Master Course Reading Lesson 1: Focus: Skimming and Scanning To Answer Matching Headings, Completion Tasks and T/F/NG

MASTER COURSE
READING LESSON 1
Focus: Skimming and Scanning to Answer Matching Headings, Completion Tasks and T/F/NG.
Overview of the IELTS Reading Test
The candidate will have to answer 40 questions in 3 reading passages within 60 minutes.
What is Reading Passage 1?

 a text of up to 900 words, mostly factual or descriptive.
 two or three different tasks, with a total of 13 questions.
 the text is slightly easier than Passages 2 and 3.

 a text of up to 900 words, often based on opinion and discussion.
 each paragraph labelled with a letter, A, B, C, etc.
 three different tasks, with a total of 13 questions.

 a text of up to 950 words.
 a discursive text that is slightly more challenging than Passages 1 and 2.
 three different tasks, with a total of 14 questions.
Question types:
 Multiple choice
 True/ False/ Not Given and Yes/ No/ Not Given
 Matching tasks
 Completion tasks
 Short-answer questions
ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | MASTER COURSE - READING

Structure of an IELTS Reading Passage.
In English and IELTS in particular, an academic passage will have the following structure

Understanding the main topic
Step 1: Read the title (or subtitle) carefully.
Guided practice:
The changing fortunes of Antarctic penguins
Robert Gates explains how climate change has started to affect the natural habitat of the
Adélie penguin
Think about the kinds of information that may be included in the passage. Then read the
statements below and decide whether they are likely or unlikely to appear in the Reading
passage.
1. An explanation of how the Adélie penguin population in the Antarctic has increased or
decreased
o Likely
o Unlikely
2. An explanation of the best places to see penguins around the world.

o Likely
o Unlikely
3. A discussion of why one species of penguin is doing better or worse than others.
o Likely
o Unlikely
4. An explanation of when people first discovered penguins and how these animals caught
the imagination of people around the world.
o Likely
o Unlikely
5. A discussion of how global warming has affected the environment in which one species
of penguin lives.
o Likely
o Unlikely
 The whole passage is about: ………………………

Understanding the main idea
Step 2: Read 2 – 3 sentences in each paragraph, then combine their meanings to understand
what the whole paragraph is about. When reading sentences, use the following process:
Guided practice: Read the first 2-3 sentences of each paragraph (1–4) from the Reading
passage. What is each paragraph about? Choose the correct answers by using the technique
above.
1. Over the last five years, scientists have been examining the populations of
different types of penguin that inhabit the Antarctic continent. In particular, they have
been looking at penguins living on Ross Island – a huge island connected to the
Antarctic mainland by a permanent sheet of ice, and formed from four large volcanoes, one
of which is still active. …
2. Scientists say there are two main reasons for the population decline in this part of
Ross Island. Firstly, Adélies cannot lay their eggs directly onto ice or snow …
3. Elsewhere on Ross Island, in contrast to McMurdo Sound, the situation is more

encouraging. At Cape Crozier, Adélie penguins are thriving. The colony is now thought to
have an estimated 230,000 breeding pairs, an upturn of 20% over the last three decades. …
4. However, it isn’t fish, but krill – tiny, shrimp-like creatures that live just below the
pieces of ice that float on the sea – that form the largest part of an Adélie’s diet.
Unfortunately, krill numbers are also declining rapidly. Dr So Kawaguchi, a biologist working
for the Australian government’s Antarctic Division, suspects he knows the main reason behind
this. …

1. The FIRST paragraph is about …
o what scientists want to know about penguins in the Antarctic.
o what scientists have already learnt about penguins in the Antarctic.
2. The SECOND paragraph discusses …
o two explanations for fewer penguins.
o two things which should be done to prevent the decline of penguins.
3. The THIRD paragraph describes …
o a place where penguin numbers are less worrying.
o why we shouldn’t be worried about penguins.
4. The FOURTH paragraph explains …
o why there is less food for Adélie penguins to eat.
o why one population of Adélie penguins has decreased.

Answering Matching Heading Questions:
In IELTS Reading, there are questions that require you to match the paragraphs with suitable
headings.
In order to answer this type of question, we need to understand the main idea of each
paragraph and then match it with the appropriate heading. Summary of how to understand a
passage/ paragraph and answer matching heading questions:
1. Read the title (or subtitle) to understand the main topic.
The rapid transformation occurring in children’s body size
2. In each paragraph, read 2 – 3 sentences, combine their meanings to understand

the whole paragraph’s focus.
A. The diets of children have changed dramatically over the last century due to the effect of
technologies (such as improved transport, canning and refrigeration), social changes (such as
the establishment of boarding schools) and evolving ideas about the nutritional needs of
growing bodies. Before World War I, the meals of children and adults alike would typically
consist of vegetables (often potatoes), large amounts of bread (often 0.5kg/day) and soups
with small amounts of meat.
B. Imagine a 12 years old Australian boy from 1970 standing next to a 12 years old boy from
2010. The boy from 2010 will probably be 3-5cm taller and 7kg heavier than his counterpart in
1970. He will also be 25% fatter. A lot of that fat will be around the waist. The 2010 school
trousers won't fit the boy from 1970, they will be 10cm too big around the waist. Now imagine
that the two boys have a running race of over 1,600 metres; the boy from 1970 will finish 300
metres ahead of his mate from 40 years in the future.
C. What has caused these dramatic changes in the space of a single generation? There are two
main theories. Increasing overweight is caused by an energy imbalance; either energy intake
(food) increases, or energy expenditure decreases, or both. The 'Gluttony Theory' argues that
children are fatter because they are eating more than they used to, and more bad food (high
energy density, high in fat and sugar, high in saturated fats). The 'Sloth Theory' argues that
children are fatter because they are less active than they used to be. The two theories have
battled it out in nutrition and physical activity journals for the last 10 years.
(Source: The official Cambridge guide to IELTS)

3. Read the headings and choose the one that best suits the main idea you’ve just
identified.
i. A comparison of children now and the past
ii. Different hypotheses for the changes in weight
iii. The impact of modern technology on today’s food production
iv. A list of factors that brought about changes in your diet
1. Paragraph A ________.
2. Paragraph B ________.
3. Paragraph C ________.

SELF-PRACTICE: MATCHING HEADINGS
Exercise 1: (Source Cambridge IELTS 13, p.20)
The passage below has six paragraphs, A-F.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-F from the list of headings below. Write the
correct number, i-viii, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i The productive outcomes that may result from boredom
ii What teachers can do to prevent boredom
iii A new explanation and a new cure for boredom
iv Problems with a scientific approach to boredom
v A potential danger arising from boredom
vi Creating a system of classification for feelings of boredom
vii Age groups most affected by boredom
viii Identifying those most affected by boredom
1. Paragraph A
2. Paragraph B
3. Paragraph C
4. Paragraph D
5. Paragraph E
6. Paragraph F

Why being bored is stimulating - and useful, too
This most common of emotions is turning out to be more interesting than we thought
A. We all know how it feels - it’s impossible to keep your mind on anything, time stretches out, and
all the things you could do seem equally unlikely to make you feel better. But defining boredom so that it
can be studied in the lab has proved difficult. For a start, it can include a lot of other mental states, such as
frustration, apathy, depression and indifference. There isn’t even agreement over whether Boredom is
always a low-energy, flat kind of emotion or whether feeling agitated and restless counts as boredom, too.
In his book, Boredom: A Lively History, Peter Toohey at the University of Calgary, Canada, compares it to
disgust - an emotion that motivates us to stay away from certain situations. ‘If disgust protects humans
from infection, boredom may protect them from “infectious" social situations,’ he suggests.
B. By asking people about their experiences of boredom, Thomas Goetz and his team at the
University of Konstanz in Germany have recently identified five distinct types: indifferent, calibrating,
searching, reactant and apathetic. These can be plotted on two axes - one running left to right, which
measures low to high arousal, and the other from top to bottom, which measures how positive or negative
the feeling is. Intriguingly, Goetz has found that while people experience all kinds of boredom, they tend to
specialise in one. Of the five types, the most damaging is ‘reactant’ boredom with its explosive
combination of high arousal and negative emotion. The most useful is what Goetz calls ‘indifferent’
boredom: someone isn’t engaged in anything satisfying but still feels relaxed and calm. However, it
remains to be seen whether there are any character traits that predict the kind of boredom each of us
might be prone to.
C. Psychologist Sandi Mann at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, goes further. All emotions are
there for a reason, including boredom,’ she says Mann has found that being bored makes us more
creative. ‘We're all afraid of being bored but in actual fact it can lead to all kinds of amazing things,’ she
says. In experiments published last year, Mann found that people who had been made to feel bored by
copying numbers out of the phone book for 15 minutes came up with more creative ideas about how to
use a polystyrene cup than a control group. Mann concluded that a passive, boring activity is best for
creativity because it allows the mind to wander. In fact, she goes so far as to suggest that we should seek
out more boredom in our lives.

D. Psychologist John Eastwood at York University in Toronto, Canada isn’t convinced. ‘If you are in a
state of mind-wandering you are not bored,’ he says. ‘In my view, by definition boredom is an undesirable
state.’ That doesn't necessarily mean that it isn’t adaptive, he adds. 'Pain is adaptive - if we didn’t have
physical pain, bad things would happen to us. Does that mean that we should actively cause pain? No. But
even if boredom has evolved to help us survive, it can still be toxic if allowed to fester.’ For Eastwood, the
central feature of boredom is a failure to put our ‘attention system’ into gear. This causes an inability to
focus on anything, which makes time seem to go painfully slowly. What's more, your efforts to improve
the situation can end up making you feel worse. ‘People try to connect with the world and if they are not
successful there’s that frustration and irritability,’ he says. Perhaps most worryingly, says Eastwood,
repeatedly failing to engage attention can lead to a state where we don’t know what to do any more, and
no longer care.
E. Eastwood’s team is now trying to explore why the attention system fails. It’s early days but they
think that at least some of it comes down to personality. Boredom proneness has been linked with a
variety of traits. People who are motivated by pleasure seem to suffer particularly badly. Other personality
traits, such as curiosity, are associated with a high boredom threshold. More evidence that boredom has
detrimental effects comes from studies of people who are more or less prone to boredom. It seems those
who bore easily face poorer prospects in education, their career and even life in general. But of course,
boredom itself cannot kill - it’s the things we do to deal with it that may put us in danger. What can we do
to alleviate it before it comes to that? Goetz’s group has one suggestion. Working with teenagers, they
found that those who ‘approach’ a boring situation - in other words, see that it’s boring and get stuck in
anyway - report less boredom than those who try to avoid it by using snacks, TV or social media for
distraction.
F. Psychologist Françoise Wemelsfelder speculates that our over-connected lifestyles might even be a
new source of boredom. ‘In modern human society there is a lot of overstimulation but still a lot of
problems finding meaning,’ she says. So instead of seeking yet more mental stimulation, perhaps we
should leave our phones alone, and use boredom to motivate us to engage with the world in a more
meaningful way.

Vocabulary highlights
agitated (adj) Lo lắng/tức giận engage in Participate in
Cảm giác khó chịu,

bực bội và thiếu kiên
Đặc điểm
frustration nhẫn bởi vì bạn
trait (n) (Tương tự:
(v) không thể kiểm soát
Characteristic)
hay thay đổi tình
hình
keep sb’s
pay attention to convince (v) Thuyết phục
mind on sth
Susceptible,
indifference
Thờ ơ be prone to vulnerable, likely to
(adj)
get/have

Exercise 2: (Source Cambridge IELTS 12, p.42)
Reading Passage 1 has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-viii, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i Different accounts of the same journey
ii Bingham gains support
iii A common belief
iv The aim of the trip
v A dramatic description
vi A new route
vii Bingham publishes his theory
viii Bingham’s lack of enthusiasm
1. Paragraph A
2. Paragraph B
3. Paragraph C
4. Paragraph D
5. Paragraph E
6. Paragraph F
7. Paragraph G

The Lost City
An explorer’s encounter with the ruined city of Machu Picchu, the most famous
icon of the Inca civilisation
A. When the US explorer and academic Hiram Bingham arrived in South America in 1911, he was
ready for what was to be the greatest achievement of his life: the exploration of the remote hinterland to
the west of Cusco, the old capital of the Inca empire in the Andes mountains of Peru. His goal was to
locate the remains of a city called Vitcos, the last capital of the Inca civilisation. Cusco lies on a high
plateau at an elevation of more than 3,000 metres, and Bingham’s plan was to descend from this plateau
along the valley of the Urubamba river, which takes a circuitous route down to the Amazon and passes
through an area of dramatic canyons and mountain ranges.
B. When Bingham and his team set off down the Urubamba in late July, they had an advantage over
travellers who had preceded them: a track had recently been blasted down the valley canyon to enable
rubber to be brought up by mules from the jungle. Almost all previous travellers had left the river at
Ollantaytambo and taken a high pass across the mountains to rejoin the river lower down, thereby cutting
a substantial corner, but also therefore never passing through the area around Machu Picchu.
C. On 24 July they were a few days into their descent of the valley. The day began slowly, with
Bingham trying to arrange sufficient mules for the next stage of the trek. His companions showed no
interest in accompanying him up the nearby hill to see some ruins that a local farmer, Melchor Arteaga,
had told them about the night before. The morning was dull and damp, and Bingham also seems to have
been less than keen on the prospect of climbing the hill. In his book Lost City of the Incas, he relates that
he made the ascent without having the least expectation that he would find anything at the top.
D. Bingham writes about the approach in vivid style in his book. First, as he climbs up the hill, he
describes the ever-present possibility of deadly snakes, ‘capable of making considerable springs when in
pursuit of their prey’; not that he sees any. Then there’s a sense of mounting discovery as he comes
across great sweeps of terraces, then a mausoleum, followed by monumental staircases and, finally, the
grand ceremonial buildings of Machu Picchu. 'It seemed like an unbelievable dream the sight held me
spellbound’, he wrote.
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E. We should remember, however, that Lost City of the Incas is a work of hindsight, not written until
1948, many years after his journey. His journal entries of the time reveal a much more gradual
appreciation of his achievement. He spent the afternoon at the ruins noting down the dimensions of some
of the buildings, then descended and rejoined his companions, to whom he seems to have said little about
his discovery. At this stage, Bingham didn’t realise the extent or the importance of the site, nor did he
realise what use he could make of the discovery.
F. However, soon after returning it occurred to him that he could make a name for himself from this
discovery. When he came to write the National Geographic magazine article that broke the story to the
world in April 1913, he knew he had to produce a big idea. He wondered whether it could have been the
birthplace of the very first Inca, Manco the Great, and whether it could also have been what chroniclers
described as ‘the last city of the Incas’. This term refers to Vilcabamba the settlement where the Incas had
fled from Spanish invaders in the 1530s. Bingham made desperate attempts to prove this belief for nearly
40 years. Sadly, his vision of the site as both the beginning and end of the Inca civilisation, while a
magnificent one, is inaccurate. We now know, that Vilcabamba actually lies 65 kilometres away in the
depths of the jungle.
G. One question that has perplexed visitors, historians and archaeologists alike ever since Bingham, is
why the site seems to have been abandoned before the Spanish Conquest. There are no references to it
by any of the Spanish chroniclers - and if they had known of its existence so close to Cusco they would
certainly have come in search of gold. An idea which has gained wide acceptance over the past few years
is that Machu Picchu was a moya, a country estate built by an Inca emperor to escape the cold winters of
Cusco, where the elite could enjoy monumental architecture and spectacular views. Furthermore, the
particular architecture of Machu Picchu suggests that it was constructed at the time of the greatest of all
the Incas, the emperor Pachacuti (1438-71). By custom, Pachacuti’s descendants built other similar
estates for their own use, and so Machu Picchu would have been abandoned after his death, some 50
years before the Spanish Conquest.

Vocabulary highlights
plateau (n) Cao nguyên companion Người/bạn đồng hành

(n)
elevation (n) Độ cao/chỗ đất cao dull (adj) Boring/uninteresting
descend (v) Đi xuống mausoleum Lăng mộ

(n)
set off Start out, get going wonder (v) Tự hỏi

COMPLETION TASKS: TABLE, NOTE, FLOW-CHART AND DIAGRAM
All of these task types require you to understand the organisational structure of one part of a
text. Notes usually represent a text that is chronological or thematic. Tables represent a text
that compares different items. Flow-charts represent a text that outlines a process or series of
events. Diagrams represent a text that describes how something functions. The requirements
for all four task types are similar.
Steps To Deal With Completion Tasks
STEP 1: Read the passage’s title (or subtitle, if available) to grasp the main topic. If there’s no
title, read the first 2 - 3 sentences of the first paragraph.
Case Study: Tourism New Zealand Website
STEP 2: With each paragraph, read the first 2 - 3 sentences (and the last sentence if there are
5 or more sentences) to grasp the main idea.
New Zealand is a small country of four million inhabitants, a long-haul flight from all the major
tourist-generating markets of the world. Tourism currently makes up 9% of the country’s gross
domestic product, and is the country’s largest export sector. Unlike other export sectors, which
make products and then sell them overseas, tourism brings its customers to New Zealand. The
product is the country itself - the people, the places and the experiences. In 1999, Tourism New
Zealand launched a campaign to communicate a new brand position to the world. The
campaign focused on New Zealand’s scenic beauty, exhilarating outdoor activities and authentic
Maori culture, and it made New Zealand one of the strongest national brands in the world.
A key feature of the campaign was the website www.newzealand.com, which provided potential
visitors to New Zealand with a single gateway to everything the destination had to offer. The
heart of the website was a database of tourism services operators, both those based in New
Zealand and those based abroad which offered tourism services to the country. Any tourism-
related business could be listed by filling in a simple form. This meant that even the smallest
bed and breakfast address or specialist activity provider could gain a web presence with access
to an audience of long-haul visitors. In addition, because participating businesses were able to
update the details they gave on a regular basis, the information provided remained accurate.
And to maintain and improve standards, Tourism New Zealand organised a scheme whereby
organisations appearing on the website underwent an independent evaluation against a set of
agreed national standards of quality. As part of this, the effect of each business on the
environment was considered.


To communicate the New Zealand experience, the site also carried features relating to famous
people and places. One of the most popular was an interview with former New Zealand All
Blacks rugby captain Tana Umaga. Another feature that attracted a lot of attention was an
interactive journey through a number of the locations chosen for blockbuster films which had
made use of New Zealand’s stunning scenery as a backdrop. As the site developed, additional
features were added to help independent travellers devise their own customised itineraries. To
make it easier to plan motoring holidays, the site catalogued the most popular driving routes in
the country, highlighting different routes according to the season and indicating distances and
times
Later, a Travel Planner feature was added, which allowed visitors to click and ‘bookmark’ places
or attractions they were interested in, and then view the results on a map. The Travel Planner
offered suggested routes and public transport options between the chosen locations. There
were also links to accommodation in the area. By registering with the website, users could save
their Travel Plan and return to it later, or print it out to take on the visit. The website also had a
‘Your Words’ section where anyone could submit a blog of their New Zealand travels for
possible inclusion on the website.
(Source: Cambridge IELTS Band 13)

STEP 3: Read the instruction carefully to know how many words you are allowed to write.
Complete the table below. Choose ONLY ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.
STEP 4: Underline/Circle keywords in the questions and look for them in the passage.
(Match the underlined words and phrases in this table with the underlined words and phrases in
the passage above)
Section of website Comments
• easy for tourism-related businesses to get on the list
Database of tourism • allowed businesses to 1…………………………… information regularly

services
• provided a country-wide evaluation of businesses, including their
impact on the 2…………………………………………..
 e.g. an interview with a former sports 3……………………………

Special features on local
topics and an interactive tour of various locations used in
4……………………………
Information on driving
 varied depending on the 5……………………………
routes
 included a map showing selected places, details of public

Travel Planner
transport and local 6……………………………
‘Your Words’  travelers could send a link to their 7……………………………
STEP 5: Read the relevant part of the passage in detail and answer the questions by copying
the words from the passage into the space exactly as you see them.

PRACTICE:
Exercise 1: NOTE COMPLETION
The Story of Silk

The history of the world’s most luxurious fabric, from ancient China to the present day
Silk is a fine, smooth material produced from the cocoons - soft protective shells - that are
made by mulberry silkworms (insect larvae). Legend has it that it was Lei Tzu, wife of the
Yellow Emperor, ruler of China in about 3000 BC, who discovered silkworms. One account of
the story goes that as she was taking a walk in her husband’s gardens, she discovered that
silkworms were responsible for the destruction of several mulberry trees. She collected a
number of cocoons and sat down to have a rest. It just so happened that while she was sipping
some tea, one of the cocoons that she had collected landed in the hot tea and started to
unravel into a fine thread. Lei Tzu found that she could wind this thread around her fingers.
Subsequently, she persuaded her husband to allow her to rear silkworms on a grove of
mulberry trees. She also devised a special reel to draw the fibres from the cocoon into a single
thread so that they would be strong enough to be woven into fabric. While it is unknown just
how much of this is true, it is certainly known that silk cultivation has existed in China for
several millennia.
Originally, silkworm farming was solely restricted to women, and it was they who were
responsible for the growing, harvesting and weaving. Silk quickly grew into a symbol of status,
and originally, only royalty were entitled to have clothes made of silk. The rules were gradually
relaxed over the years until finally during the Qing Dynasty (1644—1911 AD), even peasants,
the lowest caste, were also entitled to wear silk. Sometime during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-
220 AD), silk was so prized that it was also used as a unit of currency. Government officials
were paid their salary in silk, and farmers paid their taxes in grain and silk. Silk was also used
as diplomatic gifts by the emperor. Fishing lines, bowstrings, musical instruments and paper
were all made using silk. The earliest indication of silk paper being used was discovered in the
tomb of a noble who is estimated to have died around 168 AD.
Demand for this exotic fabric eventually created the lucrative trade route now known as the Silk
Road, taking silk westward and bringing gold, silver and wool to the East. It was named the Silk
Road after its most precious commodity, which was considered to be worth more than gold.
The Silk Road stretched over 6,000 kilometres from Eastern China to the Mediterranean Sea,
following the Great Wall of China, climbing the Pamir mountain range, crossing modern-day
Afghanistan and going on to the Middle East, with a major trading market in Damascus. From
there, the merchandise was shipped across the Mediterranean Sea. Few merchants travelled
the entire route; goods were handled mostly by a series of middlemen.

With the mulberry silkworm being native to China, the country was the world’s sole producer of
silk for many hundreds of years. The secret of silk-making eventually reached the rest of the
world via the Byzantine Empire, which ruled over the Mediterranean region of southern Europe,
North Africa and the Middle East during the period 330—1453 AD. According to another legend,
monks working for the Byzantine emperor Justinian smuggle silkworm eggs to Constantinople
(Istanbul in modern-day Turkey) in 550 AD, concealed inside hollow bamboo walking canes.
The Byzantines were as secretive as the Chinese, however, and for many centuries the weaving
and trading of silk fabric was a strict imperial monopoly. Then in the seventh century, the Arabs
conquered Persia, capturing their magnificent silks in the process.
Silk production thus spread through Africa, Sicily and Spain as the Arabs swept, through these
lands. Andalusia in southern Spain was Europe’s main silk-producing centre in the tenth
century. By the thirteenth century, however, Italy had become Europe’s leader in silk
production and export. Venetian merchants traded extensively in silk and encouraged silk
growers to settle in Italy. Even now, silk processed in the province of Como in northern Italy
enjoys an esteemed reputation.
The nineteenth century and industrialisation saw the downfall of the European silk industry.
Cheaper Japanese silk, trade in which was greatly facilitated by the opening of the Suez Canal,
was one of the many factors driving the trend. Then in the twentieth century, new manmade
fibres, such as nylon, started to be used in what had traditionally been silk products, such as
stockings and parachutes. The two world wars, which interrupted the supply of raw material
from Japan, also stifled the European silk industry. After the Second World War, Japan’s silk
production was restored, with improved production and quality of raw silk. Japan was to remain
the world’s biggest producer of raw silk, and practically the only major exporter of raw silk, until
the 1970s. However, in more recent decades, China has gradually recaptured its position as the
world’s biggest producer and exporter of raw silk and silk yarn. Today, around 125,000 metric
tons of silk are produced in the world, and almost two thirds of that production takes place in
China.
(Source: Cambridge IELTS 11)
Glossary
 luxurious: sang trọng  devise: phát minh
 fine: đẹp / tốt  legend: truyền thuyết/huyền

thoại
 thread: sợi chỉ
 land in: rơi vào
 caste: tầng lớp xã hội

Questions 1-9
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-9 on your answer sheet.
THE STORY OF SILK
Early silk production in China
• Around 3000 BC, according to legend:
- silkworm cocoon fell into emperor’s wife’s 1…………………….
- emperor’s wife invented a 2………………….to pull out silk fibres
• Only 3……………………. were allowed to produce silk
• Only 4………………………………. were allowed to wear silk
• Silk used as a form of 5……………………………
- e.g. farmers’ taxes consisted partly of silk
• Silk used for many purposes
- e.g. evidence found of 6………………………made from silk around 168 AD
Silk reaches rest of world
• Merchants use Silk Road to take silk westward and bring back
7…………………………… and precious metals
• 550 AD: 8……………………………... hide silkworm eggs in canes and take them to
Constantinople
• Silk production spreads across Middle East and Europe
• 20th century: 9…………………… and other manmade fibres cause decline in silk
production

Exercise 2: FLOW-CHART COMPLETION
Gold Edge Honey

Gold Edge Honey is a leading brand in the honey industry, exporting an ever-expanding range
of high-quality products to over 100 countries
It was in 1934 that Jack Rogers, the founder of Gold Edge Honey, first had the idea of entering
the honey production business. At the time, he was working for his father, a dairy farmer in the
UK. Even though the family business stretched back several generations, Jack lacked
enthusiasm for it and had often dreamed of starting something new. On one occasion, he
happened to attend a talk given in his local town hall. The speaker, a honey producer himself,
was describing the benefits that honey could offer and how these might one day be recognised
by people wishing to improve their health. Jack was intrigued and concluded that this kind of
promotion could go a long way towards making honey a more popular item among customers.
Jack tried for several years to convince his father that there was a future in the honey business.
Eventually, his father accepted that Jack had no interest in following in his own footsteps. Jack
was about to approach his bank manager for a loan to set up his new enterprise when his
father suddenly announced that he and Jack’s mother had decided to give up their farm
because it was becoming too difficult to run. Consequently, they had decided to sell it and
move closer to Jack’s sister and her children. Although for his parents this had been a difficult
decision to make, it did in fact present Jack with an unexpected opportunity.
After a good offer had been accepted for the farm, Jack received his share of the money.
Because of this, he was finally able to fulfil his ambition to buy land that was a suitable habitat
for bees and go into honey production. Just a few years later, Jack had made good progress
with his new venture, which he called Gold Edge Honey, and was beginning to sell honey to
local shops. However, in 1946, disaster struck. This was the year in which honey production
across the UK was badly affected by an exceptionally long dry period. The flowers that the bees
depended upon could not survive such a severe drought. What’s more, in Jack’s case, disease
had wiped out many of the bees in his hives. He realised that his earlier success had mainly
been due to luck. Therefore, if he was to avoid similar problems, he would need to hire
beekeepers with far greater experience than he had. It took a while, but by placing a notice in a
regional newspaper, he was able to find such people.
Hard work and determination meant that within a few years, Jack’s honey production rose
significantly. Because Jack was making healthy profits, he decided to invest in 2,000 more
hives. As a result, he was able to sign contracts with two national supermarkets. For the first
time, the honey produced by Jack’s company became available across the country, not just in
local markets. Indeed, by the 1970s, the company had even started exporting products
overseas, to both Middle Eastern and European markets.
Towards the end of the 1970s, Jack’s son, Andrew, took over the running of the business.
Andrew Rogers, like his father before him, worked hard to expand the business. For instance,
he hired people to work on a variety of cosmetics, all of which were created with honey as one

of the main ingredients. As Andrew wanted customers to associate the new range with high
quality, a focus on attractive packaging and presentation was also something his marketing
team worked hard to create.
Today, so well-known is Gold Edge Honey that a decision was made to provide public access to
the original processing and packing plant. It now attracts a large number of tourists, who can
go on a guided tour and, among other things, view some of the early machinery which was
used to extract the liquid honey from the bee hives, filter it and bottle it. Of course, things have
moved on since the 1930s but, despite that, the tour still allows visitors to see just how labour-
intensive honey production used to be. Visitors can also sample a wide range of delicious honey
products. In fact, the Gold Edge Honey café, where customers can enjoy a fantastic selection of
food containing honey, such as cakes, biscuits and drinks, has already won awards.
It is now Jack’s granddaughter, Annabelle, who is responsible for the Gold Edge Honey
company. She is well aware of the international interest in the brand, and it was her idea to
establish a website focusing on educating potential customers about the benefits of honey and
how it is produced. This will provide information about the stages of honey production, its
health properties and the lifecycle of bees. In addition, it will include entertaining features for
younger visitors, like interactive games and quizzes. It will be available online in the coming
year.
(Source: Mindset for IELTS 2)
Glossary
 enthusiasm: hăng hái
 intrigue: khơi gợi trí tò mò/hứng thú
 convince: thuyết phục
 give up: từ bỏ
 hive: tổ ong
 take over: tiếp quản/tiếp nhận
 extract: trích xuất
 establish: thành lập
Questions 1-8
Read the passage and complete the flow chart below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF GOLD EDGE HONEY COMPANY
1934: Jack Rogers heard about the health 1…………… of honey
The sale of the 2 …………… enabled Jack to set up Gold Edge Honey
1946: honey production for Jack’s company failed due to the weather and to 3 ……………
After advertsing locally, Jack found some employees with 4 ……………
Increased production meant Gold Edge Honey could be sold in 5 …………… in the UK
Andrew Rogers decided to develop a range of 6……………
At the first processing and packing plant, some old 7 ………………… used in honey production
can be seen by visitors
The Gold Edge Honey Company’s 8………………… is scheduled to launch next year.

Exercise 3: DIAGRAM LABELLING
A Chronicle of Timekeeping
Our conception of time depends on the way we measure it
A. According to archaeological evidence, at least 5,000 years ago, and long before the advent
of the Roman Empire, the Babylonians began to measure time, introducing calendars to co-
ordinate communal activities, to plan the shipment of goods and, in particular, to regulate
planting and harvesting. They based their calendars on three natural cycles: the solar day,
marked by the successive periods of light and darkness as the earth rotates on its axis; the
lunar month, following the phases of the moon as it orbits the earth; and the solar year,
defined by the changing seasons that accompany our planet's revolution around the sun.
B. Before the invention of artificial light, the moon had greater social impact. And, for those
living near the equator in particular, its waxing and waning was more conspicuous than the
passing of the seasons. Hence, the calendars that were developed at the lower latitudes were
influenced more by the lunar cycle than by the solar year. In more northern climes, however,
where seasonal agriculture was practised, the solar year became more crucial. As the Roman
Empire expanded northward, it organised its activity chart for the most part around the solar
year.
C. Centuries before the Roman Empire, the Egyptians had formulated a municipal calendar
having 12 months of 30 days, with five days added to approximate the solar year. Each period
of ten days was marked by the appearance of special groups of stars called decans. At the rise
of the star Sirius just before sunrise, which occurred around the all-important annual flooding of
the Nile, 12 decans could be seen spanning the heavens. The cosmic significance the Egyptians
placed in the 12 decans led them to develop a system in which each interval of darkness (and
later, each interval of daylight) was divided into a dozen equal parts. These periods became
known as temporal hours because their duration varied according to the changing length of
days and nights with the passing of the seasons. Summer hours were long, winter ones short;
only at the spring and autumn equinoxes were the hours of daylight and darkness equal.
Temporal hours, which were first adopted by the Greeks and then the Romans, who
disseminated them through Europe, remained in use for more than 2,500 years.
D. In order to track temporal hours during the day, inventors created sundials, which indicate
time by the length or direction of the sun's shadow. The sundial's counterpart, the water clock,
was designed to measure temporal hours at night. One of the first water clocks was a basin
with a small hole near the bottom through which the water dripped out. The falling water level
denoted the passing hour as it dipped below hour lines inscribed on the inner surface. Although
these devices performed satisfactorily around the Mediterranean, they could not always be
depended on in the cloudy and often freezing weather of northern Europe.
E. The advent of the mechanical clock meant that although it could be adjusted to maintain
temporal hours, it was naturally suited to keeping equal ones. With these, however, arose the
question of when to begin counting, and so, in the early 14th century, a number of systems

evolved. The schemes that divided the day into 24 equal parts varied according to the start of
the count: Italian hours began at sunset, Babylonian hours at sunrise, astronomical hours at
midday and 'great clock' hours, used for some large public clocks in Germany, at midnight.
Eventually these were superseded by 'small clock', or French, hours, which split the day into
two 12-hour periods commencing at midnight.
F. The earliest recorded weight-driven mechanical clock was built in 1283 in Bedfordshire in
England. The revolutionary aspect of this new timekeeper was neither the descending weight
that provided its motive force nor the gear wheels (which had been around for at least 1,300
years) that transferred the power; It was the part called the escapement. In the early 1400s
came the invention of the coiled spring or fusee which maintained constant force to the gear
wheels of the timekeeper despite the changing tension of its mainspring. By the 16th century, a
pendulum clock had been devised, but the pendulum swung in a large arc and thus was not
very efficient.
G. To address this, a variation on the original escapement was invented in 1670, in England. It
was called the anchor escapement, which was a lever-based device shaped like a ship's anchor.
The motion of a pendulum rocks this device so that it catches and then releases each tooth of
the escape wheel, in turn allowing it to turn a precise amount. Unlike the original form used in
early pendulum clocks, the anchor escapement permitted the pendulum to travel in a very small
arc. Moreover, this invention allowed the use of a long pendulum which could beat once a
second and thus led to the development of a new floorstanding case design, which became
known as the grandfather clock.
H. Today, highly accurate timekeeping instruments set the beat for most electronic devices.
Nearly all computers contain a quartz-crystal clock to regulate their operation. Moreover, not
only do time signals beamed down from Global Positioning System satellites calibrate the
functions of precision navigation equipment, they do so as well for mobile phones, instant
stock-trading systems and nationwide power-distribution grids. So integral have these time-
based technologies become to day-to-day existence that our dependency on them is recognised
only when they fail to work.
Glossary
 archaeological evidence: bằng chứng  arc: vòng cung

khảo cổ học
 formulate: tạo ra hoặc phát minh
 advent: sự xuất hiện/ra đời một cách có phương pháp
 communal activities: hoạt động cộng  rotate: xoay vòng

đồng
 latitude: vĩ độ
 denote: biểu lộ/ chỉ ra
 solar year: năm dương lịch

 supersede: thay thế  accurate: chính xác
ĐÁP ÁN: 9.
10.
11.
12.

13.
Exercise 4: SENTENCE COMPLETION
Sentence completion questions also test your ability to find specific details or
information in the passage. You must fill in the gaps in the sentences with approriate
words from the passage. The sentences will paraphrase words and ideas. They also
contain details that help you find the part you need to read in detail. You can apply the
same technique that you’ve learnt in the Completion Task Section to deal with this
question type.
Crop-growing Skyscrapers
By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the Earth’s population will live in urban centres. Applying the
most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase
by about three billion people by then. An estimated 109 hectares of new land (about 20%
larger than Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed them, if traditional farming
methods continue as they are practised today.
At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in
use. Historically, some 15% of that has been laid waste by poor management practices. What
can be done to ensure enough food for the world’s population to live on?
The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes and other
produce has been in vogue for some time. What is new is the urgent need to scale up this
technology to accommodate another three billion people. Many believe an entirely new
approach to indoor farming is required, employing cutting-edge technologies. One such
proposal is for the ‘Vertical Farm’. The concept is of multi-storey buildings in which food crops
are grown in environmentally controlled conditions. Situated in the heart of urban centres, they
would drastically reduce the amount of transportation required to bring food to consumers.
Vertical farms would need to be efficient, cheap to construct and safe to operate. If successfully
implemented, proponents claim, vertical farms offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable
production of a safe and varied food supply (through year-round production of all crops), and
the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.
It took humans 10,000 years to learn how to grow most of the crops we now take for granted.
Along the way, we despoiled most of the land we worked, often turning verdant, natural

ecozones into semi-arid deserts. Within that same time frame, we evolved into an urban
species, in which 60% of the human population now lives vertically in cities. This means that,
for the majority, we humans have shelter from the elements, yet we subject our food-bearing
plants to the rigours of the great outdoors and can do no more than hope for a good weather
year. However, more often than not now, due to a rapidly changing climate, that is not what
happens. Massive floods, long droughts, hurricanes and severe monsoons take their toll each
year, destroying millions of tons of valuable crops.
The supporters of vertical farming claim many potential advantages for the system. For
instance, crops would be produced all year round, as they would be kept in artificially
controlled, optimum growing conditions. There would be no weather-related crop failures due
to droughts, floods or pests. All the food could be grown organically, eliminating the need for
herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers. The system would greatly reduce the incidence of many
infectious diseases that are acquired at the agricultural interface. Although the system would
consume energy, it would return energy to the grid via methane generation from composting
nonedible parts of plants. It would also dramatically reduce fossil fuel use, by cutting out the
need for tractors, ploughs and shipping.
A major drawback of vertical farming, however, is that the plants would require artificial light.
Without it, those plants nearest the windows would be exposed to more sunlight and grow
more quickly, reducing the efficiency of the system. Single-storey greenhouses have the benefit
of natural overhead light; even so, many still need artificial lighting.
A multi-storey facility with no natural overhead light would require far more. Generating enough
light could be prohibitively expensive, unless cheap, renewable energy is available, and this
appears to be rather a future aspiration than a likelihood for the near future.
One variation on vertical farming that has been developed is to grow plants in stacked trays
that move on rails. Moving the trays allows the plants to get enough sunlight. This system is
already in operation, and works well within a single-storey greenhouse with light reaching it
from above: it Is not certain, however, that it can be made to work without that overhead
natural light.
Vertical farming is an attempt to address the undoubted problems that we face in producing
enough food for a growing population. At the moment, though, more needs to be done to
reduce the detrimental impact it would have on the environment, particularly as regards the use

of energy. While it is possible that much of our food will be grown in skyscrapers in future,
most experts currently believe it is far more likely that we will simply use the space available on
urban rooftops.
Glossary
 conservative: bảo thủ
 vogue: thịnh hành
 accommodate: cung cấp/ chứa đựng
 cutting-edge: tiên tiến
 implement: triển khai thực hiện
 proponent: người ủng hộ
 edible: có thể ăn được
 address = tackle = deal with: đối phó/ xử lý/ giải quyết
 detrimental = harmful: có hại
Questions 1-7
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Indoor farming
1. Some food plants, including……………………are already grown indoors.
2. Vertical farms would be located in…………………….., meaning that there would be less
need to take them long distances to customers.
3. Vertical farms could use methane from plants and animals to produce………………………
4. The consumption of…………………. would be cut because agricultural vehicles would be

unnecessary.
5. The fact that vertical farms would need…………………. light is a disadvantage.

6. One form of vertical farming involves planting in………………………. which are not fixed.
7. The most probable development is that food will be grown on……………. in towns and
cities.

COMPARING INFORMATION IN QUESTIONS AND PARAGRAPH – ANSWERING
TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN QUESTIONS
With certain question types in IELTS Reading (e.g. T/F/NG), you need to identify the
components of a question and then compare them with the information given in the text in
order to answer the question correctly.
STEP 1: Read the passage’s title (or subtitle, if available) to grasp the main topic. If there’s no
title, read the first 2 - 3 sentences of the first paragraph.
Australian Culture and Culture Shock

Sometimes work, study or a sense of adventure take us out of our familiar surroundings to go
and live in a different culture. The experience can be difficult, even shocking.
STEP 2: Read the first 2 - 3 sentences (and the last sentence if there are 5 or more sentences)
to grasp the main idea of each paragraph.
Almost everyone who studies, lives or works abroad has problems adjusting to a new culture.
This response is commonly referred to as ‘culture shock’. Culture shock can be defined as ‘the
physical and emotional discomfort a person experiences when entering a culture different from
their own’ (Weaver, 1993).
For people moving to Australia, Price (2001) has identified certain values which may give rise to
culture shock. Firstly, he argues that Australians place a high value on independence and
personal choice. This means that a teacher or course tutor will not tell students what to do, but
will give them a number of options and suggest they work out which one is the best in their
circumstances. It also means that they are expected to take action if something goes wrong
and seek out resources and support for themselves.
Australians are also prepared to accept a range of opinions rather than believing there is one
truth. This means that in an educational setting, students will be expected to form their own
opinions and defend the reasons for that point of view and the evidence for it.
Price also comments that Australians are uncomfortable with differences in status and hence
idealise the idea of treating everyone equally. An illustration of this is that most adult
Australians call each other by their first names. This concern with equality means that
Australians are uncomfortable taking anything too seriously and are even ready to joke about
themselves.

(Source: Complete IELTS Band 5-6.5)
STEP 3: Read the instruction carefully.
Questions 1-5
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet, write
- TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
- FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
- NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
STEP 4: Look at the statements below and identify their components (The first one has been
done as an example)
E.g. Culture shock affects most people who spend time living in another country.
S V O
1. Culture shock only affects how people feel.
2. Culture shock affects certain types of people more quickly than others.
3. Australian teachers will suggest alternatives to students rather than offer one solution.
4. In Australia, teachers will show interest in students' personal circumstances.
5. Australians use people's first names so that everyone feels their status is similar.
STEP 5: Look for these identified components in the text and compare them to decide whether
the statement is True / False / Not Given (remember to read the relevant part of the
passage in detail):
● when all of its components match with the information given in the text, the
statement is True
● when one of its components is incorrect or contradictory with the information given in
the text, the statement is False
● when one of its components cannot be found in the passage, the statement is Not

Given
PRACTICE: TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN
Exercise 1:
William Henry Perkin

The man who invented synthetic dyes
William Henry Perkin was born on March 12,1838, in London, England. As a boy,
Perkin’s curiosity prompted early interests in the arts, sciences, photography, and
engineering. But it was a chance stumbling upon a run-down, yet functional, laboratory
in his late grandfather’s home that solidified the young man’s enthusiasm for chemistry.
As a student at the City of London School, Perkin became immersed in the study
of chemistry. His talent and devotion to the subject were perceived by his
teacher, Thomas Hall, who encouraged him to attend a series of lectures given by
the eminent scientist Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution. Those speeches fired the
young chemist’s enthusiasm further, and he later went on to attend the Royal College
of Chemistry, which he succeeded in entering in 1853, at the age of 15.
At the time of Perkin’s enrolment, the Royal College of Chemistry was headed by the
noted German chemist August Wilhelm Hofmann. Perkin’s scientific gifts soon caught
Hofmann’s attention and, within two years, he became Hofmann’s youngest assistant.
Not long after that, Perkin made the scientific breakthrough that would bring him
both fame and fortune.
At the time, quinine was the only viable medical treatment for malaria. The drug is
derived from the bark of the cinchona tree, native to South America, and by 1856
demand for the drug was surpassing the available supply. Thus, when Hofmann made
some passing comments about the desirability of a synthetic substitute for quinine, it
was unsurprising that his star pupil was moved to take up the challenge.
During his vacation in 1856, Perkin spent his time in the laboratory on the top floor of
his family’s house. He was attempting to manufacture quinine from aniline, an
inexpensive and readily available coal tar waste product. Despite his best efforts,
however, he did not end up with quinine. Instead, he produced a mysterious dark
sludge. Luckily, Perkin’s scientific training and nature prompted him to investigate the
substance further. Incorporating potassium dichromate and alcohol into the aniline at
various stages of the experimental process, he finally produced a deep purple solution.
And, proving the truth of the famous scientist Louis Pasteur’s words ‘chance
favours only the prepared mind’, Perkin saw the potential of his unexpected find.

Historically, textile dyes were made from such natural sources as plants and animal
excretions. Some of these, such as the glandular mucus of snails, were difficult to
obtain and outrageously expensive. Indeed, the purple colour extracted from a snail
was once so costly that in society at the time only the rich could afford it. Further,
natural dyes tended to be muddy in hue and fade quickly. It was against this backdrop
that Perkin’s discovery was made.
Perkin quickly grasped that his purple solution could be used to colour fabric, thus
making it the world’s first synthetic dye. Realising the importance of this breakthrough,
he lost no time in patenting it. But perhaps the most fascinating of all Perkin’s reactions
to his find was his nearly instant recognition that the new dye had
commercial possibilities.
Perkin originally named his dye Tyrian Purple, but it later became commonly known as
mauve (from the French for the plant used to make the colour violet). He asked advice
of Scottish dye works owner Robert Pullar, who assured him that manufacturing the dye
would be well worth it if the colour remained fast (i.e. would not fade) and the cost was
relatively low. So, over the fierce objections of his mentor Hofmann, he left college to
give birth to the modern chemical industry.
With the help of his father and brother, Perkin set up a factory not far from London.
Utilising the cheap and plentiful coal tar that was an almost unlimited by product of
London’s gas street lighting, the dye works began producing the world’s first
synthetically dyed material in 1857. The company received a commercial boost from the
Empress Eugenie of France, when she decided the new colour flattered her. Very
soon, mauve was the necessary shade for all the fashionable ladies in that country.
Not to be outdone, England’s Queen Victoria also appeared in public wearing a mauve
gown, thus making it all the rage in England as well. The dye was bold and fast, and
the public clamoured for more. Perkin went back to the drawing board.
Although Perkin’s fame was achieved and fortune assured by his first discovery, the
chemist continued his research. Among other dyes he developed and introduced were
aniline red (1859) and aniline black (1863) and, in the late 1860s, Perkin’s green. It
is important to note that Perkin’s synthetic dye discoveries had outcomes far
beyond the merely decorative. The dyes also became vital to medical research in many
ways. For instance, they were used to stain previously invisible microbes and bacteria,
allowing researchers to identify such bacilli as tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax.
Artificial dyes continue to play a crucial role today. And, in what would have been
particularly pleasing to Perkin, their current use is in the search for a vaccine against
malaria.


Glossary
● curiosity: trí tò mò
● prompted: được thúc đẩy
● stumble upon: tình cờ phát hiện
● eminent: lỗi lạc
● scientific gifts: tài năng khoa học
● breakthrough: sự đột phá
● patent: bằng sáng chế
● clamour for: kêu gọi
● go back to the drawing board: lên kế hoạch lại từ đầu vì cái trước đã thất bại
● beyond: vượt trên cả/ra ngoài
● synthetic: nhân tạo
Questions 1-7
1. Michael Faraday was the first person to recognise Perkin’s ability as a student of
chemistry.
2. Michael Faraday suggested Perkin should enrol in the Royal College of Chemistry.
3. Perkin employed August Wilhelm Hofmann as his assistant.
4. Perkin was still young when he made the discovery that made him rich and famous.
5. The trees from which quinine is derived grow only in South America.
6. Perkin hoped to manufacture a drug from a coal tar waste product.

7. Perkin was inspired by the discoveries of the famous scientist Louis Pasteur.
Questions 8-13
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
1 Before Perkin’s discovery, with what group in society was the colour purple associated?
2 What potential did Perkin immediately understand that his new dye had?
3 What was the name finally used to refer to the first colour Perkin invented?
4 What was the name of the person Perkin consulted before setting up his own dye works?
5 In what country did Perkin’s newly invented colour first become fashionable?
6 According to the passage, which disease is now being targeted by researchers using
synthetic dyes?

Exercise 2: THIRD CULTURE KIDS
In a world where international careers are becoming commonplace, the phenomenon of third
culture kids (TCKs) - children who spend a significant portion of their developmental years in a
culture outside their parents' passport culture(s) - is increasing exponentially. Not only is their
number increasing, but the cultural complexity and relevance of their experience and the adult
TCKs (ATCKs) they become, is also growing.
When Ruth Hill Useem, a sociologist, first coined this term in the 1950s, she spent a year
researching expatriates in India. She discovered that folks who came from their home (or first)
culture and moved to a host (or second) culture, had, in reality, formed a culture, or lifestyle,
different from either the first or second cultures. She called this the third culture and the
children who grew up in this lifestyle 'third culture kids'. At that time, most expatriate families
had parents from the same culture and they often remained in one host culture while overseas.
This is no longer the case. Take, for example, Brice Royer, the founder of TCKid.com. His father
is a half-French/half-Vietnamese UN peacekeeper, while his mom is Ethiopian. Brice lived in
seven countries before he was eighteen including France, Mayotte, La Reunion, Ethiopia, Egypt,
Canada and England. He writes, 'When people ask me 'Where are you from?' I just joke around
and say, -My mom says I'm from heaven.' What other answer can he give? ATCK Elizabeth
Dunbar's father, Roy, moved from Jamaica to Britain as a young boy. Her mother, Hortense,
was born in Britain as the child of Jamaican immigrants who always planned to repatriate 'one
day'. While Elizabeth began life in Britain, her dad's international career took the family to the
United States, then to Venezuela and back to living in three different cities in the U.S. She soon
realised that while racial diversity may be recognised, the hidden cultural diversity of her life
remained invisible.
Despite such complexities, however, most ATCKs say their experience of growing up among
different cultural worlds has given them many priceless gifts. They have seen the world and
often learnt several languages. More importantly, through friendships that cross the usual
racial, national or social barriers, they have also learned the very different ways people see life.
This offers a great opportunity to become social and cultural bridges between worlds that
traditionally would never connect. ATCK Mikel Jentzsch, author of a best-selling book in
Germany, Bloodbrothers - OurFnendship in Liberia, has a German passport but grew up in Niger
and then Liberia. Before the Liberian civil war forced his family to leave, Mikel played daily with

those who were later forced to become soldiers for that war. Through his eyes, the stories of
those we would otherwise overlook come to life for the rest of us.
Understanding the TCK experience is also important for other reasons. Many ATCKs are now in
positions of influence and power. Their capacity to often think 'outside the box' can offer new
and creative thinking for doing business and living in our globalizing works. But that same
thinking can create fear for those who see the world from a more traditional world view.
Neither the non-ATCKs nor the ATCKs may recognise that there may be a cultural clash going
on because, by traditional measures of diversity such as race or gender, they are alike.
In addition, many people hear the benefits and challenges of the TCK profile described and
wonder why they relate to it when they never lived overseas because of a parent's career.
Usually, however, they have grown up cross-culturally in another way, perhaps as children of
immigrants, refugees, bi-racial or bi-cultural unions, international adoptees, even children of
minorities. If we see the TCK experience as a Petri dish of sorts - a place where the effects of
growing up among many cultural worlds accompanied by a high degree of mobility have been
studied - then we can look for what lessons may also be relevant to helping us understand
issues other cross-cultural kids (CCKs) may also face. It is possible we may discover that we
need to rethink our traditional ways of defining diversity and identity. For some, as for TCKs,
'culture' may be something defined by shared experience rather than shared nationality or
ethnicity. In telling their stories and developing new models for our changing world, many will
be able to recognize and use well the great gifts of a cross-cultural childhood and deal
successfully with the challenges for their persona, communal and corporate good.
(Source: Complete IELTS Band 5-6.5 Workbook)
Glossary
● phenomenon: hiện tượng
● exponentially: theo cấp số nhân
● expatriate: người sống ngoài nước
● repatriate: trở về nước
● immigrant: di cư

● cultural clash: xung đột văn hóa
● ethnicity: dân tộc
● civil war: nội chiến
● relevant: có liên quan
● creative thinking: suy nghĩ sáng tạo
● diversity: sự đa dạng
● measure: biện pháp
Questions 1-6
1. There is a close connection between careers and the number of TCKs.
2. An increasing number of people describe themselves as TCKs.
3. Ruth Hill Useem studied children in several countries.
4. Ruth Hill Useem defined the third culture as a mixture of two parents’ original cultures.
5. Brice Royer feels that he has benefited greatly from living in many different countries.
6. Elizabeth Dunbar felt that she had a culture that was different from most people’s.

Questions 7-13
Complete the table below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
THIRD CULTURE KIDS - ADVANTAGES AND RESULTS
Area Advantage for ATCKs Possible result
can act as bridges between

know how different people
Friendships worlds that are usually
7…………………
separate
may cause 8…………………

among certain people
Business creative thinking
can lead to 9…………………

despite similarities
can teach us about problems

faced by 11………………… of
all kinds
knowledge of many cultural

current ideas of what both
Whole experience worlds and a great deal of
12………………… mean may
10…………………
be considered wrong
belief that culture depends

on 13…………………

Exercise 3: MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
Educating Psyche
Educating Psyche by Bernie Neville is a book which looks at radical new approaches to learning,
describing the effects of emotion, imagination and the unconscious on learning. One theory
discussed in the book is that proposed by George Lozanov, which focuses on the power of
suggestion.
Lozanov's instructional technique is based on the evidence that the connections made in the
brain through unconscious processing (which he calls non-specific mental reactivity) are more
durable than those made through conscious processing. Besides the laboratory evidence for
this, we know from our experience that we often remember what we have perceived
peripherally, long after we have forgotten what we set out to learn. If we think of a book we
studied months or years ago, we will find it easier to recall peripheral details - the colour, the
binding, the typeface, the table at the library where we sat while studying it - than the content
on which we were concentrating. If we think of a lecture we listened to with great
concentration, we will recall the lecturer's appearance and mannerisms, our place in the
auditorium, the failure of the air-conditioning, much more easily than the ideas we went to
learn. Even if these peripheral details are a bit elusive, they come back readily in hypnosis or
when we relive the event imaginatively, as in psychodrama. The details of the content of the
lecture, on the other hand, seem to have gone forever.
This phenomenon can be partly attributed to the common counterproductive approach to study
(making extreme efforts to memorise, tensing muscles, inducing fatigue), but it also simply
reflects the way the brain functions. Lozanov therefore made indirect instruction (suggestion)
central to his teaching system. In suggestopedia, as he called his method, consciousness is
shifted away from the curriculum to focus on something peripheral. The curriculum then
becomes peripheral and is dealt with by the reserve capacity of the brain.
The suggestopedic approach to foreign language learning provides a good illustration. In its
most recent variant (1980), it consists of the reading of vocabulary and text while the class is
listening to music. The first session is in two parts. In the first part, the music is classical
(Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms) and the teacher reads the text slowly and solemnly, with
attention to the dynamics of the music. The students follow the text in their books. This is
followed by several minutes of silence. In the second part, they listen to baroque music (Bach,

Corelli, Handel) while the teacher reads the text in a normal speaking voice. During this time
they have their books closed. During the whole of this session, their attention is passive; they
listen to the music but make no attempt to learn the material.
Beforehand, the students have been carefully prepared for the language learning experience.
Through meeting with the staff and satisfied students they develop the expectation that
learning will be easy and pleasant and that they will successfully learn several hundred words of
the foreign language during the class. In a preliminary talk, the teacher introduces them to the
material to be covered, but does not 'teach' it. Likewise, the students are instructed not to try
to learn it during this introduction.
Some hours after the two-part session, there is a follow-up class at which the students are
stimulated to recall the material presented. Once again the approach is indirect. The students
do not focus their attention on trying to remember the vocabulary, but focus on using the
language to communicate (e.g. through games or improvised dramatisations). Such methods
are not unusual in language teaching. What is distinctive in the suggestopedic method is that
they are devoted entirely to assisting recall. The 'learning' of the material is assumed to be
automatic and effortless, accomplished while listening to music. The teacher's task is to assist
the students to apply what they have learned paraconsciously, and in doing so to make it easily
accessible to consciousness. Another difference from conventional teaching is the evidence that
students can regularly learn 1000 new words of a foreign language during a suggestopedic
session, as well as grammar and idiom.
Lozanov experimented with teaching by direct suggestion during sleep, hypnosis and trance
states, but found such procedures unnecessary. Hypnosis, yoga, Silva mind-control, religious
ceremonies and faith healing are all associated with successful suggestion, but none of their
techniques seem to be essential to it. Such rituals may be seen as placebos. Lozanov
acknowledges that the ritual surrounding suggestion in his own system is also a placebo, but
maintains that without such a placebo people are unable or afraid to tap the reserve capacity of
their brains. Like any placebo, it must be dispensed with authority to be effective. Just as a
doctor calls on the full power of autocratic suggestion by insisting that the patient take precisely
this white capsule precisely three times a day before meals, Lozanov is categoric in insisting
that the suggestopedic session be conducted exactly in the manner designated, by trained and
accredited suggestopedic teachers.

While suggestopedia has gained some notoriety through success in the teaching of modern
languages, few teachers are able to emulate the spectacular results of Lozanov and his
associates. We can, perhaps, attribute mediocre results to an inadequate placebo effect. The
students have not developed the appropriate mind set. They are often not motivated to learn
through this method. They do not have enough 'faith'. They do not see it as 'real teaching',
especially as it does not seem to involve the 'work' they have learned to believe is essential to
learning.
Glossary
● approach: tiếp cận
● durable: bền vững/chặt
● concentrate: tập trung
● instruct: hướng dẫn
● ritual: nghi lễ
● emulate: bắt chước
● notoriety: tai tiếng
● insist: nhấn mạnh rằng
● assist: hỗ trợ
Questions 1-4
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
1. The book Educating Psyche is mainly concerned with
A the power of suggestion in learning.
B a particular technique for learning based on emotions.
C the effects of emotion on the imagination and the unconscious.
D ways of learning which are not traditional.
2. Lozanov’s theory claims that, when we try to remember things,
A unimportant details are the easiest to recall.

B concentrating hard produces the best results.
C the most significant facts are most easily recalled.
D peripheral vision is not important.
3. In this passage, the author uses the examples of a book and a lecture to illustrate that
A both of these are important for developing concentration.
B his theory about methods of learning is valid.
C reading is a better technique for learning than listening.
D we can remember things more easily under hypnosis.
4. Lozanov claims that teachers should train students to
A memorise details of the curriculum.
B develop their own sets of indirect instructions.
C think about something other than the curriculum content.
D avoid overloading the capacity of the brain.
Questions 5-10
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
5. In the example of suggestopedic teaching in the fourth paragraph, the only variable that
changes is the music.
6. Prior to the suggestopedia class, students are made aware that the language experience
will be demanding.

7. In the follow-up class, the teaching activities are similar to those used in conventional
classes.
8. As an indirect benefit, students notice improvements in their memory.
9. Teachers say they prefer suggestopedia to traditional approaches to language teaching.
10.Students in a suggestopedia class retain more new vocabulary than those in ordinary
classes.

Master Course Reading Lesson 1: Focus: Skimming and Scanning To Answer Matching Headings, Completion Tasks and T/F/NG

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MASTER COURSE

Overview of the IELTS Reading Test

What is Reading Passage 1?

What is Reading Passage 2?

What is Reading Passage 3?

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | MASTER COURSE - READING

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | MASTER COURSE - READING

Step 1: Read the title (or subtitle) carefully.

The changing fortunes of Antarctic penguins

2. An explanation of the best places to see penguins around the world.

 The whole passage is about: ………………………

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | MASTER COURSE - READING

3. Elsewhere on Ross Island, in contrast to McMurdo Sound, the situation is more

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | MASTER COURSE - READING

o what scientists want to know about penguins in the Antarctic.

o what scientists have already learnt about penguins in the Antarctic.

2. The SECOND paragraph discusses …

o two explanations for fewer penguins.

o two things which should be done to prevent the decline of penguins.

3. The THIRD paragraph describes …

o a place where penguin numbers are less worrying.

o why we shouldn’t be worried about penguins.

4. The FOURTH paragraph explains …

o why there is less food for Adélie penguins to eat.

o why one population of Adélie penguins has decreased.

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | MASTER COURSE - READING

1. Read the title (or subtitle) to understand the main topic.

The rapid transformation occurring in children’s body size

2. In each paragraph, read 2 – 3 sentences, combine their meanings to understand

(Source: The official Cambridge guide to IELTS)

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | MASTER COURSE - READING

i. A comparison of children now and the past

ii. Different hypotheses for the changes in weight

iii. The impact of modern technology on today’s food production

iv. A list of factors that brought about changes in your diet

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | MASTER COURSE - READING

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | MASTER COURSE - READING

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | MASTER COURSE - READING

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | MASTER COURSE - READING

agitated (adj) Lo lắng/tức giận engage in Participate in

Cảm giác khó chịu,

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | MASTER COURSE - READING

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | MASTER COURSE - READING

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | INTERMEDIATE COURSE - READING

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | INTERMEDIATE COURSE - READING

plateau (n) Cao nguyên companion Người/bạn đồng hành

elevation (n) Độ cao/chỗ đất cao dull (adj) Boring/uninteresting

descend (v) Đi xuống mausoleum Lăng mộ

set off Start out, get going wonder (v) Tự hỏi

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | INTERMEDIATE COURSE - READING

Steps To Deal With Completion Tasks

Case Study: Tourism New Zealand Website

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | INTERMEDIATE COURSE - READING

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | INTERMEDIATE COURSE - READING

Section of website Comments

• easy for tourism-related businesses to get on the list

Database of tourism • allowed businesses to 1…………………………… information regularly

 e.g. an interview with a former sports 3……………………………

 included a map showing selected places, details of public

‘Your Words’  travelers could send a link to their 7……………………………

ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | INTERMEDIATE COURSE - READING

Exercise 1: NOTE COMPLETION