1 ‘The pictures show different methods of communication, With a partner: © put them in order of how often you use them © say what you last used them for. EXAMPLE: [ use text messaging most, [last sent a text ‘message to tell my friend where to meet me. Reading —S = 2 lotto readin bth the General Training and Academic Reading Modules (between 2,000 and 2,750 words) and you only have one hour, so you may need to improve your reading speed. By the end ofthis cours, you shouldbe able toread up to 300 ‘words per minute.Time: use the approximate word unt given with this symbol 2) to workout your reading ‘speed, dividing the number of words by the time taken. Keep a record, so you can see what progress you are making. 2 Read the text opposite as quickly as you can and say where you would find this text. This type of reading is called ‘skimming’ We skim text in order to get a general idea of what it is about. Don’t worry too much about words you don't know. ® about 500 words: 3. Read the text again to find the following information. This is called ‘scanning’ We ‘scan a text to search for specific information, 1 the year schoolchildren started learning Silbo Gomero 2 the countries Gomerans went to li 3 where Silbo Gomero came from originally = ita Whistling in La Gomera An ancient language of whistles that enabled long-distance communication long before the invention of the mobile phone will be saved from extinetion on a voleaic ishand off the west coast of Affica. The island is part of the Canary Ind and is ale La Gomers‘The langage, Silbo Gomera, ‘which sounds like bidiong, was sé by dae people on ths sland to commmicace up to these kllomctnes across the dey alleys thae radiate fiom La Gomera central voleanic peal With the opening of the island to tourism and the arrival of the telephone, Silbo Gomera had started to die out Luickily the island before too late and, since 1999, Silbo Gomero has been part of the school curriculum for children up co the age of 14, About 3,000 students spend 25 minutes a week leaing it, which is enough to understand the basics. The bo Gomiero, comes from the Spanish verb ‘silbar ng to whistle and ‘Gomero’ meaning ‘coming. from the istind of La Gomer’ horities realised what they were losing 1e Tnguage is made up of four vowels and four nsonants, which can be whistled ¢@ make mone than 4,000-words. In che past,chileren learntit from their parents Dut as fewer and fewer adults wore twaching their children, it became necessary for the government to take over. According t0 Eugenio Darias, a eacher of Silbo Gomer J director of the ishand!’s Silbo programme," There are few y good silbadores, fluent whistles of the language, so fa, but lots of students are learning to use it and understand it. We've been very pleased with the resus— a An important step towards sving the Janguage was the First International Congress of Whistled Languages, which was held in La Gomera in 2003. Silbo-like whistling has been found in parts. of Greece, ‘Turkey, China and Mexico, but none is as developed as Silbo Gomero. Research will now be carried out in Venezuela, Cuba and Texas ~all places to which Gonterans have emigrated and where traces of the language sill survive Dr Francisco Rivero isa researcher at La Laguna University in Santa Cruz de ‘Tenerife. ‘Historically, from the earliest setlers up until quite recently, the Silbo Gomero language was the mobile phone 9 of the period. It allowed people to communicate across great distances because its frequency allowed the sound to be transinitted” Alehough Silbo probably originated in the Atlas Mountains of North Aiica 2,500 years ago, it was adapted to La Gomera by adopting Spanish speech. patterns. “Ie relies on vowels rather than consonant, exphins Dr Rivero. “These are whistled at different frequencies, using; Spanish grammar. IF we spoke English, well use an English structure for whisding. [es not just disjointed words — it flows, and you ‘can quite easily have a proper ‘conversation with someone? sraditionally ‘Silbo Gomero is the most important pre-Hispanic cultural heritage we have. Te is unique and has many values — hiscorical, linguistic, amthropological ands aesthetic? says Moises Plasencia, Director oF the Canary Islands’ Historical Heritage department. Sofior Plasencia his begun working ec persttade UNESCO to support La Gomera’ % efforts to save the islands language — 4 Scan the text to do the following task. Read the article about Silbo Gomera. Do the following statements agree with the information in the reading passage? Write TRUE _if the statement agrees with the information FALSE _ if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this Example: | 0 Silbo Gomero was only used face to face. <= Answer: False (The information giving the answer is underlined in the text) 1. Silbo Gomero began to disappear with the introduction of more ‘modern technology. ‘Schoolchildren in La Gomera enjoy learning Silbo Gomero. ‘Schoolchildren on the istand have a 25-minute lesson in Silbo Gomero once a day, Eugenio Darias is the best teacher of Silbo Gomero on the island. {Having an international conference on the island is believed to be a {900d thing for the future of Silbo Gomero. Itwould be impossible to adapt Silbo to English. 2 3 In the IELTS Test, the questions often do not repeat words from the text, but say the same thing using different words. This is called paraphrasing. Itis important to be able to recognise and ‘understand paraphrasing. Find words or phrases in the text which have the same or similar ‘meaning to the words or phrases below, Use an EnglishEnglish 1 the summit or top (1) 2. to begin to disappear (2) 3 the essentials or fundamentals (2) 4 consists of (3) 5 some evidence of (4) 6 immigrants (5) 7 came from (5) 8 was changed to suit different conditions (5) 9 depends on (5) 10 not well connected (5) — Part 1 four to five minutes. It is the Haciguealdceos stonyeined eichenesnt anmyar is recs or or yourinetests PTF ce 6 With a partner, ask and answer these questions. Make sure you don't justsay Yes or No. Always expand your answer, 1 Do you have a large or small family? 2 Who do you talk to most in your family? Why? 3 What problems do you have when you talk to someone i second language? COMMUNICATE!