IELTS multiple choice reading questions

The multiple choice question should be familiar to most candidates. That doesnt 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, its harder.

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.

The two types of question fact and opinion

Its very important to recognise that there are 2 types of question those that:

1. ask you for the writers opinion

2. 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: dont stop reading too soon. An answer may seem right but if the next word is something like but
the meaning changes completely

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. Lets
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 doesnt answer the question

Answer 1 above is wrong because it doesnt answer the question. This was not the findings of the
research in Scotland Its easy to fall for this trap as the information is correct.
Tip: always go back and re-read the question before you answer
2. Probably true but youre guessing information
Answer 2 is wrong because we dont have the information in the text. We might be able to guess that
this is true, but if it doesnt say so in the text the answer is not correct.

Tip: always make sure you look at all answers, dont guess too soon. You may find a better answer
later
3. Youre 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: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

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
 True False Not given reading tutorial and practice
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.

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 writers opinions rather than facts.

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. Dont 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.

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.

False/No
There is information in the text that is directly opposite to or contradicts the statement in the question.
Again note that you will also need to think about meaning here. You should pay careful attention to
little words that qualify or change meaning such as: some , all, often, occasionally
Not Given
 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.

Guessing intelligently
This is probably the hardest question type. Dont 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 dont 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 isnt there!

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.

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 dont answer the whole question
You cannot add information that is probably true: you can only use the information given in the text
 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 writers
opinions and not about facts.
4. The questions will follow the order of the text: if you cant 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.

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 to question 11
4. Mark on the question paper which paragraphs relate to which question: eg, write 11 against
paragraph E
5. Refocus on the question and read the whole question: be careful with tricky words like usually
6. Underline the words in the text that give you the answer. This helps you concentrate and also
allows you to change your mind, if you find a better answer later.
A variation is to mark the True answers first as they tend to be the easiest and then go back to the
False and Not given later.

IELTS paragraphs and headings

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

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 dont understand: ignore it you are looking for meanings of paragraphs not words
2. Dont 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

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.

Guessing and getting all the questions wrong

This is one type of question where if you guess blindly things can go badly wrong. The odds are not in
your favour if you guess too quickly you may have only a one in seven chance. You can still guess
but you need to do it intelligently by using a marking code. What does that mean?

It means for each paragraph look at all the headings and decide which headings are possible. For
example for paragraph 1 there may be 3 possible headings a b and c. You write down on the paper a
b and c. Do this for each paragraph. As you do this you may decide that heading b is almost certainly
paragraph 3. You mark that B (a capital letter too how that you are sure). Now you have a 50/50
chance of guessing paragraph 1 its either a or c.

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.

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.
A different solution is to skim the whole text before you start the questions. There are various
advantages to doing this anyway and its something higher level candidates should certainly consider. I
explain a bit more about this in this video lesson on reading the whole text.
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.
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.
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.
Dont 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.
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. Dont 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.

A suggested procedure
1. If you havent skimmed the whole text first very quickly look at the headings. Dont 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. Now go through each paragraph in turn to decide which heading is best. Start with the paragraphs and not the
headings as some headings will not be used.
3. 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? Dont forget to
check final sentences too that may be a summary of the paragraph.
4. Try all the headings for each paragraph. Lots of mistakes happen because you try and work too quickly.
5. If you are unsure and it could be heading a) or b) write down a) or b). Dont guess yet. Come back at the
end.
6. 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.
7. Move onto the next paragraph and repeat the process. Dont expect to complete all the paragraphs first time
around.
8. Go back at the end and make a decision about the paragraphs you didnt do first time. Try and be as careful
as possible. Dont rush.
9. 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!)
IELTS reading text completion questions
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.

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 Earths 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.

Weather text
1. patterns of flight
2. reliable
3. hydrologic cycle
4. observation network
5. produced
6. collected more quickly

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 task
The task is to complete a text with words from the passage. The text you need to complete can vary,
sometimes it is a series of sentences, sometimes a table and sometimes a short summary.

notes
Typically, you will need to read 2/3 paragraphs to get all the answers. Sometimes you may need to
read the whole passage
The questions will follow the order of the passage.
If there is one thing that makes this task tough, its 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

1. must be a noun after The

2. likely to be a noun after from
3. must be a verb form
4. must be an adjective between this and theory
5. either a place or a time after in
Tip: Even if you cant 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.

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. Its 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!

Cat text
1. Egyptians
2. paintings and statuary
3. were often mummified
4. traditional
5. Cyprus

Summary completion reading tutorial

This is the next in my series of reading tutorials and looks at the summary completion question type in
IELTS reading. First of all I talk you through the task and discuss the problems it presents and the
reading skills you need to improve your band score. Then I suggest a procedure to deal with this type
of question. There is a sample reading test for you to do at the end.

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

Key reading skills

Concentrate on understanding the meaning of the passage. Dont 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 synonymsor 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.

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. Its 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 youll 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.

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 ______________.
1. destroyed
2. dead
3. extinct

Ive added my explanation as a comment

Sample task grammar and word forms

To help you understand this task, look at this sample summary. What can you predict about each
word?

An (1)___________ amount of young people are suffering from depression and other mental
(2)__________. There is a (3)_________ with older generations who have been shown to be living
longer. Research into this has been carried out by scientists in the United States. They have
(4)___________ that there is almost certainly a connection between (5)___________ and mental
health.

Youll find my answers attached as a comment.

A suggested procedure
Dont get stuck on any one question. If you cant find the answer, move on and
come back to it later.
1. Read the instructions to the questions very carefully.
2. Skim through the summary ignoring the blanks to understand its general meaning
3. Identify which part of the passage the summary relates to. You dont want to waste
time looking at parts of the passage that are not included in the summary.To do this look
at the first and last questions in the summary.
4. Look at each gap in turn. If you can, try and predict the meaning of the word from your
understanding of the text. Then see if any of the options match your prediction.
Remember to look through all the words.
5. Check with the passage. You can use your key word strategy to identify the correct
part of the passage but remember you are looking for synonyms
6. Check to see if your word is grammatical think about nouns, adjectives, verbs and
adverbs
IELTS reading matching features tutorial
In this lesson I look at the IELTS reading matching features question. I help you along with a suggested
strategy for approaching this type of question and show you some of the more common traps.

An example of how it works

The way this reading works is you have to find elements in the text that match a list of people/places

eg, You have a list of names such as

A. George Stephenson

B. Richard Trevithick

C. Archimedes

D. James Watt

E. the Corinthians

F. John Fitch

and you have to match them to items in the text:

Which pioneer

1. was responsible for building a life size steam locomotive

2. legally protected the design of the working model of the steam locomotive

3. created a small scale replica of a steam locomotive

4. was defeated by the limitations of the raw materials available to him

5. understood the potential of steam locomotives to transport people

6. used steam as a form of propulsion

7. discovered how to use steam engines in the manufacturing industry

8. used animals and not steam to power a form of railway

The traps
It may look easy but there are traps.

1. Read the context dont word match

Look at this example:

The first step was the design of a working model of a steam locomotive by John Fitch in the United
States in 1794

You may think that this means you can match John Fitch with 2. You see the design of the working
model of the steam locomotive and you match it with legally protected the design of the working model
of the steam locomotive. Sorry, you just lost a point by not reading the context and the question. We see
nothing there that says Fitch legally protected the design.

2. Read for synonyms dont match words

Another problem is that you may need to look for synonyms or similar words in the passage and not the
exact words in the question. Look at this example:

8. used animals and not steam to power a form of railway

It is no good looking for the word animals in the text because the answer is given by these words:

The Corinthians did not consider using steam to power this prototype of the railway but instead
used horses and oxen.

This means you need to read for meaning and not just individual words.

3. You are looking for similar words in every question

In every question, you are going to be looking for firsts and steam and normally locomotive. This
means it makes no sense to concentrate on these words in the text.

4. The questions do not follow the order of the text

 This is one of those tricky question types where you cannot necessarily read the text and expect to find
the questions coming in order. You may have to go backwards and forwards as you read: this is where
you need to be sure of your scanning skills.

5. You may use more than one name once

Dont be trapped into using each name just once. It may be that some names have two or more correct
answers.

A suggested procedure
You will find your own way to do this exercise, but here is my suggestion:

1. focus on the names/dates/places: in my example James Watt etc

2. scan the text for those names and underline them in the text every time they
occur
3. look at all the questions for all the names
4. read carefully and look for synonyms in the text
5. underline/highlight parts of the passage that give the answer
6. mark them ?4 if you are uncertain
7. mark them 4 if you are certain and cross out that question on the question
paper

Matching information with paragraphs reading tutorial

and practice
This lesson focusses on the matching information with paragraphs type question where you need to
find which paragraph in the text certain information is found in. You will find:

a complete reading text with 6 questions to download

2 suggested strategies for approaching this type of question
some of the more common problems.

How it works
 You are given a series of 4/5 questions with information from the text and you are asked to say which
paragraph the information appears in. The information you need to look for varies, it can be among
other things:

a fact
an example
a reason
a summary
a definition
Typically, you will be looking for a sentence or long phrase rather than a word to give you
the answer.

Points to note:
1. there will be more paragraphs than questions so some paragraphs will have no
answers
2. some paragraphs may contain more than one answer
3. its important to realise that this is a very different type of question to the
paragraph/heading matching question. Here the main idea is that you need to
find specific information in a paragraph and not the general meaning of a paragraph.
This often makes it harder because you cannot concentrate on the openings and endings
of paragraphs as the information may well be in the middle of the paragraph

Know the problems

This is one of the harder question types for 4 reasons:

1. the questions can relate to the whole text and not just a part of it
2. the questions do not follow the order of the text
3. the information you are looking for may not be the main idea of a paragraph
4. sometimes one paragraph may contain more than one answer

The skills you need

This type of question requires different reading skills.

Skimming/Understanding general meaning

This will help you identify which paragraphs you should start reading to find the answers. I explain this
more below but the my suggested way to do this task is to understand the whole text before you start
looking for the answers.

Looking for synonyms intensive reading

 One of the keys to understanding this task is that you are generally not looking for the same words in
the text as you find in the questions. What you need to do is look for words or phrases in the text that
are similar in meaning to words in the questions. So you need to understand that this information in a
question

why bats hunt in the dark

is matched by this information in the text

natural selection has favoured bats that make a go of the night-hunting trade

How to approach it start with the questions

There are different ways to approach this question type, but here is my best suggestion:

1. Look at the questions first to understand the general meaning of the text.
2. If you have not done so already read the whole text quickly to decide what each
paragraph is about. If you do this, you are much more likely to predict which paragraph
contains the right answer. This can save you lots of time.
3. Look at each question in turn and try to predict which paragraph might contain the
right answer.
4. Generally do not just focus on key words in the question, think of the meaning of the
question. Be aware that you are normally looking for synonyms rather words in the
question.
5. Read the paragraph you have predicted. Are there any sentences/phrases that relate
to the question? If so, underline them and refer back to the question.
6. If you cannot find the answer in that paragraph, move on to the next question and
come back to it later. You may well find the answer later when you are looking at another
question.

How to approach it start with the text

An alternative approach, which can work, is to start with the text. Here:

1. You read each paragraph one by one

2. Then look at all the questions to see if you can find the information in the question in
that paragraph
3. If you cannot find anything, move on. There may be no answers in that paragraph
The benefit of this approach is that you need to read the text only once. I dislike it though
because you are likely to spend more time this way as you will spend time reading
paragraphs with no answers in them. Also, if you take this approach you should know that
the first one or two paragraphs will take you much longer than the last paragraphs as you
are looking for more information.

Practice reading online version

 This is a full length text with 6 different questions. I wouldnt worry about timing here, treat it as a
practice exercise and concentrate on getting the answers correct. One word of warning if you try and
just word match, you are certain to go wrong.

Questions

1. Neon was not the only gas used as a means of illumination

2. The entertainment industry became involved in creating new uses for neon lighting E 3. The effect of a
new morality on the neon lighting industry
4. Neon can be obtained through the liquefaction of air
5. Displays of neon lighting became a symbol of a citys growth and success
6. Neon is a scarce element found in the air

We are celebrating this year the centenary of neon lighting, a hundred years of garish illumination of our
cities. It is now almost impossible to travel anywhere of any size where you are not confronted with
coloured signs lighting up the night sky with slogans for every product and service known to man. Many of
these giant advertising hoardings are LED panels showing moving images, but they owe their existence to
the more humble neon tube and its inventor Georges Claude.

The light emitting properties of neon were identified almost immediately after its discovery in 1898 by the
British chemists Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers in 1898. When they attached an electrode to a
tube of the newly-discovered gas, there was what Travers described as a blaze of crimson light. This
fascinated both the scientific and business communities equally as they sought to find a way to
commercialise neon in a world where electricity was the coming technology. They were frustrated in their
attempts by difficulties in isolating the element which, while it is part of the Earths atmosphere, is
comparatively rare.

As is frequently the way with inventions, the breakthrough came by accident. A French entrepeneur,
Georges Claude, had recently set up a business Air Liquide that specialised in the production of liquid
nitrogen and oxygen. He discovered that he was also producing industrial quantities of neon as a by-
product of this process and this put him into the position of being able to build on other peoples earlier
experiments to produce neon lighting. Indeed, in the early years of neon, he had a near monopoly on the
new technology, as his ready supply of neon allowed him to find a practical way to seal the gas in glass
tubes.

D
Initially when he demonstrated his neon tubes at an exhibition in Paris in 1910, Claude proposed using his
neon tubes as a form of indoor lighting to the extent he was nicknamed the French Edison. It did not take
long to realise, however, that its true potential lay in signage and advertising and the first neon signs were
seen in Paris as early as 1913. The great leap forward for the business came, though, when the
technology was exported to the United States of America and, in particular, New York which was on the
point of becoming the commercial capital of the world. A measure of the new technologys success can
be gauged from the fact that the neon sign industry was valued at $16.9 million by 1931 a mere 8 years
after the first signs for a Packard automobile dealership were set up in California at the cost of $24,000.

The great era of neon was without question the 1930s and its showcase was Times Square in New York.
The simple neon tubes first created by Georges that produced a red light had long since been replaced by
glass lettering bent into every conceivable shape. Neon too was supplemented with other gases such as
argon, mercury and phosphor that enabled the production of every possible colour and shade. Each year
the Times Square display became ever more spectacular as the light display incorporated design
elements from the stage and screen such as sound and animation. This only led to other cities in the
United States and around the world producing their own neon spectaculars in an attempt to show off their
modernity.

The Second World War brought an end to the great expansion on neon advertising in the United States
and, with some exceptions, such as in Las Vegas, the great cities of the world were no longer illuminated
by giant neon advertising signs to anything like the same extent. Part of the explanation for this is that the
world had become a more austere and sober place in the 1940s, a time of harsh economic realities.
Against this background neon signage, which had become associated with excess and entertainment , no
longer seemed appropriate in the new world order. This did not mean neon disappeared from our lives
altogether, it simply meant that it went slightly underground advertising barber shops and kebab stalls as
opposed to the latest car to roll off the Ford assembly line. It also became a medium for artists to work in.

While it is unlikely that the neon tube will ever capture the world again as it did in its heyday, this does not
mean that it is a forgotten technology or one that had only a passing influence on advertising. In many
ways, 100 years after its birth it remains as influential as ever. Can you imagine a world without
fluorescent lights, plasma displays or even the television? Without the neon tube we would have seen
none of these.

key
1.The entertainment industry became involved in creating new uses for neon lighting E
2. The effect of a new morality on the neon lighting industry F
3. Neon can be obtained through the liquefaction of air C
4. Displays of neon lighting became a symbol of a citys growth and success E

5. Neon is a scarce element found in the air B

6. Neon lighting was not developed as a form of advertising D

Matching sentence endings in IELTS reading

In this lesson I discuss the matching sentence endings question type in IELTS reading and suggest an
approach to deal with this task.

An example of the question

You get a series of incomplete sentences and you need to match them their correct ending using
information from the text. There are normally 5 or 6 sentences and 8 to 10 different endings. For example:
 Sentence beginnings

1. The tourism industry in the UK suffered financially

2. There was a ban on burials of animals in quicklime
3. The first animal became infected
4.The policy of transporting dead animals was challenged in the courts
5. A policy of vaccination was not introduced

Sentence endings

A. because a farmer used untreated waste as feed.

B. because the number of cases fell between May and September.
C. because footpaths were closed due to the foot and mouth outbreak.
D. because it also affected animals that were not affected by the disease
E. because it might reduce the profits of farmers.
F. because a similar programme had worked well in The Netherlands.
G. because of the adoption of European legislation in the UK.
H. because many abattoirs were closed

Understanding how it works

This question is designed to test your understanding of the main ideas in a text. You will be NOT be
looking for exactly the same words in the text as in the question, but words/phrases that have a similar
meaning. In addition, you need to understand before you approach this type of question that:

1. the questions follow order of the text

2. the questions may test part of the whole text, not all of it
3. the sentence endings look grammatically similar
4. you will not use all of the endings

A suggested approach

Concentrate on the sentence beginnings

The general idea is that you focus on the sentence beginnings and not the sentence endings. The simple
reason for this is that not all the sentence endings appear in the text and you will waste time if you
concentrate on them.

Find the correct section of text

Find the part of the text that the questions relate to. One way to do this is scan the text for key words in the
question. Once you have found the paragraph for question 1, then you know that the answer to question 2
comes later in the text and so on.

As you do this, it is sensible to ignore words that occur in more than question and words that occur
frequently in the text. Focussing on proper names and dates is often a good approach.

Look for synonyms in the text

The answer will normally be found by looking for words in the text that have the same meaning as one of
the sentence endings, rather than using exactly the same words.

Check back with sentence beginning

Once you have found the correct ending, check your answer by making the complete sentence.

Think about meaning

Dont be tempted to word match. If you find a word in the text that matches the sentence ending, read
carefully. This may be an examiner trap. It is not always that easy. Go back to sentence beginning and
match it with the ending. Does the whole sentence make sense? Does the whole sentence match what
you find in the text?

Think about grammar

This is a similar piece of advice. Make certain that the sentence you make is grammatically accurate. It is
a mistake simply to match words.

Be methodical check every ending with every beginning

It is very easy here to write down the first option you think is possible. Dont. The examiners set traps. Be
careful and look at every ending for each question. This will take a little more time, but you will certainly
avoid mistakes.

The first question is the hardest give it more time

In this type of question, it makes absolutely no sense to give one and half minutes to every question. The
first question you look at will be hardest as you still have all the 8/9 options available to you. Likewise the
last question will be the simplest and quickest to do as you will only have around 4 options left.
If you cant find the answer to the first question immediately, dont panic. Spend some time on it, note 2/3
different answers it could be and move on. You can always come back to it later, when you have got some
other answers right.