If, after reading the first and last sentences of the paragraph(s) mentioned we are still unclear of the meaning, then read the examples. If still not clear, then read the entire passage. This is simply a variation of the "scan, scan, read, read" principle.
There is still, however, one other tricky aspect to the multiple-choice questions. This is the tricky language that the IELTS test makers sometimes like to use in multiple-choice questions. This is obviously just to test the student's language ability. But since we will be prepared and aware of such tricks, these questions will give us no trouble at all.
Let's go back to Practice Reading Passage One which states in relation to management changes within the Sydney Airport Hotel:
"Partly as a result of this change, there are 25 per cent fewer management positions."
Yet, Question #2 asks us:
"SAH's new organizational structure requires..."
A 75% of the old management positions.
B 25% of the old management positions.
C 25% more management positions.
D 5% fewer management positions.
The text states this number in the negative using the word "fewer." Of the original 100% of management, 25% are now no longer needed. The question asks us for the same figure positively, asking us how many of the original 100% are still needed. The answer is A.
When one reads tricky questions like this, especially ones that involve a lot of numbers, one should read them slowly and carefully. There is very likely some tricky language being used. There are many other examples of this subtle word choice throughout the IELTS test. Being aware of this fact will mean you are not easily fooled. The number of questions you answer correctly will thus increase.
C. List of Headings
Perhaps this section of the IELTS is the easiest to recognize. Each IELTS will include one and only one list of headings section. Passages that include list of heading questions will always be preceded by a list of titles. After you read the text, you will be asked to match a title from this list to every paragraph of the reading passage.
As we have explained before, while taking the IELTS test it is best not to read the entire text. The same principle applies here. Even though we are being asked to understand the "meaning" of the text, there is still no need to read every word. How should we approach this section then?
First, scan all the possible title choices before reading the text. Do this when you scan the other questions as part of your scan, scan, read, read approach. Unlike other questions, there will probably be no typical hotspots here. Dates, numbers, and proper names might all be missing. Therefore, our standard for what is a hotspot must change in this section. Here, the important things to note are the keywords of the possible titles. These words are often verbs and sum up very succinctly the general idea of a passage.
Let's study the following test item:
PRACTICE READING PASSAGE THREE
The KEYLESS SOCIETY
A. Students who want to enter the University of Montreal's Athletic Complex need more than just a conventional ID card—their identities must be authenticated by an electronic hand scanner. In some California housing estates, a key alone is insufficient to get someone in the door; his or her voiceprint must also be verified. And soon, customers at some Japanese banks will have to present their faces for scanning before they can enter the building and withdraw their money.
B. All of these are applications of biometrics, a little-known but fast-growing technology that involves the use of physical or biological characteristics to identify individuals. In use for more than a decade at some high-security government institutions in the United States and Canada, biometrics are now rapidly popping up in the everyday world. Already, more than 10,000 facilities, from prisons to day-care centers, monitor people's fingerprints or other physical parts to ensure that they are who they claim to be. Some 60 biometric companies around the world pulled in at least $22 million last year and that grand total is expected to mushroom to at least $50 million by 1999.
C. Biometric security systems operate by storing a digitized record of some unique human feature. When an authorized user wishes to enter or use the facilities, the system scans the person's corresponding characteristics and attempts to match them against those on record. Systems using fingerprints, hands, voices, irises, retinas and faces are already on the market. Others using typing patterns
and even body odours are in various stages of development.
D. Fingerprint scanners are currently the most widely deployed types of biometric application, thanks to their growing use over the last 20 years by law-enforcement agencies. Sixteen American states now use biometric fingerprint verification systems to check that people claiming welfare payments are genuine. In June, politicians in Toronto voted to do the same, with a pilot project beginning next year.
E. To date, the most widely used commercial biometric system is the hand-key, a type of hand scanner which reads the unique scape, size and irregularities of people's hands. Originally developed for nuclear power plants, the handkey received its big break when it was used to control access to the Olympic Village in Atlanta by more than 65,000 athletes, trainers and support staff. Now there are scores of other applications.
F. Around the world, the market is growing rapidly. Malaysia, for example, is preparing to equip all of its airports with biometric face scanners to match passengers with luggage. And Japan's largest maker of cash dispensers is developing new machines that incorporate iris scanners. The first commercial biometric, a hand reader used by an American firm to monitor employee attendance, was introduced in 1974. But only in the past few years has the technology improved enough for the prices to drop sufficiently to make them commercially viable. "When we started four years ago, I had to explain to everyone what a biometric is," says one marketing expert. "Now, there's much more awareness out there."
G. Not surprisingly, biometrics raise thorny questions about privacy and the potential for abuse. Some worry that governments and industry will be tempted to use the technology to monitor individual behaviour. "If someone used your fingerprints to match your health-insurance records with a credit-card record showing you regularly bought lots of cigarettes and fatty foods," says one policy analyst, "you would see your insurance payments go through the roof." In Toronto, critics of the welfare fingerprint plan complained that it would stigmatise recipients by forcing them to submit to a procedure widely identified with criminals.
H. Nonetheless, support for biometrics is growing in Toronto as it is in many other communities. In an increasingly crowded and complicated world, biometrics may well be a technology whose time has come.
Questions 1-7
This reading passage has eight headings for paragraphs A-H from the list of headings below. Write the appropriate numbers (i-x) in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
NB There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use all of them.
List of Headings
i. Common objections
ii. Who's planning what.
iii. This type sells best in the shops.
iv. The figures say it all.
v. Early trials
vi. They can't get in without these.
vii. How does it work.
viii. Fighting fraud
ix. Systems to avoid
x. Accepting the inevitable
1. Paragraph B
2. Paragraph C
3. Paragraph D
4. Paragraph E
5. Paragraph F
6. Paragraph G
7. Paragraph H
Questions 8-14
Look at the following groups of people and the list of biometric systems (A-F) below. Match the groups of people to the biometric system associated with them in the passage. Write the appropriate letters A-F in boxes 8-14 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any biometric system more than once.
8. Sports students
9. Olympic athletes
10. Airline passengers
11. Welfare claimants
12. Business employees
13. Home owners
14. Bank customers
List of Biometric Systems
A. fingerprint scanner
B. band scanner
C. body odour
D. voiceprint
E. face scanner
F. typing pattern
For example, as we look at some of the possible titles from the above exercise, we encounter the following choices: "Common objections", "Who's planning what?" "This type sells best in shops," and "Fighting fraud". There are more choices, but these few will make an acceptable example. Looking at each title, we choose a word or two that summarizes the idea of the title. From the first, for example, we may choose "objections". Now we know this title will be linked with a paragraph concerning objections or complaints. From the second title we know that the passage should be concerned with "plans". We thus look for a paragraph containing many ideas about future plans.
As you look at the reading passage paragraphs, again use the first and last sentences to get an approximate idea of that paragraphs meaning. If this is not enough, then look at an example in the paragraph. Finally, and only if necessary, read the entire paragraph. Now you have a general understanding of each paragraph, an understanding that can now be compared to the key words chosen from the possible headings.
What is a good method for quickly comparing our title and paragraph choices? Well, underlining the word or two in each heading is a good start. As you read the passages first and last sentence, also underline words that best summarize that paragraph. Now you have a readily visible tool for later reference.
Also, very rarely will you be asked about to choose a heading for the first paragraph of a reading passage. Scan it as normal, noting hotspots, but do not worry about summarizing or finding a representative sentence. Use this time on other questions.
D. True/False/Not Given (Yes/No/Not Given)
We already discussed this section briefly while discussing one of our golden rules—ignore your background knowledge. In the True/False/Not Given (Yes/No/Not Given) section you will be given a series of statements relating to the reading passage. If the statements are confirmed by information found in the article, you will answer "True". If the information in the text is the opposite of the given statement, you will answer "False". If the information is not discussed at all in the text, the answer must be "Not Given".
As you can see, this section of the IELTS requires the test taker to make constant reference to the reading passage. You will need to either confirm or deny the given statements. In order to be comfortable with our answers, we should check the original text repeatedly. Remember to use the "mental map" principle to reduce the amount of time needed to check your answers. Most True/False/Not Given (Yes/No/Not Given) questions will also relate to typical hotspots, so that principle is also important here. Using these two principles, we begin to look for the answers.
In order to understand this section better, let us look at an example.
PRACTICE READING PASSAGE FOUR
There is a great concern in Europe and North America about declining standards of literacy in schools. In Britain, the fact that 20 per cent of 16 year olds have a reading age of 14 or less has helped to prompt massive educational changes. The development of literacy has far-reaching effects on general intellectual development and thus anything which impedes the development of literacy is a serious matter for us all. So the hunt is on for the cause of the decline in literacy. The search so far has focused on socioeconomic factors, or the effectiveness of "traditional" versus "modern " teaching techniques.
The fruitless search for the cause of the increase in illiteracy is a tragic example of the saying "They can't see the wood for the trees". When teachers use picture books, they are simply continuing a long-established tradition that is accepted without question. And for the past two decades, illustrations in reading primers have become increasingly detailed and obtrusive, while language has become impoverished—sometimes to the point of extinction.
Amazingly, there is virtually no empirical evidence to support the use of illustrations in teaching reading. On the contrary, a great deal of empirical evidence shows that pictures interfere in a damaging way with all aspects of learning to read. Despite this, from North America to the Antipodes, the first books that many school children receive are totally without text.
A teacher's main concern is to help young beginner readers to develop not only the ability to recognize words, but the skills necessary to understand what these words mean. Even if a child is able to read aloud fluently, he or she may not be able to understand much of it: this is called "barking at text". The teacher's task of improving comprehension is made harder by influences outside the classroom. But the adverse effects of such things as television, video games, or limited language experiences at home, can be offset by experiencing "rich" language at school.
Instead, it is not unusual for a book of 30 or more pages to have only one sentence full of repetitive phrases. The artwork is often marvelous, but the pictures make the language redundant, and the children have no need to imagine anything when they read such books. Looking at a picture actively prevents children younger than nine from creating a mental image, and can make it difficult for older children. In order to learn how to comprehend, they need to practise making their own meaning in response to text. They need to have their innate powers of imagination trained.
As they grow older, many children turn aside from books without pictures, and it is a situation made more serious as our culture becomes more visual. It is hard to wean children off picture books when pictures have played a major part throughout their formative reading experiences, and when there is competition for their attention from so many other sources of entertainment. The least intelligent are most vulnerable, but tests show that even intelligent children are being affected. The response of educators has been to extend the use of pictures in books and to simplify the language, even at senior levels. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge recently held joint conferences to discuss the noticeably rapid decline in literacy among their undergraduates.
Pictures are also used to help motivate children to read because they are beautiful and eye-catching. But motivation to read should be provided by listening to stories well read, where children imagine in response to the story. Then, as they start to read, they have this experience to help them understand the language. If we present pictures to save children the trouble of developing these creative skills, then I think we are making a great mistake.
