is no evidence that identifying a student's learning style produces better outcomes, and there is significant evidence that the hypothesis (that a student will learn best if taught in a method deemed appropriate for his or her learning style) may be invalid.

Choose the best answer (A, B, or C) for questions 1 and 2 below.

1. The idea that people should learn according to their preferred learning style

A) has influenced all teachers.
B) became popular around 40 years ago.
C) has never been disputed.

2. There is no evidence that

A) people have learning preferences.
B) the hypothesis might be wrong.
C) it is beneficial to identify students’ preferred learning styles.

January 05, 2012

IELTS Reading: keywords

Vocabulary is the key to doing well in IELTS Reading. Usually there are "keywords" in the questions that are similar to the words you need to find in the text. For example, if the text contains the word "global", the question might use the word "international".

The table below shows keywords for Test 4 in Cambridge IELTS book 4:

Try making your own keyword tables for other practice tests. It's a good way to improve your vocabulary, and it will help you to see how IELTS reading questions are made.

December 06, 2011

IELTS Reading: how to do 'T, F, NG' questions

Let's look at how we found the answers to 3 questions in last week's lesson:

Question 1 - False
The question says that "laughter is biologically important" but the passage says that laughter "serves no biological purpose". As you can see, the answer is false because the passage says the opposite to what the question says.

Question 5 - True
The question says that "Graeme Richie's work links jokes to artificial intelligence" and the passage says that "Graeme Richie studies... jokes in order to understand... reasoning in machines". There is definitely a link between his study of jokes and 'machine intelligence'.

Question 6 - Not Given
The answer to question 6 is 'not given' because the passage doesn't mention anything about comedians using personal situations. We know that comedians use situations in their jokes, but we do not know whether these situations are personal.

These 3 questions illustrate the difference between 'true', 'false' and 'not given'.
- True = part of the passage expresses the same idea as the question.
- False = the passage expresses the opposite or a different idea.
- Not Given = some information is missing, so we cannot answer true or false.

November 30, 2011

IELTS Reading: more practice

The following exercise comes from Cambridge IELTS 5, page 43.

Here are the questions with the relevant part of the text below each one. Study the questions and the text sentences carefully. Decide whether the statements are true, false or not given.

1. Arthur Koestler considered laughter biologically important in several ways.

• Arthur Koestler dubbed it the luxury reflex: 'unique in that it serves no apparent biological purpose'.

2. Plato believed humour to be a sign of above-average intelligence.

• Plato expressed the idea that humour is simply a delighted feeling of superiority over others.

3. Kant believed that a joke involves the controlled release of nervous energy.

• Kant felt that joke-telling relies on building up a psychic tension which is safely punctured.

4. Current thinking on humour has largely ignored Aristotle's view on the subject.

• Most modern humour theorists have settled on some version of Aristotle's belief.

5. Graeme Richie's work links jokes to artificial intelligence.

• Graeme Richie studies the linguistic structure of jokes in order to understand not only humour but language understanding and reasoning in machines.

6. Most comedians use personal situations as a source of humour.

• A comedian will present a situation followed by an unexpected interpretation.

7. Chimpanzees make particular noises when they are playing.

• Chimpanzees have a 'play-face' - a gaping expression accompanied by a panting 'ah, ah' noise.

November 21, 2011

IELTS Reading: keywords

Here's a table showing the key vocabulary from last week's reading exercise. I recommend making a keyword table every time you practise a reading test.

bolster (verb) = support or strengthen

October 08, 2011

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following text and answer true, false or not given.

The killer whale, commonly referred to as the orca, and less commonly as the blackfish, is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family. Killer whales are found in all oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas. As a species they have a diverse diet, although individual populations often specialize in particular types of prey. Some feed exclusively on fish, while others hunt marine mammals such as sea lions, seals, walruses and even large whales. Killer whales are regarded as apex predators, lacking natural predators and preying on even large sharks.

Killer whales are highly social; some populations are composed of family groups which are the most stable of any animal species. Their sophisticated hunting techniques and vocal behaviors, which are often specific to a particular group and passed across generations, have been described as manifestations of culture.

1. Killer whales are predominantly found in cold water areas.
2. Some killer whale groups only eat fish.
3. They may even eat large sharks.
4. Killer whales are able to pass on skills to their young.

September 15, 2011

IELTS Reading: reading to get ideas

You shouldn't think that reading practice is only useful for the reading test. Reading articles in newspapers, magazines or online is also a great way to improve your vocabulary knowledge and collect ideas for the writing and speaking tests.

For example, a recent question in the writing test asked whether or not it's useful to study history. I did a quick search online and found this article:

Click here for the article "Why Study History?"

You don't need to read the full aricle, but it would be useful to note down some of the main ideas. Can you find 3 arguments against studying history, and 3 reasons why we should study it?

September 04, 2011

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following text about last year's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is making Americans think more about a clean energy future – but not yet to the extent of having to pay for it, or to tackle climate change, one of the leading US thinkers on global warming policy said yesterday.

US citizens are "horrified" by the pollution in the Gulf of Mexico, and are starting to think more about cleaner energy sources such as wind and wave power, said Eileen Clausen, president of America's foremost climate think-tank, the Washington-based Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

However, she said, when consumers are asked by pollsters if they would be willing to pay more for such a future, they say no, and say the government should pay. Furthermore, Ms Clausen said, the Gulf disaster was giving US energy policy "a nudge rather than a shift" in the direction of clean energy, but it would probably not be enough to bring forward legislation to curb carbon emissions, at least for the present.

(The Independent, 21.6.10)

Are the following statements true, false or not given according to the text?

1. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the result of a human error.
2. US citizens accept that they will need to pay for a clean energy future.
3. In spite of the disaster, the government is unlikely to introduce laws to reduce carbon emissions.

August 25, 2011

IELTS Reading: keyword tables

When I do reading tests with my students, we always make a 'keyword table' with the words and phrases that helped us to get the answers.

Here's our table for test 1, passage 1 in Cambridge IELTS book 6:

Don't just test yourself. Study the answers, your mistakes, and the key vocabulary whenever you do a reading test. Try making a keyword table.

July 28, 2011

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Click the link below to try today's exercise. It's the same passage we saw last week, but the questions are different.

True, False, Not Given

I'll put the answers in the 'comments' area tomorrow.

July 21, 2011

IELTS Reading: which paragraph contains...?

Today's reading exercise is attached as a PDF. Click below to download it.

Which paragraph contains?

I'll put the answers in the 'comments' area tomorrow.

June 23, 2011

IELTS Reading: similar words

IELTS Reading is basically a test of your vocabulary knowledge. You need to be able to find words in the text that are similar to words in the questions.

Read the following text about single-sex education (educating boys and girls separately).

You might have thought that boys brought up in a single-sex environment would find relationships with girls difficult to handle. Now research due to be published tomorrow proves it. It shows that boys taught in single-sex schools are more likely to be divorced or separated from their partner than those who attended a mixed school by their early 40s.

The findings, taken from studying a cohort of all those born in a single week of 1958, will be presented by Professor Diana Leonard, from London University's Institute of Education. The research covered 17,000 adults who had been taught in a range of institutions from private boarding schools to state comprehensives. The majority had been brought up in day schools.

Dr Leonard's findings have fuelled claims from teachers' leaders and education psychologists that boys brought up in a single-sex environment are less able to relate to the opposite sex than those taught in a co-educational school.

Find words in the text that are similar to the words/phrases below.

- raised
- to cope with
- co-educational
- a group
- a variety of
- high schools
- added weight to

(Text taken from The Independent)

June 16, 2011

IELTS Reading: paragraph headings

Read the following paragraphs, taken from The Guardian newspaper.

A) The hunt for intelligent species outside Earth may be a staple of literature and film – but it is happening in real life, too. Nasa probes are on the lookout for planets outside our solar system, and astronomers are carefully listening for any messages being beamed through space. How awe-inspiring it would be to get confirmation that we are not alone in the universe, to finally speak to an alien race. Wouldn't it?

B) Well no, according to the eminent physicist Stephen Hawking. "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," Hawking has said in a forthcoming documentary made for the Discovery Channel. He argues that, instead of trying to find and communicate with life in the cosmos, humans would be better off doing everything they can to avoid contact.

C) Hawking believes that, based on the sheer number of planets that scientists know must exist, we are not the only life-form in the universe. There are, after all, billions and billions of stars in our galaxy alone, with, it is reasonable to expect, an even greater number of planets orbiting them. And it is not unreasonable to expect some of that alien life to be intelligent, and capable of interstellar communication.

Match each paragraph with one of the headings below.

1. A pessimistic prediction.
2. The probability of life existing on other planets.
3. Astronomers send messages through space.
4. How to avoid contact with aliens.
5. The search for alien life-forms.
6. Life-forms exist on other planets.

Share your answers in the "comments" area below. I'll reveal the correct answers tomorrow.

June 02, 2011

IELTS Reading: look for keywords

Imagine the question asks about "longer days". If you read the text and find "increasing day lengths", you know you have found the answer.

In other words, the technique for finding answers in the IELTS Reading test is to look for keywords (similar words in the questions and in the text).

The table below shows keywords that helped my students to find the answers for one section of a reading test (Cambridge IELTS 5, page 94-97).

Did you know words like considerable, trigger, cue or adequate? If you don't know the vocabulary, it's very difficult to get the right answer.

February 11, 2011

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage from a text about linguistics.

Before the twentieth century, the term "philology" was commonly used to refer to the science of language, which was then predominantly historical in focus. However, this focus has shifted and the term "philology" is now generally used for the "study of a language's grammar, history and literary tradition", especially in the United States. The term "linguistics" is now the usual academic term in English for the scientific study of language.

Linguistics concerns itself with describing and explaining the nature of human language. Relevant to this are the questions of what is universal to language, how language can vary, and how human beings come to know languages. Humans achieve competence in whatever language is spoken around them when growing up, with apparently little need for explicit conscious instruction.

Linguists assume that the ability to acquire and use language is an innate, biologically-based potential of human beings, similar to the ability to walk. It is generally agreed that there are no strong genetic differences underlying the differences between languages: an individual will acquire whatever language(s) he or she is exposed to as a child, regardless of parentage or ethnic origin.

According to the text, are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. Up until the 1900s, the science of language was usually referred to as 'philology'.
2. In order to learn a language, children need a significant amount of instruction.
3. Research has shown that humans have an inbuilt capacity for language learning.

January 22, 2011

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the text below about the Stanford marshmallow experiment.

The Stanford marshmallow experiment was a study on deferred gratification. The experiment was conducted in 1972 by psychologist Walter Mischel of Stanford University. It has been repeated many times since, and the original study at Stanford is regarded as one of the most successful experiments in the study of human behaviour. In the study, a marshmallow was offered to each child. If the child could resist eating the marshmallow, he was promised two instead of one. The scientists analysed how long each child resisted the temptation of eating the marshmallow, and whether or not doing so had an effect on their future success. The results provided researchers with great insight on the psychology of self control.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. When repeated by other researchers, the experiment was less successful.
2. Children were offered a second marshmallow if they managed not to eat the first one.
3. Scientists found a correlation between resisting temptation and future success.

November 21, 2010

IELTS Reading: quite an easy one!

Last week my students and I looked at Cambridge IELTS 4 (test 1, passage 2). This is quite an easy test, and most of my students got the answers right.

The table below shows some of the key vocabulary that helped us to get the correct answers.

If you have book 4, try doing this test. Hopefully you'll find it quite easy too.

October 27, 2010

IELTS Reading: paragraph headings test

Today I'm attaching a 'paragraph headings' question.

The best technique for these questions is to do the shortest paragraphs first. Do long paragraphs last when you have fewer headings to choose from.

Here's the question: Download paragraph headings question
Please leave your answers in the "comments" area.

August 10, 2010

IELTS Reading: practice test

Below I've made a table of key vocabulary from a reading test in Cambridge IELTS Book 1 (page 40-43).

Try doing the test using the vocabulary table below to help you.

July 25, 2010

IELTS Reading: practice test

Try doing the test on page 50-53 in Cambridge IELTS book 4.

Follow this advice for the 3 question sections:

1. Which paragraph contains: Always do these questions last. Do the other question sections first to become familiar with the text.
2. Which ideas are mentioned: Remember, you are looking for ideas that are mentioned in the text, not ideas that are true.
3. Match the names: This is a perfect task for scanning. Scan quickly to find and underline the names.

Here is the key vocabulary that will help you to find the answers:

June 03, 2010

IELTS Reading: do tests without a time limit

As I've said before, IELTS reading is a vocabulary test. When studying, make sure you learn some new vocabulary from each practice test that you do. Use a dictionary, and don't worry about the time.

Use the table below to help you with the test on page 60-63 of Cambridge IELTS book 1 (buy or borrow this book, or look for it on the Internet).

This test contains difficult words like "corpus" (a collection of written or spoken texts) and "lexicographical" (related to writing dictionaries). Here are some more words that you could look up in a dictionary:

• incorporate (e.g. they are incorporating spoken English into their data)
• verbal / non-verbal (e.g. a verbal warning, non-verbal communication)
• portrayal (e.g. the portrayal of feelings)
• convey (e.g. to convey feelings, convey a message)
• an initiative (e.g. a Government initiative)

May 06, 2010

IELTS Reading: practice test

Today I'm attaching an IELTS Reading test. It's one passage, so you'd have about 20 minutes in the exam. However, you can learn a lot by doing the questions slowly and trying to get every answer right. If you only test yourself, you will not improve.

The question sections are "paragraph headings" and "true, false, not given". Remember the techniques we've used:

1. Do the T, F, NG section first. These questions will be in the correct order in the text. Look for words in the text that are similar to words in the questions.
2. Do the paragraph headings section last. It should be easier when you are already familiar with the text. Start with the shorter paragraphs or paragraphs that you have already studied for the T, F, NG section.

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IELTS Reading: test practice

A student recently asked me about the reading test on page 40 of Cambridge IELTS book 6. Find a copy of this test, and use the vocabulary in the table below to help you find the answers.

For the 'paragraph headings' question, you should find it easier to start with the shortest paragraphs.

Note:
"Commuting" means travelling (into a city) to work. "Overcrowded" means there are too many people in one place.

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IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following text about "green taxes" in Britain.

According to a survey, most Britons believe “green” taxes on 4×4s, plastic bags and other consumer goods have been imposed to raise cash rather than change our behaviour, while two-thirds of Britons think the entire green agenda has been hijacked as a ploy to increase taxes.

The UK is committed to reducing carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2050, a target that most experts believe will be difficult to reach. The results of the poll by Opinium, a leading research company, indicate that maintaining popular support for green policies may be a difficult act to pull off and attempts in the future to curb car use and publicly fund investment in renewable resources will prove deeply unpopular.

The findings were released as the Prince of Wales yesterday called on Britain’s business leaders to take “essential action” to make their firms more sustainable. Speaking in central London to some of the country’s leading chief executives, Prince Charles said: “What more can I do but urge you, this country’s business leaders, to take the essential action now to make your businesses more sustainable. I’m exhausted with repeating that there really is no time to lose.”

Are the following statements true, false, or not given in the text?

1. Most Britons think that the Government wants to change people’s behaviour.
2. By the year 2050 the Government will have imposed higher green taxes.
3. The survey predicts that it will be difficult to change people’s dependence on cars.
4. The Prince of Wales believes that most businesses are not sustainable.