IELTS READING TECHNIQUES AND TIPS

The primary reading skill As with the True/False question type, IELTS multiple choice reading questions require very close reading of one or two paragraphs of the text.. Skim the text t

DOMINIC COLE

IELST READING TECHNIQUES, TRAP-AVOIDING, PROBLEM-SOLVING AND TIPS

ACADEMIC MODULE

Collected and re-edited by TR N M NH TRUNG

HONG DUC UNIVERSITY

2016

IELTS READING TECHNIQUES AND TIPS

Written by DOMINIC COLE Collected and edited by Tran Manh Trung – Hong Duc University - 2016

PART 01:

IELTS READING TECHNIQUES AND TIPS

I IELTS multiple choice reading questions

The multiple choice question should be familiar to most candidates That doesn’t make it easy though In many ways the skills needed for this question are the same as for the True/False/Not Given type – only here you get 4 options and not 3 So, in a sense, it’s harder

A The primary reading skill

As with the True/False question type, IELTS multiple choice reading questions require very close reading of one or two paragraphs of the text Very frequently the difficult part is reading the question carefully too At least 3 of the 4 possible answers may look ok until you read them closely

B The two types of question – fact and opinion

It’s very important to recognise that there are 2 types of question those that:

- ask you for the writer’s opinion

- ask you to find factual information

Let me explain why this distinction matters with this easy example:

Different people read for different reasons For example, the attraction of reading detective fiction can be in the intellectual challenge of finding out who did it, in an autobiography we can eavesdrop on the conversations of the great and good or we can laugh at folly in the celebrity magazine For many children it is a magic gateway to some other world Sadly, that is one of the greatest mistakes they can make.

According to the author , the attraction of reading for young people is:

1 they find out about other countries

2 different from other generations

3 escaping into another world

4 foolish

Without the words highlighted in red, the answer must be 3., with those words it becomes 4

Tip 01: don’t stop reading too soon An answer may seem right but if the next word is something like “but” the meaning changes completely

C The traps and how to avoid them

It helps to know how the examiners try and trap you The way they do this is fairly predictable Let’s look at another example:

What were the findings of the research in Scotland:

1 anti-smoking legislation was more effective in the USA

2 advertising of tobacco products had less effect on old than on young people

3 the legislation was unpopular with the print media

4 almost a third of young people stopped smoking after the legislation

These conclusions are the result of extensive research carried out over the past 20 years around various countries into the effect of banning tobacco advertising In Scotland it was found that the incidence of smoking fell by 30% in the 18-24 age group after legislation prohibiting the advertising of tobacco products in all print media was introduced A separate piece of research

in the United States of America found that when tobacco advertising was banned in 34 states, this reduced the level of smoking by 50%

1 In the text but doesn’t answer the question

Answer 1 above is wrong because it doesn’t answer the question This was not the findings of the research in Scotland It’s easy to fall for this trap as the information is correct

Tip 02: always go back and re-read the question before you answer

2 Probably true but you’re guessing information

Answer 2 is wrong because we don’t have the information in the text We might be able

to guess that this is true, but if it doesn’t say so in the text the answer is not correct

Tip 03: always make sure you look at all answers, don’t guess too soon You may find a better answer later

3 You’re word matching – read the context

This one contains most words from the text so there is an obvious temptation to say

“yes” There is in fact no evidence for this in the text at all A very typical mistake is to match words in the question and text You need to read the context for meaning to avoid this mistake

Tip 04: always refocus on the exact wording of the question before giving the answer

Be suspicious of answers that contain almost the same language as the text

4 Correct – you match meanings –

“almost a third” = “30%” and “18-24 age group” matches “young people”

D Suggested procedure

1 Look at the questions first to see what topics you need to look for – be aware you may need

to look for synonyms

2 Concentrate on the stem of the question when you are looking for the right part of the text

3 Skim the text to identify the correct paragraphs to read: the questions will go in order so question 5 will come between 4 and 6

4 Read the the correct part of the paragraph carefully and then re-read the question – looking at each option in turn

5 Ask yourself if you are looking for fact or opinion

6 Delete the answers you know to be incorrect

7 Underline the words in the text that give you the answer

Perhaps the question type that gives most pain to most IELTS candidates is the True/False/Not given question type Here are some pointers to help you improve your IELTS band score with a link to some specific practice on this type of question

A The question types

In fact there are two question types here:

1 True/False/Not given: fact based

2 Yes/No/Not given: opinion based

In each case you need to decide if the information in the text agrees with the information in the question You should note that in the “Yes/No/Not given” questions, you are normally asked to look for the writer’s opinions rather than facts

B Note the key skill

The key skill here is to understand that you are interpreting the text and the question This means that you need to read very closely and pay attention to what the writer means Don’t

think of it just as a skimming question, rather a question where you need to read parts of the text

and the whole question closely and decide what the writer means

C How to get the answers right

True/Yes

There is information in the text that agrees exactly with the statement in the question Note that you will almost certainly need to look for synonyms here and match meaning and not words

This is the one that normally causes the most problems Something is not given if there is

no information about it in the text Do not spend ages looking for Not Given answers because you will waste time

D Guessing intelligently

This is probably the hardest question type Don’t despair though you have a good chance

of guessing correctly In fact the questions are hard because you have a one in three chance of guessing! Here is my suggestion

1 if you find information in the text about the statement in the question:

guess True or False but remember to read the whole question and not just match words in it

2 if you find no information in the text about the statement guess Not Given – don’t waste time Typically, answer are Not Given when they match just one or two words in the question

3 if you have no idea, then guess Not Given You have a one in three chance of being right and you may have no idea because it isn’t there!

E Some examples of how the questions work

Macallan is one of the four top selling brands of malt whisky in the world It is made in barrels made of Spanish oak that have previously been used for sherry because this adds sweetness to its flavour

True

Macallan is globally successful

This is true because top selling brands of malt whisky in the world matches globally successful

False

Macallan is made in metal containers

This is false because the text says it us made in barrels of Spanish oak Because oak is a wood this contradicts the words int he question metal containers Note that you need to think about

meaning

Not Given

Macallan is made in Spain

There is no information about where it is made Be careful of the trap of seeing the

words Spanish and made in the text Usually with Not Given answers you will find some words

in the text that match words int he question without matching the meaning of the whole

question

F A difficulty – Not Given

The “Not Given” variation is probably what makes this type of question so difficult How can you deal with this problem? You need to understand that:

 “Not given” does not mean no words in the question are used in the text Typically, you will find some of words from the question in the text – they simply don’t answer the whole question

 You cannot add information that is probably true: you can only use the information given

in the text

G Some practical tips

1 Read the whole question Do NOT focus on key words Think about the meaning of the question

2 Be especially careful with words such as “often” and “some” They can change the meaning of the question dramatically

3 Be careful with questions beginning “The writer says”: here you need to think about the writer’s opinions and not about facts

4 The questions will follow the order of the text: if you can’t find answer 12, you know it must be somewhere between 11 and 13

5 Do not spend too long on any one question If the answer is “Not Given”, there may be nothing for you to find

6 One possibility is to mark all the “True” answers and all the “False” answers and then guess “Not Given” for the others

H A suggested procedure

Here is my suggested procedure:

1 Read the instructions carefully and note whether you are being asked to look for facts or opinions

2 Look at all the questions and see what topics they ask about You may note key words here, but only to identify the correct part of the text to read

3 Skim the text to identify which paragraphs you need to read more closely Note that the questions will follow the order of the text and so the answer to question 10 will follow the answer

as the text itself There is also an interactive quiz at the bottom for you to test your skills

A Tip one – Underline the part of the text that shows the answer

A forgotten reading skill is to learning how to read intensively when you are looking for the answer itself Forget “key words” – they only show where to find the answer Once you have found the right part of the text, read very carefully – you want to find something that says:

1 This agrees with the information in the question – True

2 This contradicts the informnation in the question – False

Do NOT read generally at this point You want to find something you can underline If you cannot find anything specific that you can underline, then the answer is likely to be Not Given

B Tip two – Refer back to the whole question and think about its meaning

IELTS reading is designed how well you understand reading passages This means you always want to focus on meaning when you are looking for the answer Once you have found the right part of the text, forget key words It’s quite possible to find words in the text that match words in the question, but the overall meaning is quite different

1 Go back to the question and re-read it carefully – focus on the little words

too (some, never, generally etc), these can change the meanings of questions dramatically Ask

yourself if you are looking for something absolutely true or something that is qualified in some

ay

2 Re-read the text Does it mean the same as the question? Make sure you check the text and question against each other – that they mean the same thing

C Some practice questions

The majority of professional players on the ATP and the WTA tours now use polyester strings made by Luxilon, a company that specialised in the past in manufacturing fibres for female undergarments The trend was started by the then little-known Brazilian player Gustavo Kuerten who more or less by chance discovered that this string was almost completely “dead” – meaning that the players are able to swing much harder at the ball and impart much more spin on

it without it flying off uncontrollably as it would do with a traditional gut string Kuerten of course went on to achieve much success and, in the clay court game at least, is regarded as one of the modern greats His most lasting legacy though may not be his titles, rather it may be that his use of a material primarily made for women’s bras allowed him and successive champions to change how the tennis ball flew Players were able to find completely new angles on the court because, in the hands of a master, a shot hit with a luxilon string that might look as if it were heading way out of court would suddenly drop like a stone, describing an almost perfect parabola This technological innovation has revolutionised the way in which the game is now played For example, Roger Federer, a man who many regard as the greatest player of all time, may have begun his career as an attacking all-court player, but in latter years he has been forced become a much more defensively orientated player who chooses his time to attack more carefully Indeed, he is on record as saying that new string technology has changed the face of the game and that he has had to adapt his game to counter players who stand behind the baseline and produce winning shots from almost nowhere

True/False/Not Given – Luxilon

of the majority, he may be part of the minority, we simply don’t know

Question 2 Explanation:

We find the answer in “ the players are able to swing much harder at the ball and impart much more spin on it without it flying off uncontrollably” and “Players were able to find completely new angles on the court because, in the hands of a master, a shot hit with a luxilon string that might look as if it were heading way out of court would suddenly drop like

a stone, describing an almost perfect parabola.”

Question 3 Explanation:

We have enough information in the text from “Roger Federer, a man who many regard as the greatest player of all time, may have begun his career as an attacking all-court player, but in latter years he has been forced become a more defensively orientated player who chooses his time to attack more carefully.” This is a “trick question” if you look only at the words

“Federer” and “attacking”, you may want to say True If, however, you read the whole question including the word “always”, then the answer must be False The idea is that Federer has changed the way he plays into a more defensive style

This lesson has two purposes In it you will find a short exercise to test your True/False/Not Given skills and an explanation of how to deal with more difficult words in IELTS reading texts

1 The skill of reading closely

The text is designed to be slightly harder than the average IELTS text as it contains quite

a high proportion of unexpected words and long sentences The idea is to focus you on the skill

of reading closely The idea is that you need to try and read the text closely before you decide on your answer

This is especially important in T/F/NG questions which require you to understand the writer’s meaning and not just to see whether you can find a particular word in the text If you simply match the words in the question with the words in the text, you will very likely go wrong with this text

2 Dealing with harder words

The first point to note is that you should not panic if you find a word you cannot understand:

 it may not be important to understanding of the passage and /or finding the answer you may be able to guess its general meaning from context (the words around it)

This text contains three words that may well be new to you:

utopias which paint a picture of an ideal society

dystopias in which the world is a much less desirable and often frightening place

a political manifesto proposing a form of government

From this you should see that a utopia is something good (“ideal”), dystopia something bad (“less desirable and frightening”) while manifesto is to do with politics and proposes

3 Visions of the future – True False Not Given reading

Humans have always speculated about what society may or should look like in the future and there is a long and honourable tradition of writers who have described their vision of the world in a future age One possible division of these books is into utopias which paint a picture

of an ideal society and dystopias in which the world is a much less desirable and often frightening place Perhaps the most famous utopia remains Plato’s Republic, written around two and half thousand years ago, which is also partly a political manifesto proposing a form of government where philosophers kings rule in the interests of the many In its day, this most

undemocratic proposal was less controversial than it would be today, as there was a strong body

of opinion in Athens that democracy was not a model form of government While many today may find Plato’s vision unpleasant, his intention was otherwise and the book has the optimistic goal

of showing how the ills of society could be cured This optimism stands in stark contrast to George Orwell’s dystopian nightmare 1984 That book too presents a version of what society may look like in the future, but it has a quite different purpose: the aim of the book is to serve as

a warning The reader is meant to be shocked and horrified by the world of deception and tyranny it portrays, a world where the state authorities, in the form of Big Brother, have absolute control of every aspect of individuals’ lives and where truth is lost

4 True/ false/ not given reading practice

This is a little quick practice on the most hated type of reading question Before you tackle it remember:

True means that there is something in the text that agrees with the question

False means that there is something in the text that contradicts the question

Not given means that there is nothing in the text that answers the question one way or another,

You need to look for meanings and not just words In most cases you get the answer right

by interpreting the meanings of phrases/sentences You should also be careful with your key

word strategy This is one type of question where you need to pay attention to all the words in the question before you answer it – the key words only tell where to look not what the answer is

a The reading practice

CLOCK - WATCHES

The first timepieces that were worn are the so-called clock-watches of the mid 16th century They were quite different from the modern day wristwatch in several respects They were made almost completely from brass and were not round but cylindrical in shape with a hinged metal cover instead of a glass face This was in the form of a grill so that the hour hand – there was no minute hand or second hand – could be seen without opening it Another difference was that these clock-watches were almost entirely decorative in purpose and were worn in the same way as a necklace or a brooch, typically being attached to the clothing or hung around the neck Part of the reason for this is that the many of the first watch makers were jewellers by trade, men who had to find a new form of work after Calvin banned the wearing of jewellery in 1547

So they brought the skills of ornamentation to their new craft So while the most famous watches were the plain Nuremburg Eggs made by Peter Henlein, who is sometimes credited with the invention of the watch, the designs rapidly became increasingly ornate and included shapes such as flowers, stars and animals Indeed, the nobility, who were the only people able to afford these timepieces, bought them almost exclusively for their appearance and not for timekeeping

clock-purposes for the simple reason that they would often gain or lose several hours in the course of a day

Question 2 Explanation:

This may be the trick question You do have information about Peter Henlein but there is nothing about his FIRST job Don't be fooled by seeing this "many of the first watch makers were jewellers by trade" This does not mean that he was one We just don't know

Question 3 Explanation:

Another question where you need to read for meaning and pay close attention to the question In some ways the key word is ALL Read this "So while the most famous clock-watches were the plain Nuremburg Eggs made by Peter Henlein, who is sometimes credited with the invention of the watch, the designs rapidly became increasingly ornate" That means that some clock-watches were plain and not ornate

III IELTS paragraphs and headings

A The IELTS paragraphs and headings task

1 The task is to match between 5 and 7 headings to paragraphs in the text

2 There are always more headings than paragraphs

3 You may need to read the whole text or only a part of it

B The reading skill – skimming and general meaning

The main skill tested here is your ability to read quickly and get the main meaning of a paragraph This means that:

1 If you find a word you don’t understand: ignore it – you are looking for meanings of paragraphs not words

2 Don’t simply match a word in the question with a word in the text – read the sentence/paragraph to see how it is being used

3 Concentrate on the openings and closings of paragraphs – that is where the writer normally makes the main point

C Some problems and their solutions

This can be one of the easier types of question but it is also easy to get them all wrong! Here are one or two difficulties

a A large part of the text – too much to read

You may need to read the whole text or a large part of it anyway Make this problem into

a virtue

One idea is that you do this task first – even if it is not the first set of questions This allows you to understand what the text is about

b Just matching words

Sometimes you can find the answer by matching words in the heading with words in the text Often though it is not as simple as matching words.The word in the heading may

be environmental and the word in the paragraph may be green

Think meaning, not words When you look at the headings remember that the paragraphs may not contain those exact same words

c Similar headings

Some of the headings seem quite similar and contain similar words

Make sure you spend time reading them all and try every heading with every paragraph This may take time but you will avoid a lot of mistakes

Avoid concentrating on words that are common to all or many of the headings Look for words that are special to that heading

d Only looking at first lines – trying to go too quickly

You want to work efficiently, so often you avoid reading the whole paragraph Often you can guess the meaning from the first few lines of the paragraph This is because the writer uses a topic sentence at the start to say what the paragraph is going to be about The problem is that this only works sometimes The meaning you need may be in the last few lines of the paragraph, or sometimes from the whole paragraph itself

Look to see if the final sentence of the paragraph gives a summary of what the paragraph is about

Don’t stop reading too quickly and skim the whole paragraph Some paragraphs are a combination of ideas and to get their general meaning you need to skim the whole paragraph for general meaning

e Wasting time on one paragraph

Often you waste time because the first paragraph is the hardest to match You may spend

a long time concentrating on that one because it is one of the harder matches and you have lots of options

Easy Write in 2/3 headings it could be and move on When you come back after doing the other questions, it may seem obvious Don’t guess immediately Do the task twice and using

a code. The code I suggest is that you mark in capital letters (CD etc) if you are certain and small letters (cd etc) if you are unsure

D A suggested procedure

1 Look at the headings first Don’t spend too much time on this, as at least some of them will be wrong Try and identify what the more important words are By looking at the headings

first, you get a good idea of the general meaning of the text That will help your reading

2 Look at the first paragraph Try to ignore the detail and look for the main point – these

are normally found in the first few lines – that may be the topic of the paragraph Does it

match any of the headings? Don’t forget to check final sentences too – that may be a summary

of the paragraph

3 Try all the headings for each paragraph Lots of mistakes happen because you try and

work too quickly

4 If you are unsure and it could be heading a) or b) – write down a) or b) Don’t guess yet

Come back at the end

5 Make sure you underline/circle the words in the text that best match the heading If you

do this, you can easily check your answer, if you want to use the same heading for another paragraph later on

6 Move onto the next paragraph and repeat the process Don’t expect to complete all the paragraphs first time around

7 Go back at the end and make a decision about the paragraphs you didn’t do first time Try and be as careful as possible Don’t rush

8 If you are uncertain, it sometimes makes sense to use the same heading for 2 paragraphs You will get one wrong and one right If you guess, you may get two wrong (or two right!)

This is the next in my series of IELTS reading tutorials where I look at the different types

of questions you can expect to find in the exam In this one, I talk you through the IELTS reading text completion task, showing you some of the problems it can cause and giving you strategies to deal with them

A Test yourself

Below is a complete reading passage with 6 sample text completion questions You can either do

it now or take the tutorial and come back to it

1 Text completion exercise

Weather forecasts

It is hard to imagine a world without weather forecasts they have become so essential

to so many facets of everyday life in the 21st Century On an individual basis, of course, people use weather forecasts to decide what to wear: whether they need an umbrella,

protection against the sun or even medication against abnormally high pollen levels The forecast is also seen as a necessary safeguard to protect life and property and we have also become accustomed to receiving warnings against extreme weather conditions such as

drought, heavy snow, flooding or high winds In our increasingly motorised age, the weather report is now seen as vital for advising drivers of difficult driving conditions The forecast is equally important in agriculture and commerce so that famers can grow their crops and commodity brokers can trade them on stock markets Energy providers are also among a wide range of institutions that rely on an accurate forecast so that they can plan ahead for the services they provide

While the technology we use today to provide weather forecasts is new, the study of weather patterns is as old as the hills as mankind has always been dependent on weather In primitive civilisations, hunters, warriors, farmers and shepherds alike would look to the gods

in the sky as the force behind the weather Often the priests of these gods would enjoy high status and considerable power in the belief they could influence the gods to provide the right weather conditions by performing a rain dance or even, in the case of the Aztecs,

commanding a human sacrifice The actual forecasting methods usually relied on

observed patterns of events, also termed pattern recognition For example, if the sunset was particularly red, the following day often brought fair weather This form of weather lore, which was passed from one generation to the next, has not entirely disappeared as is

evidenced by such sayings as “red sky at night, shepherds’ delight” However, not all of these predictions proved reliable, and many of them have since been found not to stand up to rigorous statistical testing by meteorologists today

Our roots of our modern scientific tradition can be traced back to the Babylonians who began to predict weather from cloud formations and, more particularly, the Ancient Greeks As is the case in so many other fields, Aristotle is considered to have founded the modern science of meteorology when he correctly identified the hydrologic cycle in 350 BC This cycle, which describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth, is fundamental to much of modern weather forecasting However, Aristotle himself and his follower and pupil Theophrastus largely failed to make the

connection between the water cycle and weather forecasting and their science was scarcely more reliable than the aboriginal rain dance Indeed, the word “meteorology” literally means the study of heavenly bodies and the Greeks attempted to explain weather conditions through heavenly signs such as colours of the sky, rings and halos

The influence of Aristotle on weather forecasting lasted for almost 2000 years and was only gradually eroded by a combination of a series of scientific discoveries and advances

in communication technology One important step forward was made in 1654 when Fernando

de Medici set up the first weather observation network with meteorological stations in eleven separate European cities When this data was centrally collected in Florence, it became possible to analyse weather patterns on a grander scale than ever before by allowing maps to

be produced that showed atmospheric conditions over a large area of the Earth’s surface The invention of the telegraph in 1837 allowed such observations to be collected more

quickly and from a wider region than ever before and as a consequence meteorologists were able to identify the global nature of weather patterns

A central figure in turning the science of meteorology into the modern-day weather forecast was Robert Fitzroy Fitzroy was a man of many talents who had sailed with Charles Darwin in The Beagle, helped to pioneer the use of barometers in the navy and correctly identified sunspots as an influence on weather conditions As a former naval captain he was aware of the necessity of accurate forecasting and he helped to establish The United

Kingdom Meteorological Office, which became the first national meteorological service in the world This office would advise ports around the United Kingdom when a gale was expected so that the fishing fleets would not put out to sea These forecasts were so reliable that they were published in the newly-founded daily newspapers and it is said that Queen Victoria would not sail anywhere unless Fitzroy had said the seas would be calm

How has weather forecasting evolved in the past 20 years? There have been a number

of influences and perhaps the most visible is the use of satellite technology It is almost impossible to watch a forecast on television nowadays without seeing a satellite picture showing where the areas of high pressure and low pressure are and how the weather is likely

to develop Indeed, a whole new industry of “nowcasting” has developed, telling us what the weather is like now and what we could expect tot see if we could be bothered to look out of the window A less evident, but equally relevant, innovation has been the application of the comparatively new science of mathematical modelling to weather forecasting This involves using the massive computational powers of supercomputers to process all the different variables so as to provide some likely forecasts of what will happen next with the weather Even here, however, the science is by no means complete and the weather experts still need

to choose between different possible forecasts How do they do that? Experience and

judgment – not perhaps that different from the ancient Babylonians who decided if it was going to rain by looking at the shape of the cloud

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer

Early societies used to predict the weather by noting Although this body of knowledge was not completely in making forecasts, it was more accurate than performing a rain dance While the discovery of was academically important, it did not notably improve forecasting methods The establishment of an was a major step forward because then early

meteorologists charts showing weather patterns However, real progress was not made until the information that formed the basis of these charts could be sent by means of telegraph

- The questions will follow the order of the passage

- If there is one thing that makes this task tough, it’s that you need a little grammar to do it well!

Problem 1 – read the question

Be very careful to read the question carefully as the examiners use different words sometimes Look at these examples:

1 Complete the summary below Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer

2 Complete the table below Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer

3 Answer the question below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer

In each case you need to do something different

1 This a text completion task and you can use 1,2 or 3 words from the passage for your answer

2 This is also a text completion task, but this time you can only use 1 0r 2 words from the passage

3 This is not a text completion task The words you use do not need to come from the passage

Tip: remember in this task you need to use words from the passage You cannot change the form or order of those words You must write them down as they appear in the passage

Problem 2 – a test of grammar

The words you use to complete the text must fit grammatically Look at this simple example:

Passage

Traditionally, it was always supposed that it was the Egyptians who first domesticated the cat The primary evidence for this are the depictions of cats in paintings and statuary in Egypt from over 3,500 years ago and it is indeed the case that the ancient Egyptians had an extraordinarily close relationship with cats One of the major deities in the New Kingdom, Bast, was a cat- goddess that symbolised fertility and motherhood and the Greek historian Herodotus tells how cats were often mummified and given a funeral, sometimes with the mummified remains of mice

so that they could enjoy the afterlife

This traditional view has been overturned, however, by the discovery in 2004 of a grave in Cyprus that was 9,500 years old in which the remains of a cat were found next to a human Clearly, the human association with cats predates the ancient Egyptians by many millennia It is now thought that it was in the Fertile Crescent, modern-day Iraq, that humans first domesticated the cat Agriculture was invented in this region and the likelihood is that cats were used to control the rodents and other vermin that fed on the crops and raided the grain stores

Questions

The (1) were the first people to have the cat as a pet We know this from (2) created over millennia ago and it is thought that cats (3) _ so that they could enjoy eternal life There is, however, some doubt

about this (4) theory because the remains of a cat were found buried with human remains in (5)

Even before you read, you should be able to predict

- must be a noun after “The”

- likely to be a noun after “from”

- must be a verb form

- must be an adjective between “this” and “theory”

- either a place or a time after “in”

Tip: Even if you can’t predict the correct word form before you read, you must check afterwards that what you have written is good grammar

Problem 3 – recognise synonyms

Another major problem is that the words used in the text you have to complete will not exactly match the words from the passage This means that you need to read for meaning and simply look for the same words in the passage So there is no point looking for the word “pet” as the word in the passage is “domesticated”

3 A suggested technique

1 Read the instructions very carefully: check how many words you can use

2 Read the summary/table/sentences to see what general information you are looking for Ignore any specific words, think about meaning

3 Skim the text quickly to find the paragraphs you need to read more carefully It’s a good idea to concentrate the first and last question as they will tell you how much of the text you need

to read

4 Look back at each question one by one and look for what specific information you need

If you can, try and decide if you are looking for nouns, prepositions, verbs or adjectives

5 Find the sentence in the passage that you think most clearly matches the question

6 Check carefully that what you have written fits grammatically and makes sense too

7 Spell the words correctly!

6 collected more quickly

Tài li u chia s t i DI N ĐÀN H C TI NG ANH - Admin: TR N M NH TRUNG

Cat text

1 Egyptians

2 paintings and statuary

3 were often mummified

A Format of the question

The format of the question is that you are asked to complete a summary of the reading passage

by selecting words from a box You should note:

1 there are more words in the box than questions

2 the words on the box are not usually the same as in the reading passage

3 the summary may relate to the whole passage or only a part of it

4 the text of the summary will follow the order of the text of the passage

B Key reading skills

Concentrate on understanding the meaning of the passage Don’t try and match words in the summary and the passage

The main skill here is the ability to read a text quickly and understand its general meaning If you can do this, you should be able to predict many of the correct answers even before you analyse the text

The vocabulary skill you need most is the ability to recognise “synonyms”or words that have a similar meaning This is because the words from the summary may not exactly match the reading passage itself

Another key skill is to think grammar Each word you place in the summary must fit in grammatically It helps to know whether you need a noun, adjective, verb or adverb

C Problems and common mistakes

Remember that the completed summary must make sense grammatically Check the parts

of speech and read through the completed summary at the end

The main difficulty this task presents is that it requires you to read all or a large part of the passage One suggestion is to do it first even if it is not the first set of questions – that way you should get a better understanding of the passage as a whole

Another problem is that there are a lot of possible words to consider – normally they give twice as many words as there are spaces It’s important to be methodical here and make sure you consider all the words before you put in your answer it may take more time, but you’ll get more questions right that way

A very common mistake is to fill in a word because you recognise it form the passage Try not to do this, but rather think about meanings of words as you are almost always looking for

a synonym

Another common mistake is to choose a word that has the right general meaning but does not fit grammatically in the summary passage One way to avoid this mistake is to read the summary sentence by sentence and not just look at the words either side of the gap

D Sample task – vocabulary and synonyms

Read this short passage and then decide which is the best word to complete the summary sentence:

Passage

Another possibility is that an asteroid or comet will crash into Earth, wiping out most if not all of mankind in seconds In 1908, an asteroid just 60 metres in diameter exploded above Tunguska in Siberia, destroying 80 million trees If that happened over an inhabited area, the death toll would

be millions – and that was just a small hit, predicted to happen about one every 100 years The asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs was more than 10kn across, and there are craters in Australia and Norway that suggest that similar-sized rocks have hit in the distant past

Instructions: Click the answer button to see the correct answer

1 An asteroid strike was responsible for making the dinosaurs

a destroyed

b dead

c extinct

Answer: c