IELTS reading
practice
By Mark
Introduction
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.
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