DOMINIC COLE IELST READING TECHNIQUES, TRAP-AVOIDING, PROBLEM-SOLVING AND TIPS ACADEMIC MODULE Collected and re-edited by TR N M NH TRUNG HONG DUC UNIVERSITY 2016 IELTS READING TECHNIQUES AND TIPS Written by DOMINIC COLE Collected and edited by Tran Manh Trung – Hong Duc University - 2016 PART 01: IELTS READING TECHNIQUES AND TIPS I IELTS multiple choice reading questions The multiple choice question should be familiar to most candidates That doesn’t make it easy though In many ways the skills needed for this question are the same as for the True/False/Not Given type – only here you get options and not So, in a sense, it’s harder A The primary reading skill As with the True/False question type, IELTS multiple choice reading questions require very close reading of one or two paragraphs of the text Very frequently the difficult part is reading the question carefully too At least of the possible answers may look ok until you read them closely B The two types of question – fact and opinion It’s very important to recognise that there are types of question those that: - ask you for the writer’s opinion - ask you to find factual information Let me explain why this distinction matters with this easy example: Different people read for different reasons For example, the attraction of reading detective fiction can be in the intellectual challenge of finding out who did it, in an autobiography we can eavesdrop on the conversations of the great and good or we can laugh at folly in the celebrity magazine For many children it is a magic gateway to some other world Sadly, that is one of the greatest mistakes they can make According to the author, the attraction of reading for young people is: 1 they find out about other countries different from other generations escaping into another world foolish Without the words highlighted in red, the answer must be 3., with those words it becomes Tip 01: don’t stop reading too soon An answer may seem right but if the next word is something like “but” the meaning changes completely C The traps and how to avoid them It helps to know how the examiners try and trap you The way they this is fairly predictable Let’s look at another example: What were the findings of the research in Scotland: anti-smoking legislation was more effective in the USA advertising of tobacco products had less effect on old than on young people the legislation was unpopular with the print media 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% In the text but doesn’t answer the question Answer above is wrong because it doesn’t answer the question This was not the findings of the research in Scotland It’s easy to fall for this trap as the information is correct Tip 02: always go back and re-read the question before you answer Probably true but you’re guessing information Answer is wrong because we don’t have the information in the text We might be able to guess that this is true, but if it doesn’t say so in the text the answer is not correct Tip 03: always make sure you look at all answers, don’t guess too soon You may find a better answer later You’re word matching – read the context This one contains most words from the text so there is an obvious temptation to say “yes” There is in fact no evidence for this in the text at all A very typical mistake is to match words in the question and text You need to read the context for meaning to avoid this mistake Tip 04: always refocus on the exact wording of the question before giving the answer Be suspicious of answers that contain almost the same language as the text Correct – you match meanings – “almost a third” = “30%” and “18-24 age group” matches “young people” D Suggested procedure Look at the questions first to see what topics you need to look for – be aware you may need to look for synonyms Concentrate on the stem of the question when you are looking for the right part of the text Skim the text to identify the correct paragraphs to read: the questions will go in order so question will come between and Read the the correct part of the paragraph carefully and then re-read the question – looking at each option in turn Ask yourself if you are looking for fact or opinion Delete the answers you know to be incorrect Underline the words in the text that give you the answer II True / False / Not given Questions Perhaps the question type that gives most pain to most IELTS candidates is the True/False/Not given question type Here are some pointers to help you improve your IELTS band score with a link to some specific practice on this type of question A The question types In fact there are two question types here: True/False/Not given: fact based Yes/No/Not given: opinion based In each case you need to decide if the information in the text agrees with the information in the question You should note that in the “Yes/No/Not given” questions, you are normally asked to look for the writer’s opinions rather than facts B Note the key skill The key skill here is to understand that you are interpreting the text and the question This means that you need to read very closely and pay attention to what the writer means Don’t think of it just as a skimming question, rather a question where you need to read parts of the text and the whole question closely and decide what the writer means C How to get the answers right True/Yes There is information in the text that agrees exactly with the statement in the question Note that you will almost certainly need to look for synonyms here and match meaning and not words 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 D Guessing intelligently This is probably the hardest question type Don’t despair though you have a good chance of guessing correctly In fact the questions are hard because you have a one in three chance of guessing! Here is my suggestion 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 if you find no information in the text about the statement guess Not Given – don’t waste time Typically, answer are Not Given when they match just one or two words in the question if you have no idea, then guess Not Given You have a one in three chance of being right and you may have no idea because it isn’t there! E Some examples of how the questions work Macallan is one of the four top selling brands of malt whisky in the world It is made in barrels made of Spanish oak that have previously been used for sherry because this adds sweetness to its flavour True Macallan is globally successful This is true because top selling brands of malt whisky in the world matches globally successful False Macallan is made in metal containers This is false because the text says it us made in barrels of Spanish oak Because oak is a wood this contradicts the words int he question metal containers Note that you need to think about meaning Not Given Macallan is made in Spain There is no information about where it is made Be careful of the trap of seeing the words Spanish and made in the text Usually with Not Given answers you will find some words in the text that match words int he question without matching the meaning of the whole question F A difficulty – Not Given The “Not Given” variation is probably what makes this type of question so difficult How can you deal with this problem? You need to understand that:   “Not given” does not mean no words in the question are used in the text Typically, you will find some of words from the question in the text – they simply don’t answer the whole question You cannot add information that is probably true: you can only use the information given in the text G Some practical tips Read the whole question Do NOT focus on key words Think about the meaning of the question Be especially careful with words such as “often” and “some” They can change the meaning of the question dramatically Be careful with questions beginning “The writer says”: here you need to think about the writer’s opinions and not about facts The questions will follow the order of the text: if you can’t find answer 12, you know it must be somewhere between 11 and 13 Do not spend too long on any one question If the answer is “Not Given”, there may be nothing for you to find One possibility is to mark all the “True” answers and all the “False” answers and then guess “Not Given” for the others H A suggested procedure Here is my suggested procedure: Read the instructions carefully and note whether you are being asked to look for facts or opinions 5 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 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 Mark on the question paper which paragraphs relate to which question: eg, write 11 against paragraph E Refocus on the question and read the whole question: be careful with tricky words like “usually” 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 I True False Not Given – some tips and an exercise This lesson reminds you of some tips on the True False Not Given question type in IELTS reading There are two main points to focus on when you are answering the question: firstly, to think about meaning and not just words, and secondly to focus on the question as much as the text itself There is also an interactive quiz at the bottom for you to test your skills A Tip one – Underline the part of the text that shows the answer A forgotten reading skill is to learning how to read intensively when you are looking for the answer itself Forget “key words” – they only show where to find the answer Once you have found the right part of the text, read very carefully – you want to find something that says: This agrees with the information in the question – True This contradicts the informnation in the question – False Do NOT read generally at this point You want to find something you can underline If you cannot find anything specific that you can underline, then the answer is likely to be Not Given B Tip two – Refer back to the whole question and think about its meaning IELTS reading is designed how well you understand reading passages This means you always want to focus on meaning when you are looking for the answer Once you have found the right part of the text, forget key words It’s quite possible to find words in the text that match words in the question, but the overall meaning is quite different Go back to the question and re-read it carefully – focus on the little words too (some, never, generally etc), these can change the meanings of questions dramatically Ask yourself if you are looking for something absolutely true or something that is qualified in some ay Re-read the text Does it mean the same as the question? Make sure you check the text and question against each other – that they mean the same thing C Some practice questions The majority of professional players on the ATP and the WTA tours now use polyester strings made by Luxilon, a company that specialised in the past in manufacturing fibres for female undergarments The trend was started by the then little-known Brazilian player Gustavo Kuerten who more or less by chance discovered that this string was almost completely “dead” – meaning that the players are able to swing much harder at the ball and impart much more spin on it without it flying off uncontrollably as it would with a traditional gut string Kuerten of course went on to achieve much success and, in the clay court game at least, is regarded as one of the modern greats His most lasting legacy though may not be his titles, rather it may be that his use of a material primarily made for women’s bras allowed him and successive champions to change how the tennis ball flew Players were able to find completely new angles on the court because, in the hands of a master, a shot hit with a luxilon string that might look as if it were heading way out of court would suddenly drop like a stone, describing an almost perfect parabola This technological innovation has revolutionised the way in which the game is now played For example, Roger Federer, a man who many regard as the greatest player of all time, may have begun his career as an attacking all-court player, but in latter years he has been forced become a much more defensively orientated player who chooses his time to attack more carefully Indeed, he is on record as saying that new string technology has changed the face of the game and that he has had to adapt his game to counter players who stand behind the baseline and produce winning shots from almost nowhere True/False/Not Given – Luxilon Question Roger Federer uses luxilon to string his tennis racket A B C True False Not Given Question The use of luxilon allowed players to hit new types of shots A B C True False Not Given Question Roger Federer has always played an attacking game of tennis A B C True False Not Given Question Explanation: We know that “The majority of professional players on the ATP and the WTA tours now use polyester strings made by Luxilon” and that Federer believes”new string technology has changed the face of the game” You might assume therefore that he uses the string There is, however, no information in the text about what type of string Federer uses – he may be part of the majority, he may be part of the minority, we simply don’t know Question Explanation: We find the answer in “ the players are able to swing much harder at the ball and impart much more spin on it without it flying off uncontrollably” and “Players were able to find completely new angles on the court because, in the hands of a master, a shot hit with a luxilon string that might look as if it were heading way out of court would suddenly drop like a stone, describing an almost perfect parabola.” Question Explanation: We have enough information in the text from “Roger Federer, a man who many regard as the greatest player of all time, may have begun his career as an attacking all-court player, but in latter years he has been forced become a more defensively orientated player who chooses his time to attack more carefully.” This is a “trick question” if you look only at the words “Federer” and “attacking”, you may want to say True If, however, you read the whole question including the word “always”, then the answer must be False The idea is that Federer has changed the way he plays into a more defensive style D True False Not Given reading practice This lesson has two purposes In it you will find a short exercise to test your True/False/Not Given skills and an explanation of how to deal with more difficult words in IELTS reading texts The skill of reading closely The text is designed to be slightly harder than the average IELTS text as it contains quite a high proportion of unexpected words and long sentences The idea is to focus you on the skill PART 02: IELTS READING PRACTICE AND MORE TIPS MORE PRACTICE EXERCISES A True False Not Given – some tips and an exercise This lesson reminds you of some tips on the True False Not Given question type in IELTS reading There are two main points to focus on when you are answering the question: firstly, to think about meaning and not just words, and secondly to focus on the question as much as the text itself There is also an interactive quiz at the bottom for you to test your skills Tip one – Underline the part of the text that shows the answer A forgotten reading skill is to learning how to read intensively when you are looking for the answer itself Forget “key words” – they only show where to find the answer Once you have found the right part of the text, read very carefully – you want to find something that says: This agrees with the information in the question – True This contradicts the informnation in the question – False Do NOT read generally at this point You want to find something you can underline If you cannot find anything specific that you can underline, then the answer is likely to be Not Given Tip two – refer back to the whole question and think about its meaning IELTS reading is designed how well you understand reading passages This means you always want to focus on meaning when you are looking for the answer Once you have found the right part of the text, forget key words It’s quite possible to find words in the text that match words in the question, but the overall meaning is quite different Go back to the question and re-read it carefully – focus on the little words too (some, never, generally etc), these can change the meanings of questions dramatically Ask yourself if you are looking for something absolutely true or something that is qualified in some ay Re-read the text Does it mean the same as the question? Make sure you check the text and question against each other – that they mean the same thing 31 Some practice questions Luxilon The majority of professional players on the ATP and the WTA tours now use polyester strings made by Luxilon, a company that specialised in the past in manufacturing fibres for female undergarments The trend was started by the then little-known Brazilian player Gustavo Kuerten who more or less by chance discovered that this string was almost completely “dead” – meaning that the players are able to swing much harder at the ball and impart much more spin on it without it flying off uncontrollably as it would with a traditional gut string Kuerten of course went on to achieve much success and, in the clay court game at least, is regarded as one of the modern greats His most lasting legacy though may not be his titles, rather it may be that his use of a material primarily made for women’s bras allowed him and successive champions to change how the tennis ball flew Players were able to find completely new angles on the court because, in the hands of a master, a shot hit with a luxilon string that might look as if it were heading way out of court would suddenly drop like a stone, describing an almost perfect parabola This technological innovation has revolutionised the way in which the game is now played For example, Roger Federer, a man who many regard as the greatest player of all time, may have begun his career as an attacking all-court player, but in latter years he has been forced become a much more defensively orientated player who chooses his time to attack more carefully Indeed, he is on record as saying that new string technology has changed the face of the game and that he has had to adapt his game to counter players who stand behind the baseline and produce winning shots from almost nowhere True/False/Not Given - Luxilon Decide if the answers to these questions are: TRUE - there is information in the text that shows that this is the author's opinion FALSE - there is information in the text that shows that this is NOT the author's opinion NOT GIVEN - there is not enough information in the text to determine whether this true or false Start Question Roger Federer uses luxilon to string his tennis racket A B C True False Not Given Question The use of luxilon allowed players to hit new types of shots A True 32 B C False Not Given Question Roger Federer has always played an attacking game of tennis A B C True False Not Given Once you are finished, click the button below Any items you have not completed will be marked incorrect Question Explanation: We know that “The majority of professional players on the ATP and the WTA tours now use polyester strings made by Luxilon” and that Federer believes”new string technology has changed the face of the game” You might assume therefore that he uses the string There is, however, no information in the text about what type of string Federer uses – he may be part of the majority, he may be part of the minority, we simply don’t know Question Explanation: We find the answer in “ the players are able to swing much harder at the ball and impart much more spin on it without it flying off uncontrollably” and “Players were able to find completely new angles on the court because, in the hands of a master, a shot hit with a luxilon string that might look as if it were heading way out of court would suddenly drop like a stone, describing an almost perfect parabola.” Question Explanation: We have enough information in the text from “Roger Federer, a man who many regard as the greatest player of all time, may have begun his career as an attacking all-court player, but in latter years he has been forced become a more defensively orientated player who chooses his time to attack more carefully.” This is a “trick question” if you look only at the words “Federer” and “attacking”, you may want to say True If, however, you read the whole question including the word “always”, then the answer must be False The idea is that Federer has changed the way he plays into a more defensive style Tài li u chia s t i DI N ĐÀN H C TI NG ANH Admin: TR N M NH TRUNG 33 B Multiple choice reading practice Try this IELTS multiple choice reading practice It is a long text and you will need plenty of time to complete it – it may take up to 10 minutes – that isn’t bad if you are still training Don’t it online! This is a long text You can print it off by using the print button at the bottom of the page That way you can get real practice underling and ringing words! Some tips on dealing with IELTS multiple choice reading questions tip – decide which paragraph you find the answer in – find words in the text that relate to the question – this will require skimming and scanning tip – remember that the questions will follow the order of the text – i.e question will be between questions and tip – read the question closely tip – look for something specific in the text that matches the whole question tip 5- beware of simply matching words -you will probably need to look for synonyms tip – concentrate on the stem of the question – remember that of the options are wrong and may confuse you Questions Professor Hobbs is researching A ? whether or not the Pyramids were constructed of concrete in their entirety B ? how the Egyptians managed to get limestone blocks to the top of the Pyramids C ? whether the invention of concrete led to the building of the Pyramids D ? the proportions of granite and limestone used in the constuction of the Pyramids The author believes the ramp theory A ? is unlikely to be true due to lack of evidence 34 B ? supports the traditional theory on how the Pyramids were constructed C ? is a better explanation than the concrete theory D ? was a result of how Hollywood portrayed the construction of the Pyramids The Roman aqueduct system was A ? something the Romans developed from earlier civilisations B ? initially made from stone and then out of concrete C ? an intentional part of the Roman Architectural revolution D ? partially responsible for improving the quality of life in cities The Parthenon and the Pantheon A ? were built at the same time B ? have rounded domes and are rectangular ins hape C ? were made from different materials D ? are both magnifcent structures and unchanged in form Concrete in the Ancient World Nowadays the world’s most commonly used building material is concrete but that has not always been the case The traditional view is that it was the Romans who pioneered its use in construction Recent studies raise the possibility though that this can be traced back to the Pharaohs of Egypt, who may have employed concrete in the construction of the Great Pyramids a good two millennia earlier than previously thought and it remains a possibility that the invention of concrete may have acted as a catalyst for the construction of the Great Pyramids This theory has attracted the attention of academics around the world and is now being tested by Linn Hobbs, professor of material sciences at MIT Hobbs is examining claims that the Egyptians relied as much on intelligence as brute force in their monumental building programme a It is not of course being suggested that the Great Pyramids were built of concrete in their entirety It is generally accepted that a mixture of limestone blocks, granite and special white limestone casing stones were used Rather the theory goes that the blocks at the top of the pyramids were made in situ A liquid mixture of crushed limestone and other chemicals were poured into vats or moulds and this subsequently set hard into concrete It is this process that Hobbs is trying to replicate with his research students in the US, albeit on a much smaller scale It does seem a likely hypothesis, as we know that Egyptians did work with a very similar mixture of crushed limestone, mineral additives and water to glaze some of their monumental statues It does also seem to provide an answer to 35 an engineering challenge that has long puzzled engineers How did they get vast limestone blocks to the top of what was then the tallest structure in the world? All this is challenged by the archaeological community, where the mainstream view is that the Pyramids were indeed built in much the same sort of way as the great historical epics from Hollywood would have us believe, with the limestone blocks being dragged on sleds from local quarries and the granite being transported 500 miles down the Nile from far away Aswan These blocks would then be heaved up ramps made of rubble to the top of the pyramid and carefully manoeuvred into place A major difficulty with this theory is that there is no archaeological evidence for it and, given the thousands of tonnes of earth involved, it does seem almost unbelievable that there is nothing left to show for these mighty ramps Equally, the Egyptologist Kathryn Bard says there is just as little evidence that the ancient Egyptians did use concrete and she believes that any concrete that has been found in tests on the Pyramids can be explained by modern repair work over the centuries There is far less controversy about the Romans use of concrete As in other fields, they borrowed something the an earlier civilsation had discovered and found a practical use for it Indeed the building programmes, which were such a feature of their empire and enabled it to endure for so long, were made possible by the widespread use of concrete In particular it helped in the construction of that most Roman phenomenon – the aqueduct Early aqueduct systems that were made solely of stone were limited in size and frequently collapsed but with concrete added the aqueduct systems grew ever more ambitious in scope This in turn improved the network of aqueducts that carried water into cities and was one factor that helped lead to far better sanitation and, ultimately, prosperity and a better style of living In this sense, concrete was a truly revolutionary material and it is no accident that when we refer to the Roman Architectural Revolution, we think almost immediately of structures that used concrete Those two symbols of Rome, the Panthoen and the Colloseum, may largely be built of stone but it was concrete that made their construction possible in the first place Concrete did not of course displace stone as the major building material, rather the two materials were used in conjunction with one another Just as in the modern age concrete has been used with glass in skyscrapers the world over This concrete/stone combination allowed the construction of different forms of structures such as arches and domes that were not rectangular or square The great example here is the Pantheon in Rome that was built in the first century AD Its rounded dome made out of concrete contrasts with the sharp angles found on temples from earlier civilisations, such as the Parthenon in Athens where stone was used alone In these ancient monuments from the classical era we can see that concrete has proved more durable than stone Magnificently, the Pantheon still stands today in much the same form as the Romans would have seen it; while when we look at the ruins of the Parthenon, we can only imagine what the complete structure would have looked like 36 Roman concrete was revolutionary in more ways than one In order they would add horse hair to prevent their concrete from cracking, volcanic ash to allow it to set under water and blood to make it more resistant to frost These additives may sound primitive, but in many respects the Romans were well ahead of their times when we consider the modern practice of using similarly environmentally friendly additives such as fly ash The secret of concrete was then seemingly lost for around thirteen centuries until the dawn of the Industrial Revolution There is some evidence to suggest that concrete was used in building projects in Finland during the 17th century, but it is generally John Smeaton who is credited with the reinvention of concrete in the mid 18th century The real breakthrough came a hundred years later with the advent of Portland cement Previously lime had been used to harden concrete but Portland cement was both stronger and hardened more quickly These properties and the fact that it was so easily manufactured led to its almost universal use in modern day concrete and there are few buildings nowadays that not have at least some concrete in them The answers explained C Paragraph 1: “who may have employed concrete in the construction of the Great Pyramids a good two millennia earlier than previously thought and it remains a possibility that the invention of concrete may have acted as a catalyst for the construction of the Great Pyramids This theory has attracted the attention of academics around the world and is now being tested by Linn Hobbs, professor of material sciences at MIT.” You should see the name Linn Hobbs and know the answer is somewhere near here “Whether the invention of concrete led to the building of the Pyramids” matches “acted a s catalyst for the construction of the Pyramids” Note how “construction” is a synonym for “construction” and “acted as a catalyst” is for “led to” A Paragraph ” A major difficulty with this theory is that there is no archaeological evidence for it and, given the thousands of tonnes of earth involved, it does seem almost unbelievable that there is nothing left to show for these mighty ramps.” You should see ramps and theory tells us that this is the correct passage “A major difficulty” and “almost unbelievable” gives us the writer’s opinion D Paragraph “This in turn improved the network of aqueducts that carried water into cities and was one factor that helped lead to far better sanitation and, ultimately, prosperity and a better style of living.” You should see that “better style of living” matches “quality of life” and “helped lead to” matches “was partially responsible” 37 C paragraph “This concrete/stone combination allowed the construction of different forms of structures such as arches and domes that were not rectangular or square The great example here is the Pantheon in Rome that was built in the first century AD.”and “such as the Parthenon in Athens where stone was used alone.” You should see the words Pantheon and Parthenon tell us this is the right passage On wis made out of concrete and stone and the other from stone only B Matching sentence endings reading practice How to this exercise I suggest that you use the print button at the bottom of the page and the exercise offline – this is a much better exercise I not suggest that you try and this as a timed exercise It is a long and complex text Train your skills on it Get some help before you start You might want to try the tutorial first if you haven’t already read it Notes: - you should concentrate on the stem of the questions (1-5) and not the letters (A-H) when you are scanning) - you should identify the right part of the text first - the questions follow the order of the text Questions Complete each sentence with the correct letter A-H The tourism industry in the UK suffered financially There was a ban on burials of animals in quicklime The first animal became infected 38 The policy of transporting dead animals was challenged in the courts A policy of vaccination was not introduced 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 The foot and mouth crisis One of the worst crises in agriculture in the United Kingdom was caused by the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 2001 caused a crisis in British agriculture The depth of the crisis can be judged by the fact that there were no fewer than 2,000 cases of the disease and that over 10 million sheep and cattle were killed in the attempt to halt the disease The disease primarily the countryside and took root in many regions with Cumbria the worst affected area of the country, with 843 cases 1.There was also a profound effect on tourism industry due to the closure of public rights of way across land so as to prevent the spread the disease Estimates vary as to the overall cost of the crisis to the UK economy, but it is thought that the final figure was in the region of £8 billion The 2001 crisis, serious as it was, was by no means the first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom It was, however, notable for the way it affected the whole country The last outbreak in 1967 had been confined to a relatively small area and The Northumberland report issued by the government after that outbreak recommended that speed was of the essence in dealing with any future outbreak of the disease Priority should be given to the speedy identification of infected animals and those animals should be slaughtered on the spot within 24 hours, with their carcasses buried in quicklime These recommendations were no longer in effect by 2001, partly thanks to changes brought about by farming practice and the closure of many local abattoirs which meant that animals had to be transported greater distances 39 More particularly, Britain’s accession to the European Union had meant that by 1985 new European Union legislation was in effect in the UK This amended the rules on the treatment of foot-and-mouth in a directive that required confirmation of any diagnosis by laboratory tests and prohibited farm burials and the use of quicklime The disease was first detected on a pig at an abattoir in Essex on 19 February 2001 and it was found to have spread to several other pigs in the local area However, four days later another case was confirmed on a farm in Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland, from where the pig in the first case had come and this farm was later confirmed as the source of the outbreak, the immediate cause being that the farmer had been feeding his pigs “untreated waste” At this stage, the European Union imposed a worldwide ban on all British exports of livestock, meat and animal products And by the end of the beginning of March, the disease had spread to many of the heavily agricultural regions of the UK, including, Devon, north Wales, Cornwall, southern Scotland and the Lake District Following European policy, the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) ruled that not only infected animals were to be slaughtered but, in what came to be known as “contiguous cull” any sheep, cow or pig within three kilometres of known cases would be slaughtered too The carcasses of the animals that were slaughtered had to be taken to a special facility in Widnes, in the north west of England, with the unfortunate result that the corpses of infected animals were transported through areas that previously had been disease free This policy was challenged legally on two fronts: that pigs and cows were not transmitters of the disease and that the authorities had no right to slaughter uninfected animals that had not been directly exposed to the disease The MAFF immediately amended their ruling so that only uninfected sheep were affected Professor King, an expert in the transmission of disease, announced that the foot-andmouth outbreak was “totally under control” in April This was false confidence, however, as the outbreak continued with around cases a day being reported from May to September This was down from the peak of 50 cases a day in March, but the continuation of the disease necessitated a series of measures to prevent its further spread These included a complete ban on the movement of livestock and the sale of British pigs, sheep and cattle and severe restrictions on the movement of humans near infected areas This included closing vast tracts of the countryside to walkers and tourists and ensuring that the footwear of people with access to farmyards and fields was disinfected so that the disease was not spread Most of all though, efforts concentrated on the controlled culling of animals and the burning of their remains With approximately 90,000 animals being destroyed on a weekly basis, the army was called in to assist the MAFF officials who were unable to cope with slaughter on such an unparalleled scale 40 It was not until late September that The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs cleared the last area to be infected, although restrictions on livestock movement continued well into 2002 When its inquest began into the outbreak, most attention focussed on the refusal of MAFF to use a vaccine – not least because vaccination had rapidly ended a simultaneous outbreak in The Netherlands This policy had been implemented under pressure from farmers’ unions who were concerned that any vaccination programme would cost them dearly as it would prevent any future export of British meat However, the net loss to the farming industry of approximately £594 million was dwarfed by the loss to the tourism industry and, on the basis that in future it would economically prudent to end any outbreak as quickly as possible, current policy has been amended to allow for vaccination as well as culling Answers to questions: C G A D E ================================ Scanning skills in IELTS Many IELTS reading texts are really tough and the questions can be tricky, but time is the real problem for many candidates How can you read and process texts of 800-900 words in 60 minutes? One answer is skimming, another is scanning Done well scanning can save you time, done badly it may be a waste of time Scanning skills need a little learning – there is a definite art to it What is scanning? Scanning is the skill of looking for individual words in the text without reading the text for meaning This is an important point and is worth emphasising: when you skim a text you are trying to understand what the text is generally about, but when you scan it you are simply looking for words not meanings Why does it matter? To show you why scanning skills matter, take a look at this extract that I have borrowed from Wikipedia on the life of Dickens It is really quite similar to an IELTS passage The question you need to answer is: “How many performances did Dickens give on his reading tour of the United Kingdom?” It’s a fairly simple question and your task is to get it right in 30 seconds Give it a go Time yourself 41 How were your scanning skills? The answer is of course “eighty seven” and I hope you got it But how long did it take you? If it took much over 30 seconds, you are probably not scanning correctly Here are two reasons why: you did the logical thing and started reading at the beginning and left to right Don’t read from left to right If you start reading from left to right you are going to scan very slowly In fact, what happens is that you start to skim the text and read it for meaning rather than just scanning for individual words This happens because your brain wants to process the information coming to it 42 If you’re an Arabic language speaker, here you have an advantage! You should be used to reading right to left Don’t start at the beginning It is of course logical to start reading from the beginning Or is it? Actually no This is because the word you are looking for could be anywhere in the text and there is no reason to start at the beginning: you’re not reading the text for meaning, you’re looking for a word In the example here the word is right at the end – the very worst place to start was at the beginning Tài li u chia s t i DI N ĐÀN H C TI NG ANH Admin: TR N M NH TRUNG 43 How to scan You will need to practise this yourself to see what works for you, but the skill of scanning includes: the skill of reading right to left and up and down: that way your brain can’t slow you down by trying to understand the text the skill of starting in the middle: you are more likely to find word quickly that way In this next diagram, you’ll see the arrows (and your eyes) not all go in the same direction Some go right to left and some left to right 44 In the next one the eyes start in the middle and move out in all directions This is the logical place to start reading if you want to find your information quickly 45 [...]... TRUNG 19 Cat text 1 2 Egyptians paintings and statuary 3 4 were often mummified traditional 5 Cyprus V Summary completion 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... 7.D VII 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 A 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... simplest and quickest to do as you will only have around 4 options left If you can’t find the answer to the first question immediately, don’t 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 30 PART 02: IELTS READING PRACTICE AND MORE TIPS MORE PRACTICE EXERCISES A True False Not Given – some tips. .. 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. .. completed will be marked incorrect Question 1 Explanation: Fairly simple I hope You look for the word "hand" to see where to get the answer and then you read this: "the hour hand - there was no minute hand or second hand - could be seen without opening it" That should tell you there was only one hand, Question 2 Explanation: This may be the trick question You do have information about Peter Henlein... passage or only a part of it the text of the summary will follow the order of the text of the passage B Key reading skills Concentrate on understanding the meaning of the passage Don’t try and match words in the summary and the passage The main skill here is the ability to read a text quickly and understand its general meaning If you can do this, you should be able to predict many of the correct answers... grammatical – think about nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs 22 VI IELTS reading matching features 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 A An example of how it works The way this reading works is you have to find elements in the text that match a... and pay close attention to the question In some ways the key word is ALL Read this "So while the most famous clockwatches were the plain Nuremburg Eggs made by Peter Henlein, who is sometimes credited with the invention of the watch, the designs rapidly became increasingly ornate" That means that some clock-watches were plain and not ornate III IELTS paragraphs and headings A The IELTS paragraphs and. .. back at the end and make a decision about the paragraphs you didn’t do first time Try and be as careful as possible Don’t rush 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!) IV ELTS reading text completion questions This is the next in my series of IELTS reading tutorials... PRACTICE AND MORE TIPS MORE PRACTICE EXERCISES A True False Not Given – some tips and an exercise This lesson reminds you of some tips on the True False Not Given question type in IELTS reading There are two main points to focus on when you are answering the question: firstly, to think about meaning and not just words, and secondly to focus on the question as much as the text itself There is also an