IELTS Reading: false or not given?

Here are two tricky questions that people have asked me about. For each question, decide whether the answer is false or not given, and try to explain why.

Question 1 (Cambridge 7, test 3)
Problems in Nordic countries were excluded because they are outside the European Economic Community.

Relevant part of the passage:
Their initial task was to decide which of the many forest problems of concern to Europe involved the largest number of countries and might be subject to joint action. Those confined to particular geographical areas, such as countries bordering the Mediterranean or the Nordic countries therefore had to be discarded.

Question 2 (Cambridge 10, test 3)
Tourism contributes over six per cent of the Australian gross national product.

Relevant part of the passage:
This industry (tourism) is the world's leading industrial contributor, producing over 6 per cent of the world's gross national product.

Comments

[roshavbg]

1. False - they have to discard Nordic countries as forest problem countries
2. Not Given - the statistic is not for Australia but for the hole world

[bhumika Suryavanshi]

1. False - because Nordic countries discarded due to its geographical condition . Nordic countries are part of north Europe.
2. False - because clearly mentioned statistic is on world economy

[akik]

Hi
Simon
First of all ,thanks for your advise and materials.
I received my IELTS result which is 7.5 .In speaking and writing 6.5 and reading and listening 8.5.This result is not enough as I need 7 in each component.
Do you have a piece of advise for me?

[auau]

Q1-> FALSE (Nordic countries were excluded due to their geographical condition)
Q2-> FALSE (6% of Australian GDP is apparently smaller than 6% of world GDP)

[Bee]

1

True

2

Not given

[Bee]

False. Economic and geographical

2

Not guven. World and Australia

Thankd

[Tinh]

1. NOT GIVEN
2. FALSE

[Et]

1.True
2.not given

[DR-ALI]

1) NOT GIVEN; I can't see EEA in the question.
2) NOT GIVEN; It is about the world. We don't know how much it is for Australia.

[DR-ALI]

Thank you Simon...

[Mina]

True not given

[summer]

N.G

Nordoic countries were excluded because they were confined to particular geographical area. But theres no information about there location..

N.G

No information about how much tourism contributes to australian gross product .australian gross product (world gross product)

[summer]

False

the initial task was to which of the problenm of concerns to eurpeoan include large number of countries.. is not the reson that they have decide based on the locations.. its about the which problem is existed in majority of countries. So frst deal that one which interest europe .

not given or false (confused)

Only information is

[summer]

I thunk both answers are false

[Simon]

FROM SIMON:

I did not write the two comments that appeared above (I've deleted them now).

Please do not use my name - it misleads students, even if you're trying to be helpful.

Thanks

[TUCHIBA]

1) false
The problem NOric are not including because it is particularly areas not because related to belong or not belong the europ
2) not givenThe information related to Australia not related to the world

[Vicky Jindal]

Please sir tell me how can I overcome my ideas problem in witting task2.I haven't got ideas for task2

[Aftab Ashraf]

From Pakistan!

1: False
2: NG

[Sudu]

1. False
2. False

[Mina]

1St answer is definitely false sorry for the wrong.ans

[Faruk IŞKIN]

1NG 2NG

[ms home]

1. False: the reason why the nation were excluded was mentioned-that is geography, not related to europe community.
2. not give; percent of the world is different form % of nation.

[jimmy]

1- NG
2-false

[YCT]

1. False
Q: Problems in Nordic countries were excluded because they are outside the European Economic Community.
A: Those confined to particular geographical areas, such as ... or the Nordic countries therefore had to be discarded.

2. Not Given

[auau]

I'd like to change my previous answer.

1. -> False
2. -> NG (Australian economic structure is not correspond to that of the world economy. Therefore, the impact of tourism to them must be different considerably.)

[Jackie]

1.False
2.NG

[Calvin Cho]

1. False ("outside the European Economic Community" is different from "particular geographical areas")
2. NG

[swapna]

1.false 2.false

[niuxiufeng]

NG
NG

[Lekh]

1-not given because question is about european economy and paragraph is about geogtaphical position

2-not given because question talk about tourism in Australia while paragraph talk about world tuorism.

[Joe]

F-----Geographically ， not Economically
NG----all of the world , all of the country

[svetulya]

1-false
2-false

[wiwik]

1. FALSE
Problems in Nordic countries were excluded because they are outside the geographical areas, not European Economic Community.

2. NOT GIVEN
The statistic is not for Australia but for the world's leading industrial contributor.

[Simon]

CORRECT ANSWERS FROM SIMON

1. FALSE

A clear reason why Nordic countries were excluded is given: Forest problems in Nordic countries are described as being "confined" - not involving a large number of countries. They are looking for forest problems that involve many countries which could take "joint action".

Whether or not the Nordic countries are part of the European Economic Community is irrelevant. We already have a clear reason why they are excluded.

2. NOT GIVEN

Australia is not mentioned.

Don't assume that Australia is a popular country for tourists and therefore must have a GDP figure of at least 6%. If you do this, you are using your own knowledge or making assumptions about information that is not present in the passage. You should only use what you can see in the passage.

[summer]

Oh kkk i understand know . The usage of word " those " refferring to problems not to countries .

thankyou simon

[Morteza]

Dear Simon

Your explanation regarding q1 is as unclear and vague as the question

I believe that this question is not standard at all and the answer is not given. I don't understand what you are talking about in your response

[Simon]

Can you explain your reasons Morteza?

[Syed]

Dear Simon,

I must acknowledge and admire the outright support you offer to all the students across the globe. IELTS students can improve and polish required skills to enhance their score. Hats-off for your devotion.

Thanks and regards,

[Morteza]

Dear Simon

As far as I understand, you believe that the reasons why Nordic countries were excluded are totally different in the passage and the question, so you conclude that the answer is false. I clearly find out the main reason in the question which is regarding the location of these countries (outside the European Economic Community), but I never understand the reason mentioned in the passage. I guess the reason is extremely ambiguous, which is about being confined to particular geographical areas. I think you believe that these two reasons are totally different, so the answer should be false. On the other hand, I imagine that the difference between the reasons leads us to choose NG. What I want to say is that two irrelevant reasons which have been stated in the question and the passage are not in direct contrast with each other. In fact, they are not related to each other. Another point to consider is that your explanation is extremely difficult to understand. Actually, I read it many times, but I am still unable to analyze what you said. I was wondering if it would be possible for you to paraphrase your explanation again. After thinking about it for one hour, not only did this exercise make me splitting headache, but it tremendously confused me in terms of T/F/NG questions.

Regards,
Morteza

[Drx]

Agreed with Simon;
Keywords: confined area i.e nordics,bordering med discarded,readily excluded.
Non-confined: spreading/involving many bordering countries within Europe will join as a group to tackle the problems.

Wether nordics are part of the EEC or not,were not the issue here.they were excluded from the joint action group on the basis that they are within the confined area, same as countries bordering mediterranean.

[sjm]

Morteza

The question says that Nordic countries were excluded BECAUSE they were located outside the EEC.

The passage tells us that Nordic countries were excluded BECAUSE their forest problems are confined to a particular geographical area, and not spread across many countries.

These reasons are sufficiently different to mean the answer is FALSE. Remember, the passage and question do NOT have to be exact opposites to be 'false', they only have to be different enough so that they cannot coexist, according to the text.

[Morteza]

SJM

Thank you for your response. I always read your comments, which are always practical and great, in this blog. It seems to me that you are an IELTS teacher, right?

[Rafiqul islam akhand]

flase
not given

[Simon]

FROM SIMON:

Morteza,

I'm glad that you understand the answer now. SJM's explanation was a bit clearer than mine!

Thanks for helping out SJM.

[Simon]

Thanks for your positive comment Syed!

[James Z.]

Thanks sjm for your brilliant explanation!

I have the same idea but I am not able to express it as effectively as you did.

[Jass]

False
Not given

[Keddie Z.]

False
The factor to determine which the country was involved is that forest problems involved the largest number of countries. So it was discarded for the above reason.

Not Given
The passage gives information about the percentage of tourism for the world gross national products. So we know nothing about the proportion of the world gross national products in Australia.

[Ranjit]

1)not given and 2)False.

[Divya]

1.false 2.false

[TUCHIBA]

False
Not give

[Chandra]

1. False
2. Not Given because it does mention nothing about Australia