IELTS reading practice By Mark

Introduction The one hour reading test An example The three different articles An example The Heading and the first paragraph Skimming and scanning Answering the question not reading the article.

What the test consists of: In your IELTS reading test you will have to read three articles. These articles will take you almost half an hour to read in full at a leisurely pace, after that time you won’t be able to answer more than two questions. In this test you have to answer forty questions!

The heading and the first paragraph In our example we are going to look at ways of reading without absorbing the whole text, without enjoying the process and with some faith, looking for answers to questions. We are going to examine the heading and the first paragraph the ‘topic paragraph’

What does the heading and topic paragraph tell us? The heading ‘Life on the Mississippi’ gives us an idea of the theme. The first paragraph is very descriptive and in this case quite long. It gives a good introduction to the content of the entire article. The Rest should follow on with the same theme. (remember this is not to be entertained or to read to understand, just to answer).

Skimming and scanning? You need to learn to skim the article. In other words to read small amounts, it is best to read the first sentence of each paragraph and any key names and numbers that jump out of the text. Scanning is looking for ‘key’ words that answer specific questions, names, dates, and themes that have certain language types. Search as quickly as you can, if you have to look for more than a few minutes come back to that question later!

A few questions: The word ‘diminishes’ in the second paragraph could be replaced by: A) grows B) Straightens C) Drops D) Reduces You must scan for the work, understand it in context and then choose the best option How many degrees of longitude is the Mississippi spread over? Again you must scan to find the words and then try and answer the question

A few ideas for reading practice The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde. A short but interesting story http://www.artpassions.net/wilde/happy_prince.html Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain. Not reading it all, but in small portions. http://www.online-literature.com/twain/life_mississippi/

Conclusion We have looked at: The one hour reading test The three different articles An example The Heading and the first paragraph Skimming and scanning Answering the question not reading the article. Some reading examples