IELTS Simon

IELTS Reading: choose the title

Read the following passage and choose the best title.

The modern English alphabet is a Latin alphabet consisting of 26 letters, each having an upper- and lower-case form. It originated around the 7th century from the Latin script.

English is the only major modern European language that requires no diacritics for native words. Diacritic marks mainly appear in loanwords such as naïve and façade. Informal English writing tends to omit diacritics because of their absence from the keyboard, while professional copywriters and typesetters tend to include them.

As loanwords become naturalised in English, there is a tendency to drop the diacritics, as has happened with many older borrowings from French, such as hôtel. Words that are still perceived as foreign tend to retain them; for example, the only spelling of soupçon found in English dictionaries uses the diacritic. However, diacritics are likely to be retained even in naturalised words where they would otherwise be confused with a common native English word e.g. résumé rather than resume. Rarely, they may even be added to a loanword for this reason, as in maté, from the Spanish yerba mate but with the é to distinguish from the English word 'mate'.

(Source: wikipedia.org)

Choose the best title from the list below.

A)  The English alphabet
B)  The use of diacritics in written English
C)  Disappearing diacritics in the English language
D)  How loanwords have entered the English language

Note: Did you work out what the word 'diacritic' means?

IELTS Reading: easy 'General Reading' example

I tell my students to do both academic and general reading practice tests. The general reading tests are easier, but this allows you to work on your exam technique without having such long passages to worry about.

Here's part of a general reading exercise from Cambridge IELTS 14.

Relevant part of the passage:

Transition care is provided in your own home or in a ‘live-in’ setting. This setting can be part of an existing aged-care home or health facility such as a separate wing of a hospital.

If you’re already receiving subsidised residential care in an aged-care home, but you need to go somewhere else for transition care, your place in the aged-care home will be held until you return.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. Transition care at home is only available for patients who live alone.
2. Transition care may be given on a hospital site.
3. You may lose your place in a care home if you have to leave it to receive transition care.

IELTS Reading: which paragraph contains...?

Read the following passage, and try the exercise below it.

Language rhythms

A) When analysing the rhythm of spoken languages, some languages are referred to as syllable-timed, whereas others are commonly defined as stress-timed.

B) In a syllable-timed language, every syllable is perceived as taking up roughly the same amount of time. Syllable-timed languages tend to give syllables approximately equal prominence and generally lack reduced vowels. French, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Icelandic, Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese and Turkish are commonly quoted as examples of syllable-timed languages. This type of rhythm was originally metaphorically referred to as "machine-gun rhythm" because each underlying rhythmical unit is of the same duration, similar to the transient bullet noise of a machine-gun.

C) In a stress-timed language, syllables may last different amounts of time, but there is perceived to be a fairly constant amount of time (on average) between consecutive stressed syllables. Consequently, unstressed syllables between stressed syllables tend to be compressed to fit into the time interval. English, Thai, German, Russian, Danish, Swedish, Catalan, Norwegian, Faroese, Dutch, European Portuguese, and Persian are typical stress-timed languages.

D) There can be varying degrees of stress-timing within the different standards of a language. English, a stress-timed language, has become so widespread over the globe that some standards tend to be more syllable-timed than the British or North American standards, an effect which comes from the influence of other languages spoken in the relevant region. Indian English, for example, tends toward syllable-timing.

E) A better-documented case of these varying degrees of stress-timing in a language comes from Portuguese. European Portuguese is more stress-timed than the Brazilian standard. The latter has mixed characteristics and varies according to speech rate, sex and dialect. At fast speech rates, Brazilian Portuguese is more stress-timed, while in slow speech rates, it can be more syllable-timed.

(Source: wikipedia.org)

Which paragraphs contain the following information?

1. How one language’s stress rhythm can change according to how quickly the language is spoken.
2. Examples of languages that give more prominence to certain syllables during speech.
3. How stress-timing in one language may be affected by the rhythm of a different language.

IELTS Reading: which paragraph contains...?

Early modern policing

A) The first centrally organised police force was created by the government of King Louis XIV in 1667 to police the city of Paris, then the largest city in Europe. The task of the police was defined as "ensuring the peace and quiet of the public and of private individuals, purging the city of what may cause disturbances, procuring abundance, and having each and everyone live according to their station and their duties”. The word "police" was borrowed from French into the English language in the 18th century.

B) In 1797, Patrick Colquhoun, a Scottish merchant, was able to persuade the West Indies merchants who operated at the Pool of London on the River Thames, to establish a police force at the docks to prevent rampant theft that was causing annual estimated losses of £500,000 worth of cargo. The idea of a police, as it then existed in France, was considered as a potentially undesirable foreign import. However, Colquhoun used economic indicators to show that a police dedicated to crime prevention was "perfectly congenial to the principle of the British constitution”.

C) With an initial investment of £4,200, the new trial force of the Thames River Police began with about 50 men charged with policing 33,000 workers in the river trades. The force was a success after its first year, and Colquhoun’s men had "established their worth by saving £122,000 worth of cargo and by the rescuing of several lives”. Word of this success spread quickly, and the government passed the Marine Police Bill on 28 July 1800, transforming it from a private to public police agency; now the oldest police force in the world.

(Adapted from wikipedia.com)

Which paragraph contains the following information?

1. positive news that led to a new government policy
2. the origin of an English word
3. people’s reluctance to accept a foreign idea
4. a specific problem that needed to be solved

IELTS Reading: a review of this blog

For today's reading practice, I thought you might like to read a review of this website. It appeared in the latest issue of the English Australia Journal.

To go straight to the review, click here. I particularly like the reviewer's comments about my IELTS writing lessons in the fourth paragraph!

The review is full of useful English phrases. Note them down if you have time.

IELTS Reading: paragraph heading

Read the paragraph below and choose the best heading from the list.

Reading underwent serious changes in the 18th century. Until 1750, reading was done “intensively”: people tended to own a small number of books and read them repeatedly, often to a small audience. After 1750, people began to read “extensively”, finding as many books as they could, and increasingly reading them alone. Libraries that lent out their material for a small price started to appear, and occasionally bookstores would offer a small lending library to their patrons. Coffee houses commonly offered books, journals and sometimes even popular novels to their customers.

1. The appearance of the first public libraries.
2. Intensive and extensive reading habits.
3. The reading revolution.

IELTS Reading: more keywords

Here's another vocabulary table showing keywords from recent reading exercises here on the blog.

Quick question: What does 'sound' mean, in the context of the penultimate (second from bottom) row of the table?

IELTS Reading: yes, no, not given

Read the following passage about geometry:

Geometry (from the Ancient Greek: γεωμετρία; geo- "earth", -metron "measurement") is a branch of mathematics concerned with questions of shape, size, relative position of figures, and the properties of space. The earliest recorded beginnings of geometry can be traced to ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt in the 2nd millennium BC.

An important application of geometry is in the field of architecture. Apart from the mathematics needed when engineering buildings, architects use geometry for several reasons: to define the spatial form of a building; to create forms that are considered harmonious; to lay out buildings and their surroundings according to mathematical, aesthetic and sometimes religious principles; to decorate buildings with mathematical objects such as tessellations; and to meet environmental goals, such as to minimise wind speeds around the bases of tall buildings.

In the graphic arts, geometry can be seen in the use of perspective, which may be described as the approximate representation, generally on a flat surface (such as paper), of an image as it is seen by the eye. The two most characteristic features of perspective are that objects appear smaller as their distance from the observer increases, and that they are subject to foreshortening, meaning that an object's dimensions along the line of sight appear shorter than its dimensions across the line of sight.

(Adapted from Wikipedia)

Do the following statements agree with the passage?
Answer yes, no or not given.

1. Humans have used geometry for well over two thousand years.
2. Religious buildings are often decorated with geometric patterns.
3. Many artists do not realise that they are using geometry.
4. Perspective, in the graphic arts, involves the use of size to imply distance.

IELTS Reading: match the names

One type of question asks you to "match the names with the statements". You will see a list of people's names (often researchers or experts) and you have to match each name with a statement about what he/she did or said.

Here's some advice for this type of question:

1. Find all of the names in the passage first. Scan the whole passage quickly (this is probably the only type of exercise for which scanning works well) and underline all the names that the question asks you about.
2. Remember that academic articles often only use surnames. For example, if one of the names is Robert Smith, you might not see the first name 'Robert' in the passage. Just look for the surname 'Smith'.
3. Do difficult questions last. If one name is mentioned 3 times in 3 different paragraphs, it will be more difficult to match with a statement than a name that is only mentioned once. Start with the name that is only mentioned once.
4. When you find a match, put a cross next to the statement; you will only use each statement once.
5. As usual, look for "keywords" - words in the passage that are similar to words in the question statements.

IELTS Reading: useful question about keywords

A student asked me about the following question from Cambridge IELTS 9. The student was confused about whether 'amount' was a good synonym for 'rate'. How do you think I resolved this confusion? And what is the correct answer to the question?

Question (true, false or not given?)
The amount of information that can be sent in a given time period is determined with reference to the signal strength and noise level.

Relevant part of the passage:
In particular, Shannon showed that noise set a limit on the rate at which information can pass along communication channels while remaining error-free. This rate depends on the relative strength of signal and noise traveling down the communication channel and on its capacity (its "bandwidth").

IELTS Reading: matching exercise

Read the following passage and try the matching exercise below.

London Bridge

Many historical bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames in central London. The current crossing, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973, was built using concrete and steel. This replaced a 19th-century stone-arched bridge, which in turn superseded a 600-year-old medieval structure. This was preceded by a succession of timber bridges, the first built by the Roman founders of London.

“Old” London Bridge was built between 1176 and 1209, during the reign of King John. The bridge was around 8 metres wide and 250 metres long, and it had a drawbridge for the passage of tall ships up-river, and defensive gatehouses at both ends. By the fifteenth century there were some 200 buildings on the bridge. Some stood up to seven stories high, some overhung the river by seven feet, and some overhung the road, to form a dark tunnel through which all traffic had to pass. By the end of the 18th century, it was apparent that “Old” London Bridge, which was by then over 600 years old, needed to be replaced.

The “New” London Bridge was designed by John Rennie and opened in 1831. It was 283 metres long and 15 metres wide, and in 1896 it was the busiest point in London, with 8,000 pedestrians and 900 vehicles crossing it every hour. By 1962, “New” London Bridge was not sound enough to support the increased load of modern traffic, and it was sold by the City of London. The purchaser, an American entrepreneur called Robert P. McCulloch, bought the bridge as a tourist attraction for Lake Havasu in Arizona, USA. The bridge was taken apart, each piece was meticulously numbered, and the blocks were then shipped to Arizona, where the bridge was reconstructed.

Which bridge is described in each statement below? Choose A, B or C.

1. Many buildings were constructed on it.
2. It has a royal connection.
3. It was taken to a new location.
4. It had fortified entrances.
5. It could not cope with increasing congestion.

A - Old London Bridge
B - New London Bridge
C - The current London Bridge

IELTS Reading: when are the answers in order?

For the following question types, the answers are usually (almost always) in order in the passage:

1. All types of gap-fill (sentences, summaries, diagrams etc.)
2. True, false, not given
3. Yes, no, not given
4. Multiple choice
5. Matching sentence endings
6. 'Short answer' questions

However, answers to the following question types are never in order:

1. Matching paragraph headings
2. Which paragraph contains the information?
3. Matching names with statements or information

IELTS Reading: a tricky question

Here's a tricky question from Cambridge IELTS 11 (General test 3). What answer would you choose, and why?

Question statement (true, false or not given?):
Bus drivers do not give change so you must have the correct money for a ticket.

What the passage says:
Buy your bus ticket from the bus driver, with the correct money if possible.

IELTS Reading Advice: reading aims and habits

Yesterday I gave some advice about having the right aims. When you have an aim, the next step is to think about how to achieve it. You'll need to create work habits that take you in the right direction.

Assuming that your general aim is to get a higher score in the IELTS reading test, here are some questions regarding specific aims and habits:

• How can we break the general aim (improve my reading) into more specific, focused aims?
• What do you do each day to work on your reading?
• How could you improve these daily reading habits?

IELTS Reading: another keyword review

Here are some of the keywords from recent exercises here on the blog:

IELTS Reading: two questions about exam technique

1. Should you read the whole passage before looking at the questions?
2. Should you go to the questions first, then skim/scan to find the answers?

My answer to question 1 is no. You don't have time to read the whole passage unless your English is almost 'native speaker' level.

My answer to question 2 is yes and no.
Yes - go to the questions first.
No - don't skim or scan unless the question contains a name or number.

My advice is to do the questions one by one. Instead of skimming or scanning, read the passage carefully. The answers to most question sections will be in order in the passage, so you will gradually read the whole passage as you find the answers.

IELTS Reading: paragraph headings tips

Here are my top 4 tips for how to answer 'paragraph headings' questions:

1. Do these questions last
'Paragraph headings' questions are difficult, especially because the answers will not be in order in the text. For most other types of question, the answers will be in order in the text. So, do the other questions first, then you will be familiar with the text when you return to the 'paragraph headings' questions. You might even find that you are able to match some of the paragraphs really quickly because you remember what they were about.

2. Start with the shortest paragraphs
Instead of starting with the first paragraph, why not start with the shortest paragraph? If there is a really short paragraph, it should be easier to match it to a heading. Then you will have fewer headings to choose from for the longer paragraphs.

3. Look for similar words
As with most types of IELTS reading question, you should be able to find words in the paragraph that are similar to words in the heading.

4. Move on if you are spending too much time
'Paragraph headings' questions often take a long time. Don't allow yourself to use more than 20 minutes for each reading passage. If you haven't finished after 20 minutes, move on to the next passage.

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following passage about elephant intelligence.

Most contemporary ethologists view the elephant as one of the world's most intelligent animals. With a mass of just over 5 kg, an elephant's brain has more mass than that of any other land animal, and although the largest whales have body masses twenty times those of a typical elephant, a whale's brain is barely twice the mass of an elephant's brain. In addition, elephants have a total of 300 billion neurons. Elephant brains are similar to humans' and many other mammals' in terms of general connectivity and functional areas.

Elephants manifest a wide variety of behaviours, including those associated with grief, learning, mimicry, play, altruism, use of tools, compassion, cooperation, self-awareness, memory, and communication. Further, evidence suggests elephants may understand pointing: the ability to nonverbally communicate an object by extending a finger, or equivalent.

Elephants are thought to be highly altruistic animals that even aid other species, including humans, in distress. In India, an elephant was helping locals lift logs by following a truck and placing the logs in pre-dug holes upon instruction from the mahout (elephant trainer). At a certain hole, the elephant refused to lower the log. The mahout came to investigate the hold-up and noticed a dog sleeping in the hole. The elephant only lowered the log when the dog was gone.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1)  An elephant’s brain is larger than that of a whale.
2)  In some respects, an elephant’s brain resembles the human brain.
3)  Elephants can copy the behaviour of humans.
4)  Elephants may understand a certain type of body language.
5)  The story about an elephant in India is an example of altruism.

IELTS Reading: gap-fill

Read the following text about pedestrian zones in cities.

A large number of European towns and cities have made part of their centres car-free since the early 1960s. These are often accompanied by car parks on the edge of the pedestrianised zone, and, in the larger cases, park and ride schemes. Central Copenhagen is one of the largest and oldest examples: the auto-free zone is centred on Strøget, a pedestrian shopping street, which is in fact not a single street but a series of interconnected avenues which create a very large auto-free zone, although it is crossed in places by streets with vehicular traffic. Most of these zones allow delivery trucks to service the businesses located there during the early morning, and street-cleaning vehicles will usually go through these streets after most shops have closed for the night.

In North America, where a more commonly used term is pedestrian mall, such areas are still in their infancy. Few cities have pedestrian zones, but some have pedestrianised single streets. Many pedestrian streets are surfaced with cobblestones, or pavement bricks, which discourage any kind of wheeled traffic, including wheelchairs. They are rarely completely free of motor vehicles.

Fill the gaps below with NO MORE THAN 3 WORDS from the text.

1. In some cases, people are encouraged to park ________ of the town or city centre.
2. The only vehicles permitted in most pedestrian zones are those used for ________ or ________ cleaning.
3. Certain types of road surface can be used to ________ traffic.

IELTS Reading: 9 ways to use practice tests

Here are 9 different ways to use practice reading tests.

1. Do a full one-hour test to see what score you get.
2. Do a full test with no time limit (or a longer time limit, like 2 hours).
3. Do just one reading passage in 20 minutes.
4. Do one reading passage with no time limit (or longer than 20 minutes).
5. Work on a particular type of question only e.g. true, false, not given.
6. Do tests with the help of a dictionary, and see if that helps you score.
7. Simply read a full passage and see what you understand. Don't do the questions.
8. Get the answers from the back of the book, and try to prove why they are correct.
9. Make vocabulary lists and 'keyword' tables.

Instead of just testing yourself, try to use practice tests in a variety of ways. This will make your study time less boring, and you'll probably learn more. Maybe you can think of other creative ways to use practice tests.

IELTS Reading: yes, no, not given

Read the following passage about 'habits'.

“All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits,” William James wrote in 1892. Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision making, but they’re not. They’re habits. And though each habit means relatively little on its own, over time, the meals we order, what we say to our kids each night, whether we save or spend, how often we exercise, and the way we organize our thoughts and work routines have enormous impacts on our health, productivity, financial security, and happiness. One paper published by a Duke University researcher in 2006 found that 40 percent or more of the actions people performed each day weren’t actual decisions, but habits.

Do the statements below agree with the ideas expressed by the author? Write YES, NO or NOT GIVEN.

1. The majority of choices we make on a daily basis are conscious decisions.
2. Saving money is the key to financial security.
3. Habits account for at least 40 percent of the things we do each day.

Note:
The passage above comes from a book called The Power of Habit. If you're looking for a book to read, I definitely recommend it.

IELTS Reading: choose the headings

Read the passage below and match each paragraph with one of the following headings:

1. Lobster habitats
2. Why lobsters must be measured when caught
3. Adult male lobsters are a prime catch
4. Lobster fishing methods
5. The world’s heaviest lobster
6. Different types of American lobster

A) The American lobster is a species of lobster found on the Atlantic coast of North America, chiefly from Labrador to New Jersey. It is also known as Atlantic lobster, Canadian lobster, true lobster, northern lobster, Canadian Reds, or Maine lobster. It can reach a body length of 64cm, and a mass of over 20 kilograms, making it not only the heaviest crustacean in the world, but also the heaviest of all living arthropod species.

B) Most American lobsters come from the northeastern coast of North America, with the Atlantic Provinces of Canada and the U.S. state of Maine being the largest producers. They are caught primarily using lobster traps, although lobsters are also harvested as bycatch by bottom trawlers, fishermen using gillnets, and by scuba divers in some areas. Maine completely prohibits scuba divers from catching lobsters (violations could result in up to a $1000 fine).

C) In the United States, the lobster industry is regulated. Every lobster fisher is required to use a lobster gauge to measure the distance from the lobster's eye socket to the end of its carapace: if the lobster is less than 83mm long, it is too young to be sold and must be released back to the sea. There is also a legal maximum size of 130mm in Maine, meant to ensure the survival of a healthy breeding stock of adult males.

IELTS Reading: keyword review

The table below shows keywords from the last five reading exercises here on the blog.

Are you familiar with the following words / phrases?

- to undermine
- cutting-edge (adjective)
- to herald
- to lengthen / stretch out / draw out
- to emphasise / over-articulate / exaggerate

IELTS Reading: multiple choice

Here are two multiple choice questions from Cambridge IELTS 13. Choose the best answer for questions 27 and 28, and explain your answers if you can.

Relevant part of the passage:

The Painting Fool is one of a growing number of computer programs which, so their makers claim, possess creative talents. Classical music by an artificial composer has had audiences enraptured, and even tricked them into believing a human was behind the score. Artworks painted by a robot have sold for thousands of dollars and been hung in prestigious galleries. And software has been built which creates art that could not have been imagined by the programmer.

Human beings are the only species to perform sophisticated creative acts regularly. If we can break this process down into computer code, where does that leave human creativity? ‘This is a question at the very core of humanity,’ says Geraint Wiggins, a computational creativity researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London. ‘It scares a lot of people. They are worried that it is taking something special away from what it means to be human.’

Multiple choice questions:

27. What is the writer suggesting about computer-produced works in the first paragraph?

A  People’s acceptance of them can vary considerably.
B  A great deal of progress has already been attained in this field.
C  They have had more success in some artistic genres than in others.
D  The advances are not as significant as the public believes them to be.

28. According to Geraint Wiggins, why are many people worried by computer art?

A  It is aesthetically inferior to human art.
B  It may ultimately supersede human art.
C  It undermines a fundamental human quality.
D  It will lead to a deterioration in human ability.

IELTS Reading: examples from Cambridge 13

Here's an excerpt from reading test 1, passage 1 in Cambridge IELTS 13:

Tourism New Zealand website

On the website, visitors can search for activities not solely by geographical location, but also by the particular nature of the activity. This is important as research shows that activities are the key driver of visitor satisfaction, contributing 74% to visitor satisfaction, while transport and accommodation account for the remaining 26%. The more activities that visitors undertake, the more satisfied they will be. It has also been found that visitors enjoy cultural activities most when they are interactive, such as visiting a marae (meeting ground) to learn about traditional Maori life.

Are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. It was found that most visitors started searching on the website by geographical location.
2. According to research, 26% of visitor satisfaction is related to their accommodation.
3. Visitors to New Zealand like to become involved in the local culture.

IELTS Reading: choose the title

Read the following article, and choose the best title from the list below.

The setting is decidedly modest: a utility room in a red-brick house at the end of a cul-de-sac in Wales. But if the hype turns out to be right, this may be the starting point for an energy revolution in the UK. Householder Mark Kerr has become the first British owner of a Tesla Powerwall, a cutting-edge bit of kit that the makers say will provide a “missing link” in solar energy.

Like many owners of solar panels, Kerr and his family have a basic problem. They tend to be out at work and school when the sun is shining and the 16 solar panels on the roof of their home in Cardiff are producing power. The excess they miss out on is fed into the grid and they make a return on it but it does not seem right that they do not get to use the power from their panels. However, from now, energy produced but not used during the day will charge the Powerwall and can then be used to provide them with the energy they need when they’re at home and their lights, music centres, computers, televisions and myriad other devices need feeding.

Choose title A, B, C or D. Can you explain why the others are wrong?

A) The UK energy revolution.
B) Wales at the forefront of technology.
C) New device could herald energy revolution.
D) The problem with solar panels.

IELTS Reading: true, false, not given

Read the following text about photosynthesis in plants.

Although some of the steps in photosynthesis are still not completely understood, the overall photosynthetic equation has been known since the 1800s.

Jan van Helmont began the research of the process in the mid-1600s when he carefully measured the mass of the soil used by a plant and the mass of the plant as it grew. After noticing that the soil mass changed very little, he hypothesised that the mass of the growing plant must come from the water, the only substance he added to the potted plant. His hypothesis was partially accurate—much of the gained mass also comes from carbon dioxide as well as water.

In 1796, Jean Senebier, a Swiss pastor, botanist, and naturalist, demonstrated that green plants consume carbon dioxide and release oxygen under the influence of light. Soon afterwards, Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure showed that the increase in mass of the plant as it grows could not be due only to uptake of CO2, but also to the incorporation of water.

According to the text, are the following statements true, false or not given?

1. We now fully understand the process of photosynthesis.
2. Van Helmont's hypothesis did not take into account that plants consume carbon dioxide.
3. De Saussure demonstrated that both carbon dioxide and water contribute to an increase in mass in plants as they grow.

IELTS Reading: go deeper

When you do a practice reading test or even a short reading exercise, I think you can do more than just test yourself. You can go deeper into the passage and look at vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, coherence etc.

For example, did you think about the word 'parentese' when you read the passage in last Monday's lesson? And did you note down any vocabulary? e.g. drawn-out, plays a vital role in, is characterised by, verbal signal, capitalise on...

IELTS Reading: yes, no, not given

Read the following passage about how parents speak to infants.

'Parentese'

Parentese, the exaggerated, drawn-out form of speech that people use to communicate with babies, apparently is universal and plays a vital role in helping infants to analyse and absorb the phonetic elements of their parents’ language. An international study shows that infants are so good at analysing this speech that by the age of 20 weeks they are beginning to produce the three vowel sounds common to all human languages — “ee,” “ah” and “uu.”

“Parentese has a melody to it. And inside this melody is a tutorial for the baby that contains exceptionally well-formed versions of the building blocks of language,” explains Patricia Kuhl, a University of Washington neuroscientist.

The new study examined differences in how American, Russian and Swedish mothers speak to their infants and to other adults. The study shows that parentese is characterised by over-articulation that exaggerates the sounds contained in words. Mothers in the study were, in effect, sounding out “super-vowels” to help their infants learn the phonetic elements of language.

“In normal, everyday speech adults generally race along at a very fast pace,” Kuhl says. “But we know it is easier to understand a speaker when they stretch out sounds. That’s why we tend to speak more slowly and carefully to increase understanding when we teach in the classroom or talk to strangers. We also do this unconsciously with babies, giving them an improved verbal signal they can capitalise on by slowing down and over articulating.”

(Source: www.washington.edu)

Do the statements below agree with the author's claims?
Write yes, no or not given.

1. ‘Parentese’ is not common to all cultures.
2. Parents tend to lengthen and over-emphasise certain sounds when speaking to infants.
3. Adults are aware that they need to use parentese when speaking to babies.

IELTS Reading: more keywords

Here's a table showing the key vocabulary from the last few reading lessons here on the blog.

IELTS Reading: paragraph headings

Read the following passage about cognitive behavioural therapy:

A) Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapeutic approach: a talking therapy. CBT aims to solve problems concerning dysfunctional emotions, behaviours and cognitions through a goal-oriented, systematic procedure in the present.

B) The particular therapeutic techniques vary, but commonly may include keeping a diary of significant events and associated feelings, thoughts and behaviours; questioning and testing cognitions, assumptions, evaluations and beliefs that might be unhelpful and unrealistic; gradually facing activities which may have been avoided; and trying out new ways of behaving and reacting. Relaxation, mindfulness and distraction techniques are also commonly included.

C) Going through cognitive behavioural therapy is not an overnight process for clients; a typical course consists of 12-16 hour-long sessions. Even after clients have learned to recognise when and where their mental processes go awry, it can in some cases take considerable time or effort to replace a dysfunctional process or habit with a more reasonable and adaptive one. CBT is problem-focused and structured towards the client. It requires honesty and openness between the client and therapist, as a therapist develops strategies for managing problems and guiding the client to a better life.

Choose the best headings for paragraphs A, B and C from this list:

1. A slow process
2. A new type of therapeutic approach
3. The benefits and drawbacks of CBT
4. A goal-oriented therapeutic approach
5. CBT therapists are always honest with their clients
6. The range of CBT interventions