101 Helpful Hints for IELTS

Reading Passage 3
Questions 27 - 40
6 You are advised to spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27 - 40.

38-44 PARALINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION

51-57

Communication via the spoken word yields a 'class' of that person. In England, there are
Vast amount of information in addition to the many regional accents - the most obvious
actual meaning of the words used. This is differences being between people who live or
paralinguistic communication. Even the come from the north and those hailing from
meaning of spoken words is open to the south. It is usually the vowel sounds
interpretation; sarcasm, for instance, relies which vary the most.
heavily on saying one thing and meaning
Accents give us direct information about the
another. It is impossible to produce spoken
speaker, but the information we decipher is,
language without using some form of
unfortunately, not always accurate. Accents
communication beyond the literal meaning
tend to reflect existing prejudices towards
of the words chosen.
people we hear using them.
Our skill in communicating All of us tend to judge each
what we wish to say is other in this way, whether it
determined not only by our is a stereotypical response -
choice of words, but also by positive, negative or neutral
the accent we use, the - to the place we assume a
volume of our speech, the person is from, or a value
speed at which we speak, and our tone of we hold based on our perception of that
voice, to name but a few paralinguistic person's status in society (Wilkinson, 1965).
features. Furthermore, we sometimes
miscommunicate because the ability to Another instantly communicable facet of a
interpret correctly what is being said to us person's conversation is the degree of
varies greatly with each individual. loudness employed. We assume, perhaps
correctly in the majority of instances, that
Clearly, certain people are better at extroverts speaklouder than introverts, though
communicating than others, yet it is important this is not always the case. Also, men tend to
to realise that the possession of a wide use more volume than women. A person
vocabulary does not necessarily mean one speaking softly might be doing so for any
has the ability to effectively communicate an number of reasons - secrecy, tenderness,
idea. embarrassment, or even anger. People who
Each one of us speaks with an accent. It is not are deaf tend to shout because they
possible to do otherwise. Our accent quickly overcompensate for the lack of aural feedback
tells the listener where we come from, for they receive. And foreigners often complain
unless we make a conscious effort to use of being shouted at by native speakers. Oddly,
another accent, we speak with the accent of the latter must suppose that speaking loudly
those with whom we grew up or presently will somehow make up for the listener's
live amongst. apparent lack of comprehension.

Accents, then, inform us first about the country The speed at which an individual speaks
a person is from. They may also tell us which varies from person to person. The speech rate
part of a country the person lives in or has tells the listener a great deal about the speaker
lived in, or they might reveal the perceived - his or her mood or personality, for instance

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 Practice Test Three

in addition to providing clues about the state of mind, as well as indicating familiarity
speaker's relationship to the listener, and the with the listener and the language spoken.
interest taken in the topic of conversation.
Nonetheless, variations in talking speed are All paralinguistic messages provide much
less a matter of context than of the speaker's useful information about the speaker;
basic personality (Goldman-Eisler, 1968). information which is either consciously or
subconsciously received. In most cases people
There are three more non-verbal features of appear to interpret the messages appropriately,
the voice to consider, each of which sends except where there is interference because of
paralinguistic messages to the listener: voice prejudice.
quality, the tone of voice used, and continuity
of speech, that is, the deliberate or non- It is relatively easy to judge a person's age,
deliberate use of pauses, hesitations, sex and feelings from the paralinguistic clues
repetitions etc. Voice quality tells us about they leave behind in their speech, but people
the physical attributes or health of the speaker; are less able to correctly determine such
voice tone informs us of the speaker's feelings detailed characteristics as, say, intelligence
towards either the topic of conversation or (Fay and Middleton, 1940).
the listener; and continuity of speech is
particularly revealing of the speaker's nervous

Questions 27 - 31

You are advised to spend about 6 minutes on Questions 2 7 - 3 1 . 6

Refer to Reading Passage 3 "Paralinguistic Communication", and look at the statements below. 8
34-36
Write T if the statement is True, F if the statement is False, and NG (for Not Given) if there is 43-44-46
no information about the statement in the passage. Write your answers in boxes 27 - 31 on your
Answer Sheet.

Example: Paralinguistic communication refers to the definition

of spoken words. 0 NG

Q27. The volume at which we speak is a paralinguistic feature T F NG 44

of our speech.

Q28. A speaker's accent always indicates the country or place T F NG 35

he or she comes from.

Q29. People from the south of England are sometimes T F NG 35

prejudiced against the accents of people from the north.

Q30. Personality is a greater determinant of talking speed T F NG 48

than other factors in a person's speech.

Q31. The study of paralinguistics includes 'reading between T F NG

Check:
the lines' in written communication. 11-13-15

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 101 Helpful Hints for IELTS

Questions 32 - 34

6 You are advised to spend about 7 minutes on Questions 32 - 34.

8 What are the THREE specific areas of research undertaken by the linguists whose names are
4456
giveninbracketsinReadingPassage3? Select from the list below. Write your answers in boxes
32 - 34 on your Answer Sheet.
Note that you can GIVE YOUR ANSWERS IN ANY ORDER.

A the mood or personality of a speaker

B the accuracy of interpretation of various paralinguistic messages

C the causes of variations in the rate of speech

D what makes a conversation interesting

E which accents are most highly rated by listeners

F how to determine the intelligence of a listener

G the vowel differences between accents

Check:
11-13-15

Questions 35 - 40

6 You are advised to spend about 7 minutes on Questions 35 - 40.

8 Refer to Reading Passage 3 "Paralinguistic Communication", and complete the six sentence
12-45
beginnings below with the appropriate sentence endings from the list given in the box. Select
from choices (i) - (ix) and write your answers in boxes 35 - 40 on your Answer Sheet. The first
one has been done for you as an example.

9 Example: If someone is being sarcastic, it means that they are

Sentence Beginnings:

It is not possible to (35)

Some people are better at communicating than others because they are (36)

Speakers from the North of England (37)

The response to a particular accent heard (38)

Speakers with hearing disabilities (39)

Paralinguistic information is sometimes (40)

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 Practice Test Three

Sentence Endings:

(i) ... registered below the level of consciousness.

(ii) ... may be one of three kinds.
(iii) ... communicate only the meaning of spoken words.
(iv) ... use a regional accent.
(v) ... saying the opposite of what they mean on purpose.
(vi) ... aware of the power of paralinguistic messages.
(vii) ... cannot be distinguished from those who come from the South.
(viii) ... have a wider vocabulary.
(ix) ... often speak louder than usual.

Checl
11-13-1

That is the end of Practice Reading Test Three.

Now continue with Practice Writing Test Three on page 138.

137
 101 Helpful Hints for IELTS

59-66 PRACTICE WRITING TEST THREE

67-75 Writing Task 1
6 You are advised to spend a maximum of 20 minutes on this task.

72 73 The bar chart below shows the number of overseas students enrolled in
a second year Graphic Design course at a college in the south of England.
Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information
shown.

8 You should write at least 150 words.

KEY
| Enrolled in CAD core option' M - Male students
I Enrolled in Photography core option F - Female students
10 -r Sweden
8 -
Spain
France Germany
No. of -
enrolled 6 -
students _
from 4 -
abroad Syria
2 -

0
M F M F M F M F M F
1
CAD - Computer-Aided Design

77-82 Writing Task 2

6 You are advised to spend a maximum of 40 minutes on this task.
Write an essay for a university lecturer on the following topic:
77 75-80 People in allmodern societies use drugs, but today's youth are experimenting
with both legal and illegal drugs, and at an increasingly early age. Some
sociologists claim that parents and other members of society often set a bad
example.
Discuss the causes and some effects of widespread drug use by young people
in modern day society. Make any recommendations you feel are necessary to
help fight youth drug abuse.
You should write at least 250 words.
You are required to support your arguments with relevant information and examples based on
your own ideas, knowledge and experience.
Overall Check
Grammar 12

Spelling
& 65
4
That is the end of Practice Writing Test Three.
Legibility 15
Punctuation 59
Check your answers to Practice Test Three with the Answer Key on page 168.

138
 Practice Test Four

i PRACTICE READING TEST FOUR

Reading Passage 1
Questions 1-12
You are advised to spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-12.

T H E BEAM-OPERATED TRAFFIC SYSTEM

The Need for Change

The number of people killed each year on the road is more
than for all other types of avoidable deaths except for
those whose lives are cut short by tobacco use. Yet road
deaths are tolerated - so great is our need to travel about
swiftly and economically.
Oddly, modern vehicle engine design - the combustion """ ~"
engine - has remained largely unchanged since it was conceived over 100 years ago. A huge
amount of money and effort is being channelled into alternative engine designs, the most popular
being based around substitute fuels such as heavy water, or the electric battery charged by the
indirect burning of conventional fuels, or by solar power.
Nevertheless, such innovations will do little to halt the carnage on the road. What is needed is
a radical rethinking of the road system itself.
Section (ii)
The Beam-Operated Traffic System, proposed by a group of Swedish engineers, does away with
tarred roads and independently controlled vehicles, and replaces them with innumerable small
carriages suspended from electrified rails along a vast interconnected web of steel beams
crisscrossing the skyline. The entire system would be computer-controlled and operate without
human intervention.

Section (iii)
The most preferable means of propulsion is via electrified rails atop the beams. Although electric
transport systems still require fossil fuels to be burnt or dams to be built, they add much less to
air pollution than the burning of petrol within conventional engines. In addition, they help keep
polluted air out of cities and restrict it to the point of origin where it can be more easily dealt with.
Furthermore, electric motors are typically 90% efficient, compared to internal combustion
engines, which are at most 30% efficient. They are also better at accelerating and climbing hills.
This efficiency is no less true of beam systems than of single vehicles.

Section (iv)
A relatively high traffic throughput can be maintained - automated systems can react faster than
can human drivers - and the increased speed of movement is expected to compensate for loss of
privacy. It is estimated that at peak travel times passenger capacity could be more than double
that of current subway systems.
It might be possible to arrange for two simultaneous methods of vehicle hire: one in which large
carriages (literally buses) run to a timetable, and another providing for hire of small independently
occupied cars at a slightly higher cost. Travellers could order a car by swiping a card through
a machine, which recognises a personal number code.

Section (v)
Monorail systems are not new, but they have so far been built as adjuncts to existing city road
systems. They usually provide a limited service, which is often costly and fails to address the

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