IELTS Live - Reading Section - Difficult Question Strategy

hi students and welcome to today's live IELTS class my name is Adrian and I'm streaming to you live from beautiful Budapest I hope everybody is having a good weekend so far in this class we are looking at IELTS reading answering some challenging questions while we wait for some more of your peers this lesson is brought to you by AE help comm for academic IELTS check us out there join our premium package for the general version of the exam check us out at G IELTS help.com that's general IELTS help calm on these websites we have lots and lots of great materials for you this is our academic web portal here click that big red button to join the Premium Package and this is our general version of the website here click that big red button to get access to all of our videos interactive courses practice exams and original strategies for high band scores I pavan hi boo me hi Tito nice to see our members in the class i violet I'm doing great thanks you hi hi pretty Sherma in India and Kemal get to see many students in the class if anybody has questions about the exam or our products just send me an email to Adrian at AE help calm this reading class is the last class for this week I will resume classes on Wednesday for live classes I'll put that schedule up on the YouTube community board later today so you can check out next week's schedule there and there will be classes from Wednesday all the way to Saturday alright everyone looking good let's get into today's reading passage so here we go let's take a look at the title first lotteries positive good or unnecessary wrong now this is an academic IELTS reading passage but for general students do remember that your section 3 passage in the general version of the exam is very very similar to the passages in the academic version okay all right so here we go Lottery's positive good or unnecessary wrong first steps first when we read the title we need to do a little bit of critical thinking so always warm up the brain just like you warm up the engine of a car on a cold day or before a big race warm up the brain by doing a little bit of critical thinking so ask what why and how about the title so what does it mean Lottery's positive good or unnecessary wrong and it's a question mark what does that mean for you students so when you read this title what does that mean in your world or in your mind ok so Lottery's positive good or unnecessary wrong it's a question mark what is your answer to that question come on says it's kind of a legal gambling okay but what does that mean come on positive good or unnecessary wrong that's drawing a number sure so paying money to try out a person's luck is either good or bad for the person and society that's what comes to mind for me so when I read this title lotteries positive good or unnecessary wrong what does it mean I think well paying money to try luck buy a lottery tickets may be good or bad for a person and for society Puneet rila nice to see you and one of our newer members Puneet says positives and negatives of lottery maybe something like that yeah Puneet okay good why so my next question would be why why is the lottery bad or good for people and society okay so again a little bit of predictive thinking here goes a long way I'm pretty sure mo agrees as well so positive and negative impacts of the lottery system Chuck cities otha Camille OVA hi to you as well Charlie said says individuals buy lottery tickets to try his luck so that he can win a huge amount of money overnight that's why so yeah so paying a bit of money to win the jackpot could be good for a person or they can lose a lot of money buying lottery tickets and become addicted to gambling okay that's what comes to mind for me so when I think about why is the lottery bad or good for people in society paying a bit of money to win the jackpot could be good for a person or they can lose a lot of money when they become addicted trollish my love says it's bad because people spend lots of money on lotteries as a result they lose their money Terrell very good that's what I said cool means that we're probably on the right page if we're stating the same kind of ideas kamal Sharma says many individuals buy lots of tickets for the lottery yeah okay Preeti says it might be good because people can earn a lot of money without hard work yeah okay sure oh and let's not forget it can be a type of kind of revenue for the government as well right selling those lottery tickets alright so how can lotteries be good or bad for people this is usually example so it's something like the answer here is spend $1 win a million dollars this is good or spend a hundred dollars each week on lottery tickets instead of healthy food this is bad okay probably going to your nearest lottery office when there's a corona virus outbreak and touching all of those pens and pencils that other people are touching as well it's probably a bad idea right so maybe not a good idea to gamble when there is a pandemic and I don't mean that as a joke I'm actually serious about that so pay attention to touching pens and papers that a lot of people are touching right like the UPS delivery guy pen and the pen at the lottery office those are very very dangerous points of infection so those could be bad all right I was a little bit of an anecdote but again the main point here is look at the title Lottery's positive good or unnecessary wrong ask what why and how and answer them do this quickly to get your brain ready for the reading passage okay all right so next step let's read this passage together so we will get to these challenging questions at the end we will do this together I will give you some instructions along the way all right here we go students this is a reading class so make sure to read with me read aloud repeat so read and repeat and we'll do this step-by-step at home you should be reading okay there's no shortcuts to get those band 7 and higher scores skimming scanning not effective all right increase font size sure can do here we go how's that is that better boo me yes hopefully all right okay yeah feedback is great boo me excellent keep that up so here we go we're still a little bit I'm gonna go a tiny bit smaller so I think we're a little bit off screen all right let me try like that that's maximum screen size all right so here we go students here we go let's read together a lottery is a form of gambling where contestants purchase tickets with one or more tickets being drawn as winners at the end of the competition period okay I'm not sure if everybody was ready so we're gonna start from the beginning just one more time here we go read with me a lottery is a form of gambling where contestants purchase tickets with one or more tickets being drawn as winners at the end of the competition period often there's a jackpot winner who most or all of the prize pool today national lottery jackpots can range from millions to hundreds of millions of dollars it wasn't long ago that lotteries were outlawed almost everywhere in the world today lotteries are legal in North America Australia and much of Europe and Asia a question is raised over what has changed to make something previously seen as negative for society become common across the globe if gambling is bad why are lotteries so popular and why do governments support them all right as always when you read a paragraph especially when you're practicing at home you should ask the question so this is a very important strategy okay especially for practice at home which is simply after reading each paragraph ask and answer in full sentence or sentences what is this paragraph about so what is this paragraph about Tito says it's about lotteries and their functions nope boo me there's a reason we didn't check the questions before reading don't worry about it I'm focusing specifically on the passage right now so what's the answer what is this paragraph about taurah allah says is general information about lotteries we sr says here there aren't sociable people I don't think we estar that's what the paragraph is about samsara says love from India love from Budapest to some sir but I don't think that's what the paragraph is about pavan says it's an introduction to lotteries and places where they are legal pavan that is the nicest answer I've seen so far good job Pavan so Pavan says it's an introduction to lotteries so a definition of lotteries and places where they are popular today absolutely K students with good active reading this is what you should be able to achieve after you read a paragraph like this so with good active reading skills you should be able to produce produce this concise accurate answer if you can't you have to keep practicing this skill okay so it's a definition of lotteries and places where they are popular today that is the clearest most concise answer for this question what is paragraph 1 about do you agree or disagree with me you could say hey Adrian Pavan you're out to lunch I don't think that's what it's about or you might say yeah I agree that's kind of what it's about I think Tito says yeah that looks about right okay so having clarity in your mind as you go through the paragraphs will help you with the difficult questions that's why I'm showing you this skill and emphasizing it right now okay so having clarity about the contents in each paragraph will help you greatly to solve questions especially the difficult ones okay and it's not rocket science student said you don't have to speak perfect English you don't have to understand every word just the main idea okay let's do this a little bit more with the ensuing paragraphs follow with me read with me nice and loud students here we go people buy lottery tickets for one chief reason they want to win the jackpot in the long run lotteries are a bad bet the odds of winning are always stacked against the player that is to say the long term expected return on the players money is significantly less than the money paid for the tickets this is how the lottery corporations make money on the lottery the payout is far less than the revenue of ticket sales and the government takes the difference if 1 million tickets are sold at five dollars apiece and the jackpot is three million dollars then the government has made two million dollars of profit in the process we are forced to question why lotteries are so popular given their poor value for players it's because of the thrill of possibly winning the jackpot the anticipation of life-changing win for the ticket purchasers worth the money it's the same reason why people gamble at casinos many people know they are not going to win in the long run at the casino but the short-term thrill makes up for their long-term losses all right so what is this paragraph about what is this paragraph about students so again you read the paragraph and you want to ask afterwards what is this about so what is body paragraph 1 about and what's the answer to that ok pavan says the value of lotteries and why they go for it not bad Pavan try to be a little bit clear with your subjects okay so naman says why lotteries are bad in the long term and how governments earn from lotteries okay that's pretty good huh Mont that's pretty good okay Elena says how the government makes money from lotteries and how it attracts people okay good Elena students really work hard to avoid questions in your answers okay so question markers this is a little bit of a tip here okay in communication in good communication avoid using question markers in answers or statements okay and a lot of you are doing this and we do this naturally okay but it's better to avoid it so words like how why when what okay these are used mostly for questions and we use these words very easily when we give answers as well but you want to use better words especially when you're creating a statement or an answer so he here it is this is what many of you said but I'm going to put it down as a statement instead okay so the incentives for governments to run lotteries as well as the reasons people enjoy playing lotteries okay so notice students how not using any words like why so why people play lotteries or why governments do lotteries but instead I'm using what's called affirmative language right so I'm making this clearly a statement rather than a question so the incentives for government's incentives is kind of like another word for reasons so the incentives for governments to run lotteries as well as the reasons people enjoy playing lotteries does that make sense so Jen Jen the reason why lottery is bad bet right so take out the why the reason lotteries are a bad bet okay it's just a kind of a tip to improve communication and you can do this in your own language as well by the way so whether you're speaking Hindi Punjabi Spanish Russian notice when you're actually not asking a question but you're using question words try to avoid those in your communication and you will see that your communication will improve okay all right getting back to point here let's read paragraph C here we go all right so C read with me the main argument against lotteries is that it acts as a tax on the poor and such a tax is unfair this is because statistics show that poor people are by far the most common purchasers of lottery tickets there are two reasons why this could be the case first poor people have the most to gain by winning the lottery second poor people are arguably less likely to have a statistical understanding of the lottery there are less likely to realize that it is a bad bet all right Jen Jen Madan Preity thanks for that agreement on my last point students what is that paragraph about so body paragraph two that we just read you visualized it what is it about what is body paragraph two about keep it simple keep it concise ok Noman very nice so Noman very nice and concise victims of the lottery Noman make it even more accurate victims of the lottery are usually poor people ok kamal disadvantages of lottery for poor people Hemant says main drawbacks of lotteries its effect on the poor segment of the population come on take out the how they are attracted towards it because then I will ask you how how are they attracted towards the right so statements student statements don't use question markers in your language ok Elena says relationship between poor people and lotteries as a tax scheme yes Elena don't forget the word lotteries flower son says poor people fall into the trap of lotteries very good that works as well okay all of those are good nice you're catching on so yeah see was about poor people being the victims the primary victims of lotteries that would be my summary so poor people are the primary victim of lotteries okay alright let's keep reading D the main argument in favor of lotteries is that it is harmless fun which results in tax income that often goes straight to community programs such as sports or the arts many community programs relies solely on lottery finances to operate so in this sense the lottery is a positive good however there are many people often poor people who become obsessed with gambling and the lottery and it starts to take over their lives for these people the lottery is detrimental okay what is paragraph D about okay so what is paragraph D about I see lots of great answers for paragraph C now tell me what paragraph D is about Elena says arguments that support Lottery and oppose it even more direct Elena so positives are lottery positives of the lottery are community programs negatives are addiction right Tammy Otakon says the pros and cons of the lottery business yeah and again I mean the whole passage is about that Tammy con Elena the whole passage is about the pros and cons so let's be a little bit more specific the advantage of lotteries for the community or society right so be specific students my answer would be this here so the advantages of lotteries as a tax income for community programs and the disadvantages as a form of addiction for individuals okay so you want to be specific and concise with your answers all right super important so be specific be be specific be specific and concise with your answers okay that's your goal all right let's keep going paragraph E here we go one interesting way to look at the lottery and why people participate in it is to imagine it as a kind of reverse insurance people buy insurance for their home or car so that if something bad happens to it they do not have to pay the entire cost of the damage in other words they pay a little bit each month so that they don't have to pay a large amount at one time they pay these smaller amounts to insurance companies and those insurance companies make money in the long run so paying insurance is not a good bet either just like the lottery with the lottery we pay little amounts every once in a while so that maybe we will hit the jackpot with insurance we pay a little to save a lot and with the lottery we pay a little to win a lot one looked at it this way the popularity of the lottery is more easily understood okay what is this paragraph about what is this paragraph about and you're going to see that the reason why I'm doing this is because this is very a very very good strategy to help solve some difficult questions that will follow this passage okay so Helen says it's the positive of lotteries analogy of lotteries with insurer yeah so come on the parallel between insurance & lotteries it's not even an analogy because it's more of a parallel right so Tito it's not the difference between lotteries and insurance but it's more the similarity okay Rodrigo Duarte I love your answer comparison between lotteries and insurance Karolina nice to see you in class Karolina says comparisons between lottery and insurance paying a little to win a lot or paying a little to not lose a lot right so very good students easy answer here comparison between lotteries and insurance the similarities and differences right mostly the similarities all right that's what it's about absolutely let's go on to paragraph F here we go when it comes down to it lotteries are a choice yes they amount to a tax but so do the monthly fees we pay to insurance companies if people want to pay a few dollars here and there for a little fun excitement and a small chance to win a monstrous amount of money then what's the harm additionally lottery monies fund many valuable community programs which otherwise would have trouble operating playing the lottery responsibly is fun exciting and maybe just maybe extremely profitable okay what is this last paragraph about what is the conclusion about what is the conclusion about keep it simple and concise looks like there's a lot of information there Elena says supporting the investment of lotteries Elena more specific practice being specific when you're doing this at home okay no man says lottery can be fun yeah Puneet says lottery revenues used for good events but poor people get addicted on are so much the benefits of lottery and their support Tito mm-hmm kind of Manpreet says lotteries as a fun choice yeah that's pretty good so lotteries can be fun if they are played responsibly and they are a choice all right so lotteries can be fun if they're played responsibly and they're a choice that's what that last paragraph is about let's look at these challenging questions now okay here we go so the first set of questions have a look at these these can be quite challenging so the questions that I'm showing you right now are questions that you cannot skim or scan for okay and most questions are like that so remember they're students skim reading is not an effective strategy for high band scores above 6.5 in fact for some questions like matching information in paragraphs or true false not given skim reading and scanning the text is a completely useless strategy and a waste of time okay if the information is in the last paragraph for the first question you have to read or skim the whole passage to find it that's crazy or if the answer is not given you have to skim read the whole passage to realize that the answer is not given that's crazy okay you get my drift so you see what I mean okay so for these questions you have to use much better strategies you have to read the passage okay you have ten minutes to read the passage that's lots of time make sure to practice at home reading a passage in ten minutes okay so here we go students I'll teach you some more effective strategies that you can use this is the paragraph matching one so which paragraph contains the following information okay which paragraph contains the following information right the correct letter A to F in your answer sheet note by the way you can use each letter more than once okay number one the problem of gambling addiction okay the problem of gambling addiction so first you want to figure out where this is in the passage now if you did the exercise that we just did where you went and answered the what question for each paragraph this should be easier first you can figure out is this something that you will find in the introduction or the conclusion or body paragraphs okay so number one okay this is strategy one for matching information to paragraphs okay number one figure out if the info is in the intro body or conclusion okay it will be easier and quicker to find alright so I can see that a lot of you're answering that question for me Noman Bhumi neck may and na daddy are saying it's in the body it's in the body okay Karolina agrees that it's in the body and hopefully here if you did critical reading you should have a pretty good idea of where the information is okay also you need to look for paraphrased information like addicted equals play lottery every day okay all right so remember how for one of the paragraphs I said that this paragraph is about it's good for the community and it's bad for people who are addicted right so if I remember correctly anybody can anybody tell me roughly where that was was that in the middle near the end obsessed tirole yeah very good as well so Terrell says think about the word obsessed maybe you saw that in there cuz that's another word for addicted yeah absolutely Carolina says I think it was around d so here we go deep the main argument in favor of lotteries it's harmless fun which results in tax income for the community oh that looks good many people often poor people who become obsessed hater all super giant bonus thumbs up you got the word that's the word for addicted obsessed if you're skim reading the text for addicted you won't find it you'll waste tons of time there it is it's d so all we do is put in D and move on okay let's do these strategies or apply these strategies for the next set those less fortunate are more likely to play the lottery introduction body or conclusion I think that was the body right I hope everybody agrees kind of near the beginning middle or the end I remember reading about poor people a little bit closer to the beginning so for me in my mind it's going to be paragraph B or C okay I'm gonna go back and quickly just check that poor people paraphrase less fortunate okay people who buy the lottery tickets okay yep now we remember B was about the reason governments and people buy lotteries so I'm gonna jump to see the main arguments against lotteries it acts as a tax on poor people fantastic C it is so all I'm doing right now students is I'm thinking aloud so you can kind of hear how my brain works as I'm solving these questions okay and I want you to do the same okay so the legality of lotteries go through this thinking process tell me which paragraph you should get that one very quickly so for number three the legality of lotteries according to all of these strategies that we're using what do you think it is where would you find that introduction body conclusion IB Shack says three is a Tomita Khan says that looks like an a bunion says a no man says a and B but no mine you can only choose one right it's a if I write an essay about positive good negative of lotteries in the world I would put the information about their legality and the introduction right I would introduce it with that information absolutely Preeti so all of you who are saying intro you're correct number four the financial incentive for governments to run the lotteries oh wow look at that I mean I use the word incentive in my answer when asked what is this paragraph about so body intro conclusion what's the answer for number four I want to show you that it's quite magical once you do this well how quickly you can do it so you're right Himanta n--'s body karolina says that's b-because explaining the reasons for governments and people to play play the lottery would be very near the beginning somewhere and you're right and look at all of you just fantastic beautiful people you're figuring this out and you're noticing that there is a logic here okay there is a logic so clear critical logical thinking can boost your IELTS scores for difficult questions very quickly okay alright number five community incentives are funded by lottery proceeds so community programs are funded by lottery proceeds this one should be fairly easy because you probably had to looks at this now if you got these correct just give me the answer where do you think it's coming from number five Abhishek says number five SD Puneet says last paragraph okay Hamas says towards the end of the passage pachoo says ëno maan says 'i Puneet says I thought it was mentioned twice very good petite and I'm going to give you some clarity here so the correct answer is d now the IELTS exam so challenging questions right the last two questions are you in each set will usually be more challenging and this is where some of you will be like oh okay I think that was in the conclusion also right so a couple of interesting points here notice this part of the question okay so IELTS is also testing for ban 9 ban 9 means an expert user of not only English but communications and exams for the Masters PhD level so notice this here you may use any letter more than once when you see this there's a very good chance no guarantee but there's a very good chance that there will be one letter which will appear more than once now careful with this okay here's an important note that you have to keep in mind and this is true for the entire IELTS exam okay the IELTS exam is not a high school level exam rather it is a college university level exam what does that mean this means that you have to choose the best answer and there may be more than one correct answer in high school especially grade nine 1011 grade 12 gets a little bit trickier in Canada u.s. but Australia UK but in high school there is often just one right answer okay in the IELTS in college University it's not the case all right I'll show you what I mean with this question so many of you are correct that in paragraph F which is the conclusion it does say that there is valuable community programs which otherwise would have trouble operating so here we have lottery monies fund many valuable programs which otherwise would have trouble operating so you have about one line one sentence right now if I go back to paragraph D the main argument in favor of lotteries is that it is harmless fun which results in tax income that often goes straight to community programs such as sports and the arts many community programs relies solely on lottery finances to operate so in this sense the lottery is a positive good so here we have three lines talking about this so which one is the best answer D or F which one is the best answer about lotteries as a support for community programs D or F yeah it's absolutely D okay so keep this in mind students this is another reason why skimming and scanning can be very dangerous okay so this is yet another reason that skim reading is not effective for IELTS because you may find the right answer but not the best answer does that make sense so this is why skimming and scanning is a very dangerous strategy to use on the IELTS exam okay is that clear for everyone now why I really really really recommend not doing that for especially for those of you who need a band 7 or more okay and I know that a lot of students still do it and then they're so sad it's when I usually when I see this is when students come back and they say hey Adrian I got listening score 7 speaking score 7 point 5 writing score 6.5 but my reading score was five what happened and I'm like did you skim read and then they're like yes and then I'm like that's what happened okay so be really careful with that okay Manpreet says I got seven in reading but manpreet I'm guessing you probably weren't skim reading okay all right okay students so now some more questions here okay some more questions so for difficult questions you really do have to read the text and for most of the exam you have to read the text true false not given true false not given okay here we go do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage okay it's a true false not given we've practiced this strategy before it's a yes no not given ok yes no not given true false not given you have to use your logic here okay so follow with me we're just going to go through these and use our logic there are videos on the YouTube channel in HD which are specific to this question okay so look for the HD videos not the live class videos but the HD videos let's do a couple of these together so number six lotteries are outlawed almost everywhere is this important info for this passage is this important info for this passage lotteries are outlawed almost everywhere is that important info yes it is so it's given okay great so next question question number two is it true our lotteries outlawed almost everywhere so if you think about can you play lottery in your country can you play it in North America you can can you play it in Australia sure you can can you play lotteries in Europe absolutely can you play lotteries in China or many other Asian countries yeah yeah yeah you can so are the outlawed everywhere no it's false big F right it's false they were in the past thousand years ago but they're legal today in North America many parts of Asia Europe right so the answer is false it's important information for the passage so it must be given it's not true because lotteries are allowed in many parts of the world people gamble in many parts of the world so they were but they're not now this is present tense our next question in the long run a person who plays the lottery should expect to lose money is it important so if I write an essay about lotteries is it important to know that people will likely lose money in the long run yeah it's important so I know that it's given so then I asked my second question is it true or false is it true that people will lose money after a long time if they play the lottery yeah it's true so my answer is true so false and true okay that's all you have to do figure out if it's important for the passage as if it's important it's given if it's not important it's not given okay so number eight lotteries are popular because they serve as a pleasurable diversion from everyday life is it important for lotteries good or evil to know that they serve as a pleasurable diversion from everyday life is that important for this passage yeah maybe not right maybe not maybe it could be but I feel that it's not not for this passage so not given okay I don't even need to ask the second question because I don't recall visualizing or thinking the author's writing uh we ignore life because we play the lottery so I'm not given many people play the lottery without an understanding of its statistical background for lotteries good or evil is it important to know whether or not people understand the statistics of lottery or of lotteries yeah yeah so that would be given okay and then next question is it true that many people who play the lotteries don't understand the chances of winning I mean a lot of people know that the chances are bad but do most people know that when you're playing the 649 lotto your chances of winning or one in thirty two million seven hundred and forty eight thousand three hundred and ninety-five yeah most people don't know that so it's true okay cuz it's the negative careful these negatives without so false true not given true very good Karolina nice get to see in class students great work today that's how you solve tricky questions you read the passage actively doesn't mean you have to understand every word okay but you do have to understand the main point of each paragraph all right use your critical logical thinking keep a catalogue of the information that you read all right that's what you have to do that's it for today I look forward to seeing you next week on Wednesday keep up the good studies everyone chin up immune systems strong look to the future and remember you're all brilliant beautiful people full of life and energy and you can do anything that you set your mind to learning languages is challenging but not impossible we're all programmed to do it just like physical fitness and good health we have to do it daily persist and persevere that's it for me much love to all of you from Budapest bye for now see you next week

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Keywords: IELTS, reading, passage, tip, strategy, skill, band 9, body, paragraphs, academic, sentences, vocabulary, practice, sample, example, explanation, questions, types, description, English examination, read, speed, fluency, true, false, not give, understand, Lesson, Teacher, Learn, Student, Free, Intro, Tutorial, IELTS learning reading, IELTS passage explanations, sections, question, list of headings, paragraph completion, multiple choice, material, papers

Id: O2kg-lwhl9Q

Length: 55min 43sec (3343 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 21 2020