TASK TYPE 1 Note, Table, Flow-chart Completion and Diagram Labelling

Can you answer these questions about the Note, Table, Flow-chart Completion and Diagram Labelling tasks, please?
1 Are you mostly reading for facts and figures?
2 Do you always have to write two words?
3 Do the notes always have the same format?
4 Is the information in the notes always in the same order as the information in the passage?
5 Is it important to spell words correctly?
6 Do you have to report the ideas in the passage in your own words?
7 Do you write only the missing words on the answer sheet?
Thanks!

B Sample questions
2 Read the passage and complete the notes on page 42. Use the rules about the task
from Section A to help you. Then check your answers. Which questions did you find
difficult?

IELTS PRACTICE TASK

Types of Ports
According to the World Bank, there are five distinct types of seaports: service ports, tool ports, landlord ports, corporatized
ports and private ports. The basic difference between the five models is the amount of government control.

Service ports are most often found in developing countries; the port of Dakar in Senegal, for example, is a service port. At one
time, most of the ports in the world were service ports. A service port is controlled by the central government, usually by the
Ministry of Transportation or Communications. The government owns the land and all the port’s assets – all the infrastructure
and tools. A port’s assets include roads, docks, terminal buildings, container facilities, vehicles and cargo handling equipment,
such as cranes and forklift trucks. The dock workers who load and unload the ships in service ports are all government
employees. Some supplementary services, such as food for the workers, can be in the hands of private companies. Economic
inefficiencies have led to a decline in the number of service ports in recent years.

In the tool port model, an agency, usually called the Port Authority, owns and manages the land and assets on behalf of the
city. However, the dock workers are employed by private companies. All the ports in Portugal, many in Brazil, and the French
port of Le Havre are tool ports. For many ports, the tool port model represents a transitional stage on the way to becoming a
landlord port. The transition generally requires that fundamental laws governing ports be changed, and that process often takes
some time.

The landlord port represents the dominant model today, and is the one recommended by the World Bank. Landlord ports
include the world’s largest port, Rotterdam, the port of New York in the USA, and, since 1997, the port of Singapore. The city
retains ownership of the land and the infrastructure, but leases these to a private company or companies which actually
operate the port. The workers are employed by these private companies. The most common form of lease is a concession
agreement where a private company is granted a long-term lease in exchange for rent. The firms that operate the port facilities
agree to maintain port equipment and keep it up-to-date.

A corporatized port has been almost entirely privatized. The port authority is essentially a private enterprise which owns and
controls the port. However, public agencies – either local or national – own a majority of the stock in the company managing
the port and can use their controlling interest to steer the development of the port. As in the landlord model, the privatized port
authority must keep up and improve the infrastructure, but must agree only to develop port activities. It could not, for example,
turn a container storage yard into a block of luxury apartments. Corporatized ports can be found in Poland, in Australia, and
elsewhere.

In the privatized port model, governments have no direct involvement in port activities. The land and all the assets are owned
and managed by private companies, which likewise employ the dock workers. The government operates just in a regulatory
capacity, making sure laws are followed. However, public entities can be shareholders. This model is in use in various ports in
the United Kingdom, such as Felixstowe, and in several ports in New Zealand. The World Bank does not in general approve of
this system. The bank advises against completely giving up public ownership, especially of the land.

ACADEMIC READING 41
 TASK TYPE 1 Note, Table, Flow-chart Completion and Diagram Labelling

Questions 1–9
Complete the table below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Type of port Role of government Role of private companies Comments

Service port
- owns and manages all assets may only provide fewer of these today
- employees are public workers 1 due to 2
e.g. catering

Tool port an agency known as a employs the workers acts as a

3 4
- owns the land between two other models
- manages the infrastructure

Landlord port - government owns the land - operates the port - dominant model today
and assets - employs the workers - endorsed by the World Bank
- leases them out long-term - keeps 6
- receives 5 in good order

Corporatized port government agencies own - owns the land and assets owner agrees to restrict use
most of the port authority’s - manages the port to 8
7

Privatized port government has a - owns the land and assets not recommended by the
9 role - manages the port World Bank

C Tips and tactics

3 Work in pairs. Read the tips and tactics and discuss these questions.
a Which tips and tactics do you think are the most useful?
b Did you use any of these tips and tactics when you answered the sample questions
in Section B?
c Which tips will you use in the future?
1 Before you read the passage, look at the notes and think about what you’re going to read.
2 Think about the type of information that’s missing to complete the information. For
example, are you looking for a name, a number, a specific term or something else?
3 Look for clues in the notes that tell you the type of information you’re looking for,
e.g. headings or the words already on the page.
4 Sometimes the wording of the notes tells you what to look for, e.g. if ‘Year’ is a heading,
you may see references to a number of years in the passage.
5 Most of the missing information is facts about the topic, so the words you need to write
are mostly nouns. Check if the word is singular or plural in the passage.
6 Remember that the notes follow the order of information in the passage. In tables,
read the information from left to right, not up and down. In diagrams read the labels in
clockwise order – the question numbers follow the order of information in the passage.
7 Go through the numbered questions in order. Read the relevant section of the passage
again and find the words to complete the gaps or answer the question.
8 The word(s) you need to write are in the passage. Don’t put the information you read into
your own words.
9 Don’t just write down the first word you find that fits a gap – keep reading and think
about the meaning.
10 Remember, the instructions tell you how many words to write – if you write more, your
answer will be marked wrong.
11 Write numbers as figures, e.g. ‘104’ – not as words, e.g. ‘one hundred and four’.
12 If you aren’t sure, always write something. No marks are taken off for wrong answers.

42 ACADEMIC READING
 TASK TYPE 1 Note, Table, Flow-chart Completion and Diagram Labelling

FOCUS D Skills-building exercises

Identifying the
4 Look at the words and phrases in the box. What does this vocabulary describe?
target information
assembly line electronic tongs fans fibre discs heavy stones hammermill
industrial decanter ladders large nets millstones nitrogen wooden spoons

5 Read the passage and underline the words from Exercise 4.

Producing olive oil

in traditional and commercial ways
Olive trees can live to be hundreds of years old and stirring causes the smaller droplets of oil released
produce large amounts of fruit in their lifetime. People by the milling process to form larger drops. The
have been making olive oil in countries around the larger drops can be separated from the paste more
Mediterranean Sea for many centuries, and this easily. Heating the paste during the malaxation
can be done by simply crushing the olives. Modern stage increases the yield of oil. However, the use
commercial extraction is a more complex process, of higher heat affects the taste and decreases shelf
although the same basic principle of crushing the fruit life. To compromise, commercial producers usually
to release the oil is in play. heat the paste to only about 27
degrees Centigrade. Oxidation
The olive harvest is the first step
also reduces the flavour, so
in making olive oil. Traditional
commercial producers may fill
producers use a number of low-
the malaxation chamber with
tech means to gather the olive
an inert gas such as nitrogen so
crop. One common method is
the paste avoids contact with
for workers on ladders to simply
oxygen.
pick the olives by hand and put
them into baskets tied around Next, the oil must be separated
their waists. Or workers may beat from the paste. Traditionally,
the branches with broomsticks, the paste is spread onto fibre
collecting the olives on the discs that are stacked on top of
ground. Commercial processors each other in a cylindrical press.
use electronic tongs to strip olives Heavy stones are placed on top
off the branches and drop them of the discs, squeezing out the
into large nets spread out below liquid. The oil thus produced is
the trees. It is then important to called first press or cold press
get the olives to the mill as quickly oil. The paste is then mixed with
as possible, before the level of hot water or steam and pressed
acidity becomes too great, as this once more. The second press oil
can spoil the flavour of the oil. doesn’t have such an intense
flavour. The modern commercial
After the harvested olives have been brought to the
method of olive oil extraction uses a machine called
mill, traditional producers pick through the olives by
an industrial decanter to separate the oil from the
hand to remove dirt, leaves and twigs. Commercial
paste. This machine spins at approximately 3000
producers use cleaning machines to accomplish
revolutions per minute. The paste and oil are easily
the same goal. Fans blow away the majority of
separated because of their different densities. This is
smaller particles and another machine picks out
essentially the same method that is used to separate
any remaining larger bits. The olives are then turned
milk from cream.
into a paste as they pass through the mill. Large
‘millstones’ are used for this purpose by traditional After the separation process, the oil is bottled, and
makers, whereas commercial production involves the bottle is capped and labelled. Small, traditional
the use of a mechanised alternative, known as a producers often do this by hand, while commercial
hammermill. Once milled, the olive paste is ready producers use assembly line techniques. The leftover
for a process called malaxation. In this stage of the paste is sometimes used for animal feed or it can be
process, the milled paste is stirred and mixed for 20 further chemically processed to extract more olive
to 40 minutes. This is done with wooden spoons by oil, which is usually blended with other oils or used
traditional producers, while commercial producers for processes such as soap making.
use a mixing machine with a metal spiral blade. The

ACADEMIC READING 43
 TASK TYPE 1 Note, Table, Flow-chart Completion and Diagram Labelling

6 Which of the words from Exercise 4 on page 43 are used to describe the traditional
method? Which words are used to describe the modern commercial method?

7 Look at the flow-chart below. Choose the correct words to complete the notes. Read
the passage again to make sure you have reported the meaning exactly in the notes.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

HOW OLIVE OIL IS MADE

TRADITIONAL METHOD COMMERCIAL METHOD

Harvesting Harvesting
Manual labourers climb 1 to 2 are used to remove olives
reach the olives. Picked by hand. from the trees.
Collected in 3 on the ground.
↓ ↓

Cleaning Cleaning
Dirt, leaves and twigs removed by hand. Mechanical methods.
4 remove most unwanted
material.
↓ ↓

Milling Milling
A machine called a 6 is
5 are used to turn olives into
used.
paste.

↓ ↓

Malaxation Malaxation
Paste stirred with 7 to Paste mixed in a machine.
create larger drops of oil within the paste. Paste heated to about 27° C.
8 is used to retain flavour.
↓ ↓

Pressing Pressing
Paste applied to 9 in a An 11 is used to remove oil
cylindrical press. 10 are from the paste.
used to force the oil out of the paste.
↓ ↓

Final stages Final stages

Oil bottled, capped and labelled by hand. 12 methods are used to
bottle, cap and label the oil.

8 Work in pairs. Look at this student’s answers. Why were they marked wrong?

1 baskets
5 Milstones
11 Industry decantor
12 by hand

44 ACADEMIC READING
 TASK TYPE 2 Short Answer Questions

C Tips and tactics

3 Work in pairs. Read the tips and tactics and discuss these questions.
a Which tips and tactics do you think are the most useful?
b Did you use any of these tips and tactics when you answered the sample questions
in Section B?
c Which tips will you use in the future?
1 Before you read the passage, look at the questions and think about what you’re going to
read.
2 Underline the most important words in the questions and think about the type of
information you’re looking for. For example, are you looking for a name, a number, a
specific term or something else?
3 Most of the answers are facts about the topic, so many of the words you need to write
are nouns. Check if words are singular or plural in the passage.
4 Read the passage quickly. Remember that the questions follow the order of information
in the passage.
5 Then go through the questions one by one. Use the underlined words to help you find the
relevant sections of the passage. Read these sections in detail and find the information to
answer the question.
6 The word(s) you need to write are in the passage. Don’t put the information you read into
your own words. Copy the spelling of the words exactly and check it carefully.
7 Don’t just write down the first word you find that fits the gap – keep reading and keep
thinking about the meaning.
8 Remember, the instructions tell you how many words to write – if you write more, your
answer will be marked wrong.
9 Write numbers as figures, e.g. ‘104’ – not as words, e.g. ‘one hundred and four’.
10 If you aren’t sure of an answer, always write something. No marks are taken off for
wrong answers.

FOCUS D Skills-building exercises

Understanding
4 Read the questions and look at the underlined words. What type of information are
the focus of Short
you looking for to answer each question?
Answer Questions
1 Who discovered that white light breaks into component colours?
2 Which part of the human eye is sensitive to colour?
3 How many colours is the human eye able to distinguish?
4 Which colours are dogs unable to perceive?
5 What type of light can bees see that humans can’t see?
6 Which animal has the most complicated colour vision?

5 Now underline the other important words in each question in Exercise 4.

6 Work in pairs. Discuss what each question focuses on and what kind of information
you would look for in the reading passage. (NB There is no reading passage for these
questions.)

Caption TBC

52 ACADEMIC READING
 TASK TYPE 2 Short Answer Questions

Eadweard
Muybridge
(1830–1904)
Today we know exactly what features of their
physical make-up allow animals to move at
speed. Less well-known is the role of motion
photography in helping us to understand
these features. Before moving images could
be captured on film, it was difficult to know
exactly how animals’ bodies moved at speed.
This was because the movements happened too
quickly for the human eye to perceive them. An
understanding of the processes involved only
came in the 1880s with the pioneering work of
Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904), who was
a pioneer in the development of early motion
photography.
Muybridge was an Englishman who went to
the USA at the age of 20 in search of fame and
fortune. By 1855, this search had taken him as far
as California, which in those days was perceived
as the land of opportunity. The region had just fascination with the idea of rapid motion
seen the rapid development associated with photography grew and its further development now
the Gold Rush, which attracted many ambitious became his main work. In his next experiment, he
young men like Muybridge to the region. San positioned 50 cameras alongside the track before
Francisco was at the centre of this boom and a horserace took place. Through the use of devices
Muybridge initially set himself up as a bookseller called electrically-controlled shutters, Muybridge
in the city. He also took up photography, working was able to capture a split-second image from
for a commercial photographer, and soon began each camera as the horse ran past. His findings
to develop a reputation for his images of the local answered Stanford’s question definitively: all four
landscape, in particular those of the Yosemite hooves leave the ground at the same time, as could
Valley. This led, in 1868, to his appointment to a be seen from the photographic images.
US government post as Director of Photographic What’s more, by projecting the images on to a
Surveys. As part of his new role, Muybridge screen, and showing them one after another at
travelled to Alaska, which had just become US great speed, the horse’s actual movements could
territory, to produce a photographic record. be recreated. Muybridge’s public demonstration
The work for which Muybridge is best of this technique in 1882, using a device called a
remembered, however, began in 1872, the year zoopraxiscope which he also invented, is credited
when a racehorse owner, Leland Stanford, asked with being the birth of the moving picture industry.
Muybridge to try and establish whether or not all For the remainder of his life, Muybridge concentrated
four of a racehorse’s hooves left the ground when on the further development of the techniques he
it was running. Muybridge rose to the challenge, had developed, and is regarded as having inspired
realising that photography could provide the Thomas Edison, who was to invent the cinecamera.
necessary evidence. But his first efforts, using Indeed, Muybridge’s groundbreaking work paved
wet-plate techniques, were not conclusive the way for a new art form, making it just as
because the images were not clear enough. As important as Josheph Niépce’s pioneering still
he worked on the problem, however, Muybridge’s photography had been back in 1825.

ACADEMIC READING 53
 TASK TYPE 2 Short Answer Questions

FOCUS 7 Read the passage on page 53 and the questions (1–8) below. Put a tick (✓) next to
the correct answers. Put a cross (X) next to incorrect answers and write the correct
Checking that
answer.
answers are correct
1 What historical event had just ended when Muybridge arrived in San Francisco?
The Gold Rush
2 What was Muybridge’s first job in San Francisco?
commercial photographer
3 What type of photographs did Muybridge originally become well-known for?
landscape
4 Where did Muybridge serve as a government photographer?
Alaska
5 What method did Muybridge use to take his first photos of moving racehorses?
electrically-controlled shutters
6 What was the purpose of the zoopraxiscope?
projecting the images
7 When was the first moving picture show seen by the public?
in 1872
8 Who was influenced by Muybridge?
Josheph Niépce

8 Work in pairs. Discuss why you marked some answers incorrect.

Caption TBC

54 ACADEMIC READING
 TASK TYPE 7 Sentence Completion

C Tips and tactics

3 Work in pairs. Read the tips and tactics and discuss these questions.
a Which tips and tactics do you think are the most useful?
b Did you use any of these tips and tactics when you answered the sample
questions in Section B?
c Which tips will you use in the future?
1 Before you read the passage, look at the sentences and think about what you’re going to
read.
2 Think about the type of information that’s missing in each sentence. For example, are you
looking for a name, a number, a specific term or something else?
3 Look for clues in the sentence that tell you the type of information you’re looking for,
e.g. ‘in the field of …’ and ‘working as a …’.
4 Sometimes the sentence tells you what to look for, e.g. ‘in the year …’, but you may see
a number of years in the passage. Read carefully to find out which is correct.
5 Most of the missing information is facts about the topic, so the words that you need to
write are mostly nouns. Check if the word is singular or plural in the passage.
6 Read the passage quickly. Remember that the sentences follow the order of information
in the passage.
7 Then go through the sentences one by one. Read the relevant section of the passage
again and find the words to complete the sentences.
8 Remember, the word(s) you need to write are in the passage. Don’t put the information
you read into your own words.
9 Don’t just write down the first word you find that fits the gap – keep reading and keep
thinking about the meaning.
10 Remember, the instructions tell you how many words to write – if you write more, your
answer will be marked wrong. Most answers are single nouns, e.g. ‘clerk’, or compound
nouns that include two words, e.g. ‘wood engravings’.
11 Write numbers as figures, e.g. ‘104’ – not as words, e.g. ‘one hundred and four’.
12 If you aren’t sure, always write something. No marks are taken off for wrong answers.

D Skills-building exercises
FOCUS 4 Read the sentences (1–6). Can you predict the type of information which is missing in
each of the gaps? (There is no passage to refer to.)
Identifying what
type of information 1 Johnson was working as a by the time his original work was published.
is missing 2 Johnson’s original work was first published in a journal called .
3 Johnson decided to visit in order to do further research.
4 Johnson got funding from a to help pay for his further research.
5 Johnson had difficulty with during the research project.
6 Johnson’s breakthrough came when he began studying rather than larger
animals.

5 Read the passage on page 93 and make a note of the following information.
1 Three occupations are mentioned in the first paragraph. Write the words here.

2 ‘Cavities’ is a plural noun. There are five more plural nouns in the second paragraph. Write
the words here.

3 There are four types of taste mentioned in the article. Which two are mentioned in the
paragraph about Hanig’s work?

4 In the paragraph about Boring’s work, there are three terms for pictures. Write these
terms here.

Caption TBC

92 ACADEMIC READING
 TASK TYPE 7 Sentence Completion

6 Look at the sentences (1–4). Read the passage again carefully and complete the
sentences. Use your answers from Exercise 5 to help you. Write NO MORE THAN TWO
WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
1 The idea of the four basic tastes had its origin in the work of a .
2 Close observation of the tongue revealed small cavities that looked like .
3 Hanig’s experiments suggested a link between the front of the tongue and
tastes.
4 Boring preferred to use the word for the picture of the tongue he produced.

THE
FOUR
BASIC
TASTES
When humans eat, they use all of their
five senses – sight, hearing, smell, touch
and taste – to form judgments about
their food. But as every cook knows, and
scientists have long confirmed, it is taste
that is most influential. Indeed, it was the
Ancient Greek philosopher Democritus
who first formulated the notion that
people could perceive four primary tastes
– sweet, sour, salty and bitter – which
couldn’t be replicated by mixing together
any of the others.
When tongue cells were studied under a
microscope in the late 19th century, they appeared to resemble tiny keyholes, and scientists put forward the idea
that these cavities came in four different shapes, each corresponding to one of the primary tastes.
Then, in 1901, a German scientist named D.P. Hanig set out to measure the relative sensitivity of the tongue to the
four known basic tastes. He concluded that this varied in different parts of the tongue, with sweet sensations peaking
in the tip and salty ones more prevalent at the sides.
In 1942, Edwin Boring, a psychologist at Harvard University, took Hanig’s raw data and created a visual image, what
he termed a map of the tongue, showing which areas were most sensitive to which taste. The concept is easy enough
to refute with a home experiment. Place salt on the side of your tongue and you’ll taste salt. Place sugar on the other
side and you’ll taste sweet. But for some unknown reason, scientists never bothered to do this, and Boring’s ideas
and accompanying diagram continued to be widely accepted.

ACADEMIC READING 93