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The following sentences contain mistakes. Can you find them?
I'll put my corrections in the "comments" area tomorrow.
Students worry about how to describe diagrams, but the basic method is always the same: introduction, summary of main points, specific details.
Look at the following question for example:
The diagrams below show some principles of house design for cool and for warm climates.
Although this question is different from the normal graph/chart questions, you should structure your answer in the same way. Try to write 4 paragraphs:
I'll write the full essay for next week's lesson.
Below is a 'band 9' paragraph about the benefits of zoos. I took the vocabulary ideas from this lesson (click here) and organised them in the following way:
I've underlined the band 9 vocabulary.
Zoos have several benefits. The main benefit is that zoos play an important role in wildlife conservation. They help to protect endangered species, such as pandas or rhinos, and allow scientists to study animal behaviour. Another advantage of zoos is that they employ large numbers of people, therefore providing job opportunities and income for the local area. Also, the money that zoos make can be used for conservation projects. From a personal point of view, zoos are interesting, educational and fun. They are entertaining for families, and teach children to appreciate wildlife and nature.
Here's an interesting video from ted.com (my favourite video website). The presenter asks us to think about which news stories will matter in the long run.
will matter = will be important
in the long run = in the long term/ in the distant future
If you watch the video with subtitles, it's also interesting to analyse the grammar used to talk about the future. The presenter mostly uses going to but he also uses will, might and may.
Read the following passage from a text about linguistics.
Before the twentieth century, the term "philology" was commonly used to refer to the science of language, which was then predominantly historical in focus. However, this focus has shifted and the term "philology" is now generally used for the "study of a language's grammar, history and literary tradition", especially in the United States. The term "linguistics" is now the usual academic term in English for the scientific study of language.
Linguistics concerns itself with describing and explaining the nature of human language. Relevant to this are the questions of what is universal to language, how language can vary, and how human beings come to know languages. Humans achieve competence in whatever language is spoken around them when growing up, with apparently little need for explicit conscious instruction.
Linguists assume that the ability to acquire and use language is an innate, biologically-based potential of human beings, similar to the ability to walk. It is generally agreed that there are no strong genetic differences underlying the differences between languages: an individual will acquire whatever language(s) he or she is exposed to as a child, regardless of parentage or ethnic origin.
According to the text, are the following statements true, false or not given?
Here are some useful questions from John (with my answers below):
Do two examiners check our papers?
- No, only one examiner checks your writing papers.
How do they know our final band score? How do they compute it?
- You get 4 scores, and they calculate the average.
What are the criteria? What do these letters mean: TR, CC, LR, GRA?
- The letters are the 4 scores I mentioned: the 4 criteria that examiners use.
- Open the attachments linked below to see what these 4 criteria are.
Writing Band Descriptors Task 1
Writing Band Descriptors Task 2
Examiners use the terms below. What do they mean?
IELTS speaking part 2:
Describe a time when you were asked to give your opinion in a questionnaire.
Advice: Say that your were given a questionnaire at the end of one of your school or university courses. Say that the questions asked for your opinions about the teaching, materials, facilities, level of difficult, how much you enjoyed the course etc.
IELTS speaking part 3:
What kinds of organisation regularly conduct questionnaires?
All kinds of organisations and companies use questionnaires to find out what people think about them. For example, university lecturers often ask their students to answer questions about their courses. Someone from a Starbucks cafe stopped me in the street yesterday to ask me about my coffee drinking habits.
Do you think schools should ask children for their opinions about lessons?
On the one hand, it might be useful for teachers to get feedback from children about how much they learnt and how enjoyable they found the lessons. However, children don't necessarily know what's best for them, and it might do more harm than good to allow them to give opinions about their teachers.
A good way to write main body paragraphs is this:
Start with an idea; Explain it in detail; Give an example
Here's an example of how I 'build' a paragraph using the above method:
A sense of competition is necessary for success in life, and should therefore be encouraged. Competition motivates children to get good grades at school or become better at sports, while adults compete to climb the career ladder. In a job interview, for example, candidates compete to show that they are the most qualified, hard-working and competent person for the post.
Note:
What's the topic of the paragraph above? What do you think the question was?
Look again at last week's question:
Some people think that museums should be enjoyable places to entertain people, while others believe that the purpose of museums is to educate.
Discuss both views and give you own opinion.
Let's forget about the whole question. Just try to list some words that are related to the 3 main ideas.
Museums:
Entertain:
Educate:
Making lists of related words is a good way to generate ideas. You might not have time to do this in the exam, but it's a useful study technique.
Watch the video about the future of libraries, and fill the gaps in the text below.
Thanks to Safaa for finding this interesting video!
Fill the gaps by listening to the first 3 minutes of the video.
Academic libraries are changing faster now than at any time in their history. The ______ ______ of the library as a physical space housing racks of books and papers is coming under increasing ______. The library stands at a crossroads.
In the digital age, there is an ever-increasing amount of information available to use in a wide ______ of different ______, and change will be ______ by the people that use this information.
While demand for change is coming from users, it is technology that is making it possible to ______ this demand. As more and more resources are available on the Internet via search engines, students and researchers now expect to be able to ______ information around the clock from almost anywhere in the world and via a growing number of ______, from laptops to phones.
Read the text below about the Stanford marshmallow experiment.
The Stanford marshmallow experiment was a study on deferred gratification. The experiment was conducted in 1972 by psychologist Walter Mischel of Stanford University. It has been repeated many times since, and the original study at Stanford is regarded as one of the most successful experiments in the study of human behaviour. In the study, a marshmallow was offered to each child. If the child could resist eating the marshmallow, he was promised two instead of one. The scientists analysed how long each child resisted the temptation of eating the marshmallow, and whether or not doing so had an effect on their future success. The results provided researchers with great insight on the psychology of self control.
Are the following statements true, false or not given?
1. When repeated by other researchers, the experiment was less successful.
2. Children were offered a second marshmallow if they managed not to eat the first one.
3. Scientists found a correlation between resisting temptation and future success.
Several people have asked me to explain how to use to, by, with and at when describing numbers. Here are some examples to give you a basic idea of the differences:
1) Use to when describing what happened to the number:
In 2008, the rate of unemployment rose to 10%.
2) Use by when describing the amount of change between two numbers:
In 2009, the rate of unemployment fell by 2% (from 10% to 8%).
3) Use with to give the idea of 'having' the number:
Obama won the election with 52% of the vote.
4) Use at to add the number on the end of a sentence:
Unemployment reached its highest level in 2008, at 10%.
Some people think that museums should be enjoyable places to entertain people, while others believe that the purpose of museums is to educate.
Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
People have different views about the role and function of museums. In my opinion, museums can and should be both entertaining and educational.
On the one hand, it can be argued that the main role of a museum is to entertain. Museums are tourist attractions, and their aim is to exhibit a collection of interesting objects that many people will want to see. The average visitor may become bored if he or she has to read or listen to too much educational content, so museums often put more of an emphasis on enjoyment rather than learning. This type of museum is designed to be visually spectacular, and may have interactive activities or even games as part of its exhibitions.
On the other hand, some people argue that museums should focus on education. The aim of any exhibition should be to teach visitors something that they did not previously know. Usually this means that the history behind the museum’s exhibits needs to be explained, and this can be done in various ways. Some museums employ professional guides to talk to their visitors, while other museums offer headsets so that visitors can listen to detailed commentary about the exhibition. In this way, museums can play an important role in teaching people about history, culture, science and many other aspects of life.
In conclusion, it seems to me that a good museum should be able to offer an interesting, enjoyable and educational experience so that people can have fun and learn something at the same time.
(253 words, band 9)
Sometimes I like to share videos simply because I found them interesting. The video below comes from ted.com, one of my favourite websites, and subtitles can be turned on if you need them.
The presenter gives us an interesting glimpse into the future of ebooks. Would you like to read books like this, or do you prefer the book in its traditional form?
Many people write to me to ask for ideas about different IELTS topics. It's getting to the point where I don't have time to write detailed answers to everyone's questions, so I need your help!
If you find a difficult IELTS question or topic, please do some research on the Internet before asking me. With websites like Google and Wikipedia you can find ideas for almost any topic.
Also, please feel free to discuss topics and questions with other students in the "comments" area. That would be a big help!