IELTS Reading Test: Learn about test format, questions types and more

The IELTS test is one of the most important and universally accepted English language tests. It is used by a lot of universities, colleges, and many other institutions to test your proficiency in spoken and written English. One very important skill which is tested in this test section is how well an individual reads and comprehends passages given to them within a given period of time. In this article, we will look at some of the most important aspects which you should keep in mind while attempting this part that is without fail going to help you perform better in this section of the test.

 

IELTS Reading Test

The IELTS test assesses a wide range of skills, such as your ability to comprehend an opinion and evaluate its logic, grasp details and delve into specifics, as well as the ways in which you can articulate these points in your own words.

The IELTS Reading Section tests your skill of understanding, grasping, and evaluating a wide range of information, including reading for main ideas, reading for detail, skimming evaluating the writer's opinion, attitude, and purpose.

 

 IELTS Reading Test Format

1.	Duration	60 minutes
2.	Number of questions	40
3.	Marks per question	1
4.	Mode of examination	Online or on paper
5.	Scoring	Scores out of 40 are converted to the IELTS nine-band scale

It's important to clarify here that there are two types of IELTS tests: Academic (for students) and Non-Academic (for non-students). The reading section varies slightly between the two, but most of the questions require similar knowledge and skills. The student who wants to study in Canada needs to focus on IELTS Academic exam only. 

 IELTS Reading Question Types with Examples 

 There are several types of questions that can appear on the IELTS reading test. If you want to improve your score on the IELTS reading section, it is important that you take a look at these question types and get some hands-on practice so you can easily answer them with confidence in the future.

Matching headings

Example for Matching headings

The reading passage has seven paragraphs: A – G.

Choose the most suitable paragraph headings B – G from the list of headings on the right.

Write the appropriate numbers (i –ix) in the text boxes below the headings.

A. The Yoruba people of Nigeria classify their towns in two ways. Permanent towns with their own governments are called “ilu”, whereas temporary settlements, set up to support work in the country are “aba”. Although ilu tend to be larger than aba, the distinction is not one of size, some aba are large, while declining ilu can be small, but of purpose. There is no “typical” Yoruba town, but some features are common to most towns.

B. In the 19th century most towns were heavily fortified and the foundations of these walls are sometimes visible. Collecting tolls to enter and exit through the walls was a major source of revenue for the old town rulers, as were market fees. The markets were generally located centrally and in small towns, while in large towns there were permanent stands made of corrugated iron or concrete. The market was usually next to the local ruler’s palace.

C. The palaces were often very large. In the 1930’s, the area of Oyo’s palace covered 17 acres, and consisted of a series of courtyards surrounded by private and public rooms. After colonisation, many of the palaces were completely or partially demolished. Often the rulers built two storey houses for themselves using some of the palace grounds for government buildings.

D. The town is divided into different sections. In some towns these are regular, extending out from the center of the town like spokes on a wheel, while in others, where space is limited, they are more random. The different areas are further divided into compounds called “ile”. These vary in size considerably from single dwellings to up to thirty houses. They tend to be larger in the North. Large areas are devoted to government administrative buildings. Newer developments such as industrial or commercial areas or apartment housing for civil servants tends to be build on the edge of the town.

E. Houses are rectangular and either have a courtyard in the center or the rooms come off a central corridor. Most social life occurs in the courtyard. They are usually built of hardened mud and have roofs of corrugated iron or, in the countryside, thatch. Buildings of this material are easy to alter, either by knocking down rooms or adding new ones. And can be improved by coating the walls with cement. Richer people often build their houses of concrete blocks and, if they can afford to, build two storey houses. Within compounds there can be quite a mixture of building types. Younger well-educated people may have well furnished houses while their older relatives live in mud walled buildings and sleep on mats on the floor.

F. The builder or the most senior man gets a room either near the entrance or, in a two storied house, next to the balcony. He usually has more than one room. Junior men get a room each and there are separate rooms for teenage boys and girls to sleep in. Younger children sleep with their mothers. Any empty room are used as storage, let out or, if they face the street, used as shops.

G. Amenities vary. In some towns most of the population uses communal water taps and only the rich have piped water, in others piped water is more normal. Some areas have toilets, but bucket toilets are common with waste being collected by a “night soil man”. Access to water and electricity are key political issues.

List of Paragraph Headings     

i.   Town facilities

ii.  Colonisation

iii.  Urban divisions

iv.  Architectural home styles

v.  Types of settlements

vi. Historical foundations

vii. Domestic arrangements

viii. City defenses

ix.  The residences of the rulers

x.  Government buildings

Example : Paragraph A: Answer: v

Answer     

Paragraph B: (vi) - Historical foundations

Paragraph C: (ix) - The residences of the rulers

Paragraph D: (iii) - Urban divisions

Paragraph E: (iv) - Architectural home styles

Paragraph F: (vii) - Domestic arrangements

Paragraph G: (i) - Town facilities

Locating information

Example for Locating information     

IELTS academic reading locating information skill building exercise 1 

Answer questions 1- 5 which are based on the reading passage below.

Effects of population growth     

Since Thomas Malthus's essay 'An Essay the Principle of Population,' originally published in 1798, the world has changed tremendously. Malthus believed that by the mid-1800s, the unfettered expansion of humanity would overrun the agricultural area available to feed humanity with food. Over 150 years have gone by since this mythical milestone, yet mankind is still expanding and will continue to do so, albeit in a more congested form.

The consequences of unchecked population growth are obvious to everybody. In their search for a better living, more people are migrating from rural areas to large cities around the world, such as Tokyo, Mexico City, and Mumbai. Megacities, defined as conurbations with a population of more than 10 million people, are growing up across the globe. They are ravenous for one increasingly important resource, land, which is now teeming with population.

While advances in agricultural technology assure that humanity will be able to feed the people migrating to these enormous cities, the human race's expansion is fueling an unprecedented hunger for real estate. As we enter the twenty-first century, space, whether for personal or public use, corporate or national, human or flora/fauna, is in short supply. More land is needed not only for housing but also for a variety of infrastructure needs. Roads within and between towns must be built or renovated to create highways; green fields must be converted into airports, and virgin forests must be logged to provide food and firewood. This newly exposed land becomes desert in impoverished locations, completing the devastation cycle.

Previously, the most frequent strategy for utilizing expensive space for living and working was to build upwards; thus, the desire for ever higher buildings, both apartment, and commercial, in major cities such as New York, Shanghai, and Singapore, all striving for the highest skyscrapers. There has also been a tradition of building underground, not just for transportation networks, but also for garbage storage, book depositories, and other purposes, such as in London, where the British Library, which houses millions of books, is mostly subterranean.

In recent years, there have been more innovative construction projects all around the world. Many countries, including Holland and the United Kingdom, have reclaimed marshes and floodplains from the sea in the past. Housing complexes and even airports have now been built off-shore, with astonishing results, similar to the city of Venice in Italy. Kansai International Airport in Japan was erected at great expense off-shore on a man-made island, and a very inventive and expensive housing complex in the shape of a palm tree is being developed just off the coast on land produced by a construction company in Dubai. These and other advancements, however, are threatened by increasing sea levels as a result of global warming.

Questions 1- 5     

This reading passage has five paragraphs, A–E.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-E, as your answer to each question.

Note: You may use any letter more than once.

1. To build highways, roads within and between cities must be built or upgraded.

2. The uncontrolled expansion of mankind will occupy the agricultural area available to feed mankind.

3. Like the city of Venice in Italy, housing complexes and even airports have now been constructed off-shore, with great results.

4. More and more people are migrating from the countryside to major cities around the world.

5. The most common strategy for using expensive space for living and working is to create upwards

Answer for the skill building exercise     

1. Paragraph C

2. Paragraph A 

3. Paragraph E 

4. Paragraph B 

5. Paragraph B 

6. Paragraph D 

True false not given     
 

Example for True false not given     

Look at this statment, taken from the first sentence in the reading below:

Chiles originate in South America and have been eaten for at least 9,500 years.

Here are some example IELTS True False Not Given statements with answers:

Chiles come from South America.

People began eating Chiles in the last few centuries.

South Americans were the first people to start eating Chiles.

Answer     

1 True

2 False

3 Not Given

Multiple choice questions

Example for Multiple choice questions     

Before looking at a longer reading, we'll have a practice with two paragraphs. It is the first part of the full reading you will do.

Identify the key word in the question first of all. Then scan the text to find it. When you have done this, read the sentences around this key word and see what information best matches the three choices you have.

What is dry farming?     
Preserving nitrates and moisture.     
Ploughing the land again and again.     
Cultivating fallow land.

Australian Agricultural Innovations:    

1850 – 1900    

During this period, there was a wide spread expansion of agriculture in Australia. The selection system was begun, whereby small sections of land were parceled out by lot. Particularly in New South Wales, this led to conflicts between small holders and the emerging squatter class, whose abuse of the system often allowed them to take vast tracts of fertile land.

There were also many positive advances in farming technology as the farmers adapted agricultural methods to the harsh Australian conditions. One of the most important was “dry farming”. This was the discovery that repeated ploughing of fallow, unproductive land could preserve nitrates and moisture, allowing the land to eventually be cultivated. This, along with the extension of the railways allowed the development of what are now great inland wheat lands.

To answer this question you should have highlighted the word  dry farming .

You should then have been able to scan the two paragraphs to quickly find this word.

Reading the information around it more carefully would the give you the answer:

Answer   "the ploughing of fallow land...to eventually be cultivated." 

Summary completion 

  Example for summary completion     

Melanin and Its Uses     

A. Human skin color is controlled by melanin, a pigment present in most animals with the possible exception of arachnids1. It is found in not just the skin but also in hair and eyes, and has a wide range of functions. Perhaps the most curious place that scientists have discovered melanin is the brain, since it would not seem necessary to have pigment in a place that cannot be seen. Only recently has research has begun to elucidate some of melanin’s functions in that region of the body, separate from the better-established purposes of more visible pigment, of which there are two main types.

B. Eumelanin, the most common type, is either black or brown in color, and is primarily responsible for the various shades of skin. Those individuals whose background reaches to the equator generally have higher concentrations of eumelanin and consequently darker skin. Eumelanin is also responsible for hair color, with higher concentrations responsible for black and brown shades, and smaller quantities resulting in blonde hair. Pheomelanin, which is slightly less abundant in nature, is present in all humans but is reddish in color, responsible for red hair and freckles. Differing levels of eumelanin and pheomelanin are one of the primary factors giving humans their myriad expressions of eye color.

C. Both eumelanin and pheomelanin act as protection against the broad spectrum of ultraviolet rays from the sun and will be produced in greater quantities when skin is exposed to sunlight, as ultraviolet rays are a primary risk factor in certain forms of skin cancer. Melanin in the eye similarly seems to ensure against eye cancer and vision loss, partially explaining the evolution of different eye colors in humans. However, direct sun exposure is important to humans’ survival because the body needs ultraviolet B rays in order to produce vitamin D, a substance crucial to the absorption of calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, and phosphates. Various skin tones may have evolved to ensure a balance between vitamin D production and cancer protection. Where sunlight is more direct, more melanin would have been produced to protect against various skin cancers, but production of vitamin D would also have been ensured. But further away from the equator, light enters the atmosphere at an angle. Since ultraviolet rays are refracted when sunlight is not direct, exposure to ultraviolet B rays would have been decreased, and the production of critical vitamin D also thus curbed. As a result, humans living further north and south evolved a system to produce lower amounts of melanin.

D. Meanwhile, the type of melanin that is primarily found in the brain is called neuromelanin and is similarly dark in color to eumelanin but is structurally distinct. Until fairly recently, scientists did not understand its usage, and many thought it an inert substance. However, more recently, neuromelanin has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, leading scientists to discover that neuromelanin may provide some unique protective functions. Parkinson’s disease causes individuals to experience loss of motor control, caused by the death of neural cells in the substantia nigra, a region of the brain whose name, translated from Latin, means “black substance,” due to its abundance of dark-colored neuromelanin. The discovery that patients with Parkinson’s disease have fifty percent less neuromelanin than individuals of similar age has led scientists to believe that neuromelanin plays a crucial role in the prevention brain cell death. In fact, neuromelanin concentrations increase with age, which in turn correlates with brain cell degeneration and, therefore, increased need for protection. Further studies have shown that neuromelanin may also be involved in removing toxic metals throughout the body.

E. All melanin is produced by cells called melanocytes. In the brain, these pigment factories will produce the melanin, and the melanin will then stay in these cells, a process similar to how melanin accumulates in the eyes. However, in the skin and hair, melanin is transferred to other cells. In the skin, melanin is transferred to the primary skin cells as pigmented granules that are then grouped around the DNA of their new home to protect it from harmful ultraviolet light. All humans have, in general, the same proportion of melanocytes in the skin, but the amount of melanin produced varies, conferring the range of skin color.

Complete the summary using the list of words, A-L, below.

Choose the correct letter, A-L, for each blank.

A . healing                           B . pigment               C . shape 

D . protective                      E . type                       F . the sun’s heat

G   Parkinson’s disease    H . brain cells            I . harmful

J . skin cancers                  K . equator                L . Vitamin D

Melanin is a  1 ______________ that is found throughout the human body...

body and has various  2 ___________ features.

The  3  __________ and quantity of melanin is responsible for the different skin, eye, and hair colors.

Not as much is known about neuromelanin, but it may help protect  4  _____________.

Both eumelanin and pheomelanin work to protect the body from  5  ___________.

Answers     

1 B

2 D

3 E

4 H

5 J

Diagram labelling 

Example for diagram labelling     

 Microalgae has been touted for the last few decades as a panacea for the world’s energy crisis, specifically our dependency on oil. At first, there was good reason to be optimistic. Compared to other biofuels, microalgae promises to be highly efficient based on its yield, as defined by the biomass in a given unit of surface area (5 to 10 grams of biomass per meter squared of surface area is typical.) Additionally, microalgae is relatively easy to produce because it can be harvested in a natural environment similar to the one in which it grows (microalgae can flourish in ponds one feet deep). The oil content in microalgae is also extremely high compared to other crops. Studies indicate that approximately 15,000 square miles, or roughly half the size of Maine, is required to sustain all the microalgae needed for the U.S. energy needs for an entire year. Nevertheless, microalgae has yet to become a viable commercial alternative to fossil fuels mainly because of the costs of providing for even a small biomass. Regardless of the method used, problems include the difficulty of ensuring that the same species thrives in a given culture (other species can form a colour gradient leading to a difficulty in photosynthesis and a reduction in output) and the relatively low yield of algal oil when used as a biofuel.

Microalgae has been used successfully to deal with other environment-related issues. As one example, microalgae can be grown in ponds where it can collect runoff fertiliser; this “fertiliser-enhanced” microalgae can then be used as fertiliser, thereby leading to a reduction in overall crop-production costs. Other uses of microalgae relate to eco-efficiency, meaning that it helps reduce the negative environmental impact that inevitably results from certain industrial processes. For example, microalgae can be used in water-treatment facilities to limit the amount of chemicals needed. More significantly, microalgae is able to absorb the CO2 emissions from coal factories, one of the world’s most commonly used fossil fuels, and one that is most damaging to the environment. Again, convenience explains much of microalgae’s appeal; in this case, a microalgae farm needs to be placed in close proximity to coal-producing plant to absorb much of the CO2 emissions.

Because of such multifaceted uses, microalgae has continued to be part of the conversation around biofuel production over the last several decades, despite the lack of any innovations in microalgae production that might lead to a viable commercial product.  The best established methods of traditional microalgeal oil harvesting, centrifugation, filtration, and flocculation, all have issues with cost and efficiency. Centrifugation requires the rapid rotation of water containing microalgae, via a spinning motor which consumes energy at a high rate. Filtration is not-so energy intensive, but only larger species of microalgae can be caught in filters for the purposes of oil separation. Flocculation, the adding of chemicals in the algae to separate them from both water and oil through a sedimentation process in which the microalgae sinks to the bottom of the water, poses a different problem: the chemicals, once added, make the energy yield of the oil much lower, and flocculation agents are very hard to remove after the fact.  While it might be easy to be skeptical of any new innovations and discount microalgae as a perennial allurement, a number of recent breakthroughs are showing a far more promising path to full-scale viability.

Perhaps the most promising method of utilising microalgae’s biofuel potential is “floatation harvesting,” in large part because of its low energy cost and ease of maintenance. Other methods require frequent harvesting and are known to researchers as being “extensive and expensive”. Floatation, by contrast, involves the creation and injection of microscopic gas bubbles that stick to destabilised molecules in the microalgae, “pulling” these molecules to the surface to form a concentrate. The efficiency of floatation is also aided by the effect of gravity, which pulls water from the concentrate. In this sense, floatation is an inversion of sedimentation; floatation is preferable in that it works in conjunction with nature, since microalgae tends to float rather than settle, thereby requiring far less oversight yet leading to a thicker microalgeal concentrate.

Given the history of converting microalgae into a biofuel, researchers are reluctant to hail floatation as the “magic bullet” that has long eluded scientists. In addition to the problems outlined above, researchers cite several other issues, including the reduction of efficacy when diverse species of microalgae are present and the need for coagulants to neutralise the surface charge of microalgae to make it hydrophobic, so as to prevent toxicity of the biomass.

Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

     

The 11____________  of gas begins.

 The gas bonds to 12 ____________ microalgae.

The bubbles begin 13 ____________the microalgae to the surface.

There is now a 14 ____________ of microalgae on the water’s surface, ready to  harvest.

Answer    

11: creation4

12 destabilised

13 pulling

14 concentrate

Matching sentence endings 

  Example for sentence endings     

tsunamis     

A. A tsunami is a series of extremely long oceanic waves that result from the sudden displacement of large quantities of water. The catalyst for a tsunami is often an underwater earthquake or volcanic eruption. Less often, a tsunami is generated by the collapse of great amounts of oceanic sediment or landslides at the coastline. Rarely, a tsunami is created by the impact of a meteor into the sea. The displacement of massive volumes of water, either in the ocean or very close to it, initiates several gargantuan waves that can be quite catastrophic. Major tsunamis qualify as natural disasters, resulting in great destruction of coastal areas throughout the world. Tsunamis are also referred to as seismic sea waves.

B. Tsunamis are unlike the routine waves at the coastline, which regularly roll in as a result of offshore wind. After the triggering event of a tsunami, a sequence of basic, growing waves begin traveling large distances across the ocean. The classic comparison is the proverbial stone thrown into a pool of water. The displacement generates the same effect, yet the ripple of a tsunami is long and large. A seismic impulse that occurs in deep water may create a tsunami that travels up to five hundred miles per hour, at wavelengths of sixty to one hundred and twenty miles. While the tsunami is extremely long as it makes its way to the coast, its amplitudes are only one to two feet. A ship rarely registers a tsunami passing beneath its hull. As the tsunami approaches the shoreline, though, it slows due to friction against the shallow oceanic floor. The wavelength decreases and the energy of the wave must redistribute, causing the tsunami to grow in height. This is where the tsunami is similar to a regular ocean wave. Both reach their greatest height just at the coastline, though only the most massive tsunamis break. Most resemble a large and fast surge, hence the term “tidal wave.”

C. Because of wide-ranging coastal shapes and differing seafloor and shoreline configurations throughout the world, the effects of tsunamis have varied greatly as they have made land. Areas that lie beside deep and open water tend to experience the tsunami in its steepest form, as the space allows the shaping of the wave into a very high crest. Often, the first indication of an impending tsunami is the receding of the water at the shoreline. This is the trough, or bottom, of the first tsunami wave, drastically pulling back the sea and exposing large areas normally submerged in water. Unsuspecting inhabitants may have their curiosity piqued by the bare seafloor and venture into this most dangerous zone. Only a few minutes later, the crest of the first wave will bear down, either breaking or sweeping in a fast tidal current. People and objects are quickly pulled into the wave. The process repeats. Most tsunamis consist of three or four massive waves that occur about fifteen minutes apart, though some can last for hours. The intensity of the impulse event and the topography of the coastline are the biggest factors regarding how large each tsunami will be, and how destructive. A tsunami may reach several hundred meters inland and is capable of crushing homes.

D. Though tidal waves have caused devastation the world over, throughout history, shorelines on the Pacific Ocean have been the most affected by tsunamis. This is due to much volcanic and seismic activity on that ocean’s floor. Elsewhere in the world, ancient civilizations such as the Minoan are believed to have suffered a sharp population decline as the result of a major tsunami. Tsunami destruction has been documented regularly through olden and contemporary times. With intense development and settlement at the world’s coastlines, one tsunami can kill many thousands of people. A tsunami in 1946 destroyed the city of Hilo, Hawaii, and scientists began to take serious steps toward an effective system of seismic wave prediction.

E. Today, international geographic societies work in conjunction with meteorological agencies to forecast possible conditions that could lead to a tsunami. For example, if seismic instruments register a high-magnitude earthquake in the Pacific, meteorologists closely monitor any drastic changes in sea level and movement.  All relevant data to is scrutinized, such as the depth and topography of the ocean floor, in order to estimate the tsunami’s path and magnitude. Time is paramount when tsunami warnings are issued and coastal communities must quickly evacuate.

Questions 1 -5      

Complete each sentence with the correct ending A - I from the box below.

Choose the correct letter A - I for questions 1-5.

ANSWER CHOICES     

A   activity on the ocean floor.

B   wind blowing over the ocean.

C   a large version of a standard wave.  

D   a chain of unusually lengthy waves.

E   where tsunamis are the tallest.

F   a severe seasonal rise in sea level. 

G   a slowly dissipating wave.

H   an object from outer space.

I    the water retreating from the shoreline.

Question 1:       

A tsunami is  __________________     

Question 2:     

The most common cause of a tsunami is  _____________

Question 3:     

In unusual cases, the cause of a tsunami is ____________

Question 4:     

The shoreline is ______________________

Question 5:     

Often, the first sign of a tsunami from land is _________

Answers     

1  D

2  A

3  H

4  E

5  I

Matching features    

  Example for matching features     

The Philosophy and Craft of Navajo Pottery     

A     The Navajo, the largest indigenous tribe in the United States, call the American Southwest home, and especially in the Northeast corner of Arizona. A cold semi-arid region under the Köppen climate classification system, this region sees drastic temperatures swings throughout the year, often fluctuating around 15 degrees Celsius in a single day in the summers. Throughout the year, punishing winds blow through the canyons and across the plains. The concomitant erosion from the wind and strong summer rains have at times made crop yields scarce, but these conditions have also created rich deposits of clay that Navajo potters use.

B     Navajo pottery has functioned as a carrier of history and a tool for teaching lessons. Oral history tells of how the Navajo originally came from the earth and how the first man and woman manipulated clay to fashion tools. The very physical act of creating pottery holds deep spiritual significance, with each step representing a certain lesson. The discovery and preparation of clay to be used for creating pottery are viewed as acts of self-discovery and self-development. When working with the prepared clay, care must be taken to prevent it from becoming too wet or too dry. This balancing act at the hands of the artist symbolically represents the balance necessary for life in general. Baking the piece, the final step in the process, physically represents a figurative test: a trial of a person's mettle and virtue.

C     There are three styles of pots that are created by the Navajo. The first is referred to as a “pinch pot.” A pinch pot is made by first creating a smooth spherical piece of clay the size of a baseball. Once this shape is created, the forefinger and thumb are used to pinch the clay, hollowing the middle and creating walls. Potters must take special care to prevent the clay from drying out; the artisans dipping their hands in water as necessary throughout the process. The potter’s hands are dipped into water as needed throughout the process. It is vital to balance the amount of water used, as too much will cause the clay to become weak and lead to uneven walls which may in turn cause the pot to fall apart. Once the pot is shaped and dried, designs can be etched into the outside of the pot before baking. After this hardening process, the final stage is covering the pot with a thin layer of a tree-sap sealant called piñon pitch, which creates the unique look and smell of Navajo pottery.

D     To create a “coil pot,” the second style of Navajo pottery, several pieces of clay are rolled gently into coils of around one inch in thickness. The coils are placed on top of each other starting from the circular base, thus resulting in a round shape. Each coil is meticulously joined to the coils in contact with it; this is achieved through smoothing that the potter does with their thumb. Depending on the potter’s personal preferences, either the inside, outside, or both may be smooth. When the outside of a coil pot is smooth, its appearance is identical to a pinch pot’s. Like a pinch pot, after a coil pot has been set to dry, it can be decorated with designs before being baked. Greater care must be taken when creating coil pots, as poorly joined coils can lead to fragmentation during drying and baking.

E     The third and final type of pot is known as the “slab pot.” This pot is created using two sticks that act as a rolling pin, flattening out the clay to an even thickness of about 1/2 an inch. This flat piece of clay is used to create the base of the pot by placing any object of the desired shape above it and cutting around the clay, after which walls are added. In this way, this method is versatile, allowing potters a great amount of freedom as they create their work.

F     Contemporary Navajo potters, trained in the time-tested techniques, have found ingenious ways of innovating on and contributing to this artistic tradition. These artisans have begun to incorporate turquoise and other stones into the customarily muted designs, which have been added partly in response to tourist demand. What began with a simple aesthetic interest has been quietly growing into national and even international awareness of Navajo pottery. While responding to this demand may seem like an unwelcome aberration to the craft’s history, the growing market for these works provides artisans with the resources they need to continue this storied tradition. Ultimately, the Navajo artisans will be the ones who shape the still-unfolding history of this art form as they mould each pot.

  Questions 5-8     

Look at the following statements and the list of pottery styles.  

Match each statement with the correct style of pottery A, B, or C.  

You may use any letter more than once.  

A   Pinch pot

B   Coil pot

C   Slab pot

5   A separate object serves as a template to create varied shapes.

6   The pot’s walls are built by stacking several layers of clay. 

7   Maintaining the proper moisture level in the clay is a key to this style. 

8   The pot is formed from a single piece of clay in this style.

Answers     

5 c   

6 b   

7 a   

8 a   
 

Sentence completion     
 

Example for sentence completion   

European Settlement of Australia     

European settlement of Australia began in 1788 when a British penal colony was established on the east coast. From this starting point Australia grew rapidly and continually, expanding across the entire continent.

A number of reasons contributed to Britain's decision to colonise Australia. The most important factor was Britain's need to relieve its overcrowded prisons. Several violent incidents at overcrowded prisons convinced the British government of the need to separate unruly elements from the rest of the prison populace.

Additionally, Australia was of strategic importance to Britain, and it provided a base for the Royal Navy in the eastern sea. Also, Australia could be used as an entry point to the economic opportunities of the surrounding region. All these points figured in the decision by Lord Sydney, secretary of state of home affairs, to authorise the colonisation.

To this affect, on May 13, 1787, Captain Arthur Phillip, commanding eleven ships full of convicts, left Britain for Australia. He successfully landed a full fleet at Botany Bay on January 18, 1788. However, they left the bay eight days later because of its openness and poor soil, and settled instead at Port Jackson, a few kilometres north. The ships landed 1,373 people, including 732 convicts, and the settlement became Sydney. Australia Day is now celebrated on 26 January each year, to commemorate this first fleet landing. 

 

Questions 1-5     

Complete the following statements using  NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.     

(put your choice into the gaps - use small letters and don't put any spaces after your last word)

1. Australia was originally founded as a .     

2. The major consideration in colonizing Australia was Britain’s .     

3. It was thought that  could be gained in that part of the world due to the access provided via Australia.     

4. Lord Sydney took every factor into account when he gave official permission for the  of Australia.     

5. Botany Bay was abandoned by the settlers due to the lack of cover and .     

 

Paraphrases and Synonyms  

These are the paraphrases and synomyms that you would have needed to identify in order to successfully find the answers:

	Original word from the reading	Synomym / paraphrase from the question
Question 1	began	founded
Question 2	most important factor	major consideration
Question 3	entry point	access
	region	part of the world
Question 4	all these points figured	took every factor into account
	authorise	official permission
Question 5	left	abandoned
	openess	lack of cover

    

Short answer questions  
 

Example for short answer question   

Microalgae has been touted for the last few decades as a panacea for the world’s energy crisis, specifically our dependency on oil. At first, there was good reason to be optimistic. Compared to other biofuels, microalgae promises to be highly efficient based on its yield, as defined by the biomass in a given unit of surface area (5 to 10 grams of biomass per meter squared of surface area is typical.) Additionally, microalgae is relatively easy to produce because it can be harvested in a natural environment similar to the one in which it grows (microalgae can flourish in ponds one feet deep). The oil content in microalgae is also extremely high compared to other crops. Studies indicate that approximately 15,000 square miles, or roughly half the size of Maine, is required to sustain all the microalgae needed for the U.S. energy needs for an entire year. Nevertheless, microalgae has yet to become a viable commercial alternative to fossil fuels mainly because of the costs of providing for even a small biomass. Regardless of the method used, problems include the difficulty of ensuring that the same species thrives in a given culture (other species can form a colour gradient leading to a difficulty in photosynthesis and a reduction in output) and the relatively low yield of algal oil when used as a biofuel.

Microalgae has been used successfully to deal with other environment-related issues. As one example, microalgae can be grown in ponds where it can collect runoff fertiliser; this “fertiliser-enhanced” microalgae can then be used as fertiliser, thereby leading to a reduction in overall crop-production costs. Other uses of microalgae relate to eco-efficiency, meaning that it helps reduce the negative environmental impact that inevitably results from certain industrial processes. For example, microalgae can be used in water-treatment facilities to limit the amount of chemicals needed. More significantly, microalgae is able to absorb the CO2 emissions from coal factories, one of the world’s most commonly used fossil fuels, and one that is most damaging to the environment. Again, convenience explains much of microalgae’s appeal; in this case, a microalgae farm needs to be placed in close proximity to coal-producing plant to absorb much of the CO2 emissions.

Because of such multifaceted uses, microalgae has continued to be part of the conversation around biofuel production over the last several decades, despite the lack of any innovations in microalgae production that might lead to a viable commercial product.  The best established methods of traditional microalgeal oil harvesting, centrifugation, filtration, and flocculation, all have issues with cost and efficiency. Centrifugation requires the rapid rotation of water containing microalgae, via a spinning motor which consumes energy at a high rate. Filtration is not-so energy intensive, but only larger species of microalgae can be caught in filters for the purposes of oil separation. Flocculation, the adding of chemicals in the algae to separate them from both water and oil through a sedimentation process in which the microalgae sinks to the bottom of the water, poses a different problem: the chemicals, once added, make the energy yield of the oil much lower, and flocculation agents are very hard to remove after the fact.  While it might be easy to be skeptical of any new innovations and discount microalgae as a perennial allurement, a number of recent breakthroughs are showing a far more promising path to full-scale viability.

Perhaps the most promising method of utilising microalgae’s biofuel potential is “floatation harvesting,” in large part because of its low energy cost and ease of maintenance. Other methods require frequent harvesting and are known to researchers as being “extensive and expensive”. Floatation, by contrast, involves the creation and injection of microscopic gas bubbles that stick to destabilised molecules in the microalgae, “pulling” these molecules to the surface to form a concentrate. The efficiency of floatation is also aided by the effect of gravity, which pulls water from the concentrate. In this sense, floatation is an inversion of sedimentation; floatation is preferable in that it works in conjunction with nature, since microalgae tends to float rather than settle, thereby requiring far less oversight yet leading to a thicker microalgeal concentrate.

Given the history of converting microalgae into a biofuel, researchers are reluctant to hail floatation as the “magic bullet” that has long eluded scientists. In addition to the problems outlined above, researchers cite several other issues, including the reduction of efficacy when diverse species of microalgae are present and the need for coagulants to neutralise the surface charge of microalgae to make it hydrophobic, so as to prevent toxicity of the biomass.

 

Questions 7 - 10     

Answer the questions below     

Choose  NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer     

7 Which substance does microalgae contain a very large amount of relative to other plants?

8 How can microalgae be used in farming?

9 Which method of microalgae harvesting uses the most energy?

10 Filtration works well for what types of microalgae?

Answers       

7 oil  

8 fertiliser  

9 centrifugation  

10 larger   
 

Flow chart Completion     
 

Example for flow chart completion   

After cramming the first thirteen years of his life with every dinosaur book and mythical illustration that he could lay eyes on, Ray Harryhausen went to see  King Kong with his aunt and parents. Upon witnessing the cutting edge special effects, the boy flew into a new obsession full-force, tracking down everything he could find that would solve the mystery, "How did they make it move like that?" Once he discovered the answer in stop-motion animation, he dedicated himself to the hobby.

At the age of eighteen, he could be seen daily in his mother's garden, forcing a video camera to film stop-motion animation of a wood-framed stegosaurus, a brontosaurus, and a bear he had fashioned from clay and fabric. This experiment, his first ever animated film, took months to complete. When finally he got to see his little movie, he found that the film was an utter failure. After hours of painstaking, meticulous work, Harryhausen's results were a spotty, jerking animation with shadows flitting in every direction as the sun moved.

More than any other moment in his life, Harryhausen's response to this failure revealed his work ethic. When artists have racked up a certain amount of success, they can frequently recover from a failure. By then, they have plenty of evidence to prove to themselves that they are good at their work. But, when a beginner like Harryhausen's first, arduous step proves only that he is an artist of disaster, the ability to move forward is more than just perseverance; it has a sense of pioneer spirit, of heroism.

When Harryhausen watched the terrible film, he made the hero's decision. He tried again. This time, he moved his "studio" inside the garage so that the sun's movement would not change the lighting. This time, he used a camera that had a one-frame shot feature. This time, the results were much improved. The only drawback was that his father had to park in the driveway for months while Harryhausen filmed. Without a studio to back his project financially or even an audience outside of his supportive mother and father, Harryhausen labored long hours over an ambitious project called  Evolution of the World .

During work on his amateur project, Harryhausen met Willis O'Brien, the mastermind behind  King Kong . The young man brought a hand-made model of a brontosaurus to the meeting. The sculpture had won him a prize less than a year before. But, for O'Brien, it was inadequate. After comparing the legs of the sculpture to overcooked sausages, he told Harryhausen to study anatomy. Surprisingly, Harryhausen was less insulted than grateful. In the following months, Harryhausen could be found whiling away hours at the zoo, carefully observing the animals. The elephant’s knees, the giraffe’s stride, the kangaroo's leap taught Harryhausen the subtleties of natural movement. He brought his old question with him: How did they move?

Not long after his visit with O'Brien, Harryhausen landed his first professional position in cinema: puppeteer at Puppetoons, a stop-motion cartoon studio. The project gave him the opportunity to animate using stop-motion in a professional setting, but the rigidity of the puppets’ motions left him uninspired. After dedicating years to understanding realistic movement, Harryhausen had a sense that he was taking a few steps backward as an artist. With just few years at Puppetoons under his belt, he decided to move on. Leaving the commercial film industry, he joined the Army in the Special Services division to create films for military orientation.

After this, Harryhausen had a moderately impressive resume that created inroads into artistically interesting films. His former mentor O'Brien  reached out and offered him a position as an assistant on his new film,  Mighty Joe Young , a sequel to  King Kong . This giving Harryhausen the chance to finally see firsthand the answer to his old question, "How do they make it move like that?" Over the course of this movie and the next, Harryhausen began experimenting with ways of separating the background and foreground of the film in live action animated sequences in order to incorporate stop-motion animated models more realistically. The results stunned audiences.

Throughout a dozen films between 1940 and 1957, Harryhausen's constantly improving special effects brought dinosaurs and giants and even a Cyclops into realistic interactions with live actors. At the height of complexity,  Jason and the Argonauts featured a band of seven skeletons in a elaborately choreographed sword fight with three living men. The sequence took months to complete. It remains one of the most lauded accomplishments in special effects history, analysed by college film students even today, and remembered as Harryhausen’s greatest cinematic achievement.

Harryhausen's popularity waxed and waned over the course of his career, but his abilities did not. As long as he contributed to films, he continued striving to improve upon his previous techniques, moving flawlessly from black and white films to colour, from ancient monsters to futuristic aliens. Upon Harryhausen's death in 2013, modern film directors and special effects designers like Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg flooded the news with statements of admiration toward the man who inspired their imaginations so much, simply by pursuing the question, “How did they make it move?”   
 

Questions 8-13   
 

Complete the flow-chart below.   

 Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer

Important events in Ray Harryhausen’s career   
 

At the age of 18, Ray Harryhausen made a film he considered to be a 8____________

⬇   
 

Then, he made a second movie in his 9 ____________, entitled Evolution of the World.   
 

⬇   
 

To improve, Harryhausen carefully observed the 10 ____________ of different kinds of animals.

⬇ 

After improving his skills on his own films, he got a job controlling the motion of 11 ____________ at a company that made cartoons. 

⬇   
 

After his cartoon work, Ray Harryhausen worked for the military, making orientation movies in the Army’s 12 ____________ department. 

⬇   
 

Harryhausen creates a scene depicting skeletons engaged in a 13 ____________, which is now regarded as an important piece of movie history. 

⬇

Answers     

8 failure   

9 garage    

10 anatomy    

11 puppets   

12 Special Services    

13 sword fight   

Note completion  

Example for note completion    

Answer Questions 1-7 which are based on the reading passage below.   

The origins of coffee     

Coffee as a drink or a plant dates back to the Sufi Muslim monasteries surrounding Mocha in Yemen around the mid-15th century. Coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed in Arabia, in a similar manner to how it is today produced. It had spread throughout the Middle East, Persia, Turkey, and northern Africa by the 16th century.

When we consider the processing of coffee, coffee berries and seeds go through a number of steps, before becoming the typical roasted coffee. The fruit has traditionally been hand-picked for ripeness; this is a time-consuming process that involves selecting only the ripest berries. Strip picking is more usual, in which all berries are gathered at the same time, regardless of maturity, by a person or a machine. Following harvest, green coffee is processed using one of two methods: a dry process method, which is often simpler and less labor-intensive, or a wet process method, which combines batch fermentation, utilises more water in the process and often produces a milder coffee.

The one who transported the first coffee out of the Middle East to India in 1670 is Sufi Baba Budan of Yemen. Previously, every exported coffee had been boiled or sanitised in some way. Baba Budan is said to have smuggled seven coffee seeds by strapping them to his breast in portraits. The first plants that sprouted from these illicit seeds were planted in Mysore, Karnataka, India. After that, coffee expanded over Italy, the rest of Europe, Indonesia, and the Americas.

When coffee first arrived in North America during the Colonial period, it was not as well-received as it had been in Europe since alcoholic beverages were still more famous. The demand for coffee grew so quickly during the Revolutionary War that sellers were forced to hoard their limited supplies and hike prices considerably. Coffee was brought to Brazil in 1727, although it was not widely grown until 1822 when the country gained freedom. After that, vast swaths of rainforest were removed to make way for coffee plantations.

 

Questions 1- 7 

Complete the notes below.

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/ OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

• Coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed in 1 _________
• Green coffee is processed using one of two methods:      
      -     A dry process method, which is often simpler and less 2 ____________, or      
      -     A wet process method, which combines batch fermentation, utilises more water in the process and often produces a 3 _________ coffee.
• Coffee berries and 4 ____________ go through a number of steps, before becoming the typical roasted coffee.
• Sufi Baba Budan of Yemen transported the first coffee out of the 5  ____________ to India
• Coffee expanded over      
  - Italy,      
  - the rest of 6 ______________,      
  - Indonesia, and      
  - the Americas.
• Coffee was brought to Brazil in 7 _________

 

Answers    

1. Arabia   

2. Labor-intensive   

3. Milder   

4. Seeds   

5. Middle-east  

6. Europe   

7. 1727   

Yes no not given  

Example for yes no not given with answers below each exercise   

IELTS academic reading yes/no/not given exercise 1      

Answer questions 1- 6 which are based on the reading passage below.

The Sydney Opera House

It's nearly hard to talk about Australia's arts without mentioning the Sydney Opera House, the structure that initially put the country on the global cultural map. It is not simply the most well-known Australian structure in the world, but also possibly the most recognized design of any modern building anywhere, having been completed in 1973 after 14 years of passionate debate and at a cost of about £60 million.

The Opera House's unusual and extremely original shape has been compared to everything from sailing ship sails to cracked eggshells, yet few would deny that it is a great contribution to world architecture. It is a reminder to all Australians of their deep and undying love of all things cultural, set within the graceful splendor of Sydney Harbour, ruling like a queen over the hustle and brashness of a modern metropolis attempting to create a financial name in a tough commercial sector.

The Opera House was designed by Jorn Utzon, a well-known Danish architect who won an international competition in the late 1950s. It was, however, not completed according to his original specifications. The plans for much of the building's intended interior designs were just recently unearthed. Unfortunately, the State Government at the time intervened with Utzon's designs due to financial concerns, which was understandable given that the building was initially estimated to cost only £5.5 million.

Utzon departed the country before finishing the project and vowed never to return in a fit of rage. A state-run lottery eventually paid for the project. A team of architects whose task was to finish construction on time and within budget significantly reduced the size of the building's interior. Rehearsal rooms and other facilities for the many theatres inside the complex were either drastically reduced or eliminated, and some artists have been vocal about their dissatisfaction ever since.

Despite the controversies surrounding its construction, the Opera House has risen above the quarreling and is now regarded as a modern architectural marvel. The facility was officially opened by the Queen in 1975, and since then, audiences of all nationalities have flocked to see the many world-class performances by Australian opera, ballet, and theatrical stars within its bent and twisted walls.

 

Questions 1 - 6    

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?

Write

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NO, if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

1. We can’t miss the Sydney Opera House while considering Australia’s arts.

2. Sydney Opera House having been completed in 1973 after 14 years of passionate debate.

3. Everyone accepts that it is a great contribution to world architecture. 

4. Opera House was designed by Jorn Utzon, a well-known Danish architect

5. Prior booking is not required for the Sydney Opera House.

6. Rehearsal rooms and other facilities for the many theatres inside the complex were increased.

Answers for exercise 1     

1. Yes   

2. Yes   

3. No   

4. Yes   

5. Not given   

6. No     
 

Table completion 
 

In the late 1630s, the Dutch economic market experienced a brief phase of “tulip mania,” during which tulip bulbs, a new and novel commodity at the time, briefly fetched extraordinarily high prices. At the peak of tulip mania in Holland, in March 1637, some single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. It is generally considered the first recorded speculative bubble. The term "tulip mania" is now often used metaphorically to refer to any large economic bubble (when asset prices deviate significantly from intrinsic values).

The event was popularised in 1841 by British journalist Charles Mackay. According to Mackay, at one point 12 acres of land were offered for a  Semper Augustus bulb. Mackay claims that many such investors were ruined by the fall in prices, and Dutch commerce suffered a severe shock. Some modern scholars, however, feel that the mania was not quite as extraordinary as Mackay described. In defense of this position, it is clear that not enough price data remain from official records at the time, to represent an all out tulip bulb bubble.

In her 2007 scholarly analysis  Tulipmania , Anne Goldgar states that the phenomenon was limited to "a fairly small group," and that most accounts from the period are based on a few contemporary pieces of propaganda designed to criticise the nation of Holland or the excesses of the era’s merchant class. While Mackay's account held that a wide array of society was involved in the tulip trade, Goldgar's study of archived contracts found that even at its peak, tulip trade was conducted almost exclusively by wealthy merchants and craftsmen, but not by members of the nobility. Thus, says Goldgar, any economic fallout from the bubble was very limited. Goldgar, who identified many prominent buyers and sellers in the market, found fewer than half a dozen who experienced financial troubles in the time period, and of these cases it is still not clear that tulips were to blame. This is not altogether surprising. Although prices had risen meteorically, by the time the tulip price bubble abruptly burst, money for the most recent transactions had not actually exchanged hands. Thus profits were never realised for sellers; unless sellers had made other purchases on credit in expectation of the profits, the collapse in prices did not cause anyone to lose money.

There is no dispute that prices for tulip bulb contracts rose and then fell significantly in 1636–37, but even a dramatic rise and fall in prices does not necessarily mean that an economic or speculative bubble developed and then burst. For tulip mania to have qualified as an economic bubble, the price of tulip bulbs would need to have become unhinged from the intrinsic value of the bulbs. Modern economists have advanced several possible reasons for why the rise and fall in prices may not have constituted a bubble. For one, the increases of the 1630s corresponded with a lull in the Thirty Years' War, which occurred between 1618 and 1648. As the economy became less fettered by war, investments and purchases were freed up for luxuries such as tulips. Hence, it is possible that market prices were responding rationally to a rise in demand.

However, the fall in prices was faster and more dramatic than the rise, and did not result from a sudden resurgence in the war. If the precipitous fall of tulip prices in 1637 can not be linked to a clear and practical economic reason for a fall in demand, that certainly bolsters claims for a bona fide bubble. While war nearly always has some economic impact, a number of scholars argue that some other disaster, not strictly linked to the lull in the Thirty Years’ War, may have caused a fall in prices.

Peter Garber, a scholar for the National Bureau of Economic Research, points to the most widely accepted culprit for the implosion of the tulip bulb market in the late 1630s: bubonic plague. Garber points out that the likely catalyst for the fall in tulip prices took place in the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. There, in February of 1637, merchants were spooked by a shocking “ghost auction” for tulip bulbs, in which no one showed up to bid or purchase. Garber and others speculate that word of this lack of attendance quickly spread, causing buyers and sellers worldwide to lose faith in their ability to continue trading the bulbs at high prices. Scholars also observe the the likely cause of the abrupt lack of buyers or sellers in Haarlem was a surge in cases of bubonic plague in that city. This fits in with the widely accepted “big picture.” There is consensus that the plague’s sweeping economic impact set the stage for many features of the modern economy, possibly including bubbles.

Historical records, while spotty during the Thirty Years’ War, show no concrete evidence that tulip mania had significant impact on the broader economic wellbeing of Holland at the time. Just how widespread the trade was, or how many individuals’ fortunes were impacted by tulip bulb trade in 1636-1637 remains a matter of debate. Regardless of whether or not tulip mania qualified as a true “bubble” by contemporary economic standards, it is impossible not to draw parallels between the Dutch tulip trade of the late 1630s and today’s economic bubbles. If one thing can be learned from this short episode in Holland’s economic history, it is that the line between reasoned response to market forces and artificially driven boom-and-bust cycles can be blurry and subjective.

Questions 10-14     

Complete the table below     

Choose  NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.     

     

A single tulip bulb could be exchanged for very large amounts of  10 ___________ . 

People saw their fortunes 11 _____________ when prices abruptly lowered. 

Because no one in 12 ___________ was trading tulips, the negative impact of "Tulip Mania" would have been very 13 ___________.

Prices of tulips fell because news about an absence of tulip bulb traders in Haarlem was heard  14 ____________

Answers     

10 land  

11 ruined  

12 nobility  

13 limited  

14 worldwide

 Some Tips and Tricks

Here are a few pieces of advice for those students wanting to improve their reading section scores in IELTS exams.

• Read long passages, novels, newspapers, and magazines regularly
• Develop better attention and focus
• Practice multiple mock tests before the final exam 

IELTS is a very popular test to take for those who are planning on studying abroad. A lot of people have to take the IELTS test to study in English-speaking countries like the UK, USA , Canada, and Australia. The reading section of the IELTS test is the most challenging and takes the longest of all the other IELTS parts to complete

We hope you enjoyed our article about how to improve your IELTS reading section. The IELTS reading section is where a lot of people get stuck, and we hope you found our tips helpful. If you want to learn more about the IELTS exam and other entrance exams , you can seek help from team Edmissions . Good luck with your test.

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