IELTS Live - Reading Section - Using the Right Strategies

I LTS class my name is Adrian and I am streaming to you live from the Carpathian Basin in Central Europe I hope everybody has had a great week staying healthy staying strong and looking forward to some nice days ahead this class we are looking at the reading section specifically academic reading module but again for the general reading your section 3 is very similar to the academic reading so this is good for general students as well and the focus here of course is studying and practicing the right skills for reading to get those higher band sevens eights and nines high Khyber nice to see members in this class already high time or shy eek Shiro G Dina nice to see some of our regular students while we wait for some of your classmates this lesson is brought to you by AE help calm for academic IELTS success check us out there for the general outs visit us at G I e LTS help calm that's general IELTS help.com on both of these websites we have loads and loads of great materials for you this is our academic IELTS web portal here with the blue background click that big red button do yourself a favor join the Premium Package get access to original exams interactive courses and lots and lots of HD videos the general same idea green background click that big red button to join us there hi muck suit hi Amir hi but she can nice to see more of our members in the class also ok everyone make sure to download and Link the app academic IELTS help links to the web page AE help calm and the general IELTS help app links to GL help calm you'll see for the app the same logos as you see here and there are some free computer-based exams there for you also if you have questions send me an email Adrian at AE help.com okay we'll have classes all the way till Saturday at this time as well tomorrow members will finish that task - and tomorrow we'll have a speaking part - for everyone also so tomorrow tasks to finish and speaking part - right now we'll get into some reading so let's get into some reading I know lots of you are waiting and saying hey let's get into this right now so here we go reading passage - this is coming from exam five you actually have audio for this in your course for those of you who have memberships and access you can actually listen to a British person read this for you as well so here we have this passage this first step students okay when you're in the reading section of your exam you have to read okay there are no shortcuts it's much more difficult to just try to search for answers and not read the passage you do have enough time to read so make sure to read okay reading is very very important here step number one in the reading section always is look at the title and read the title carefully and predict what is going to be in the passage so that's what we're going to do first step one read the title carefully visualize and predict the contents of the passage okay from your own knowledge obviously okay alright think critically ask what why how all right so let's do that so here the title is earthquake preparedness so being prepared for an earthquake when you think about this when you think about earthquake preparedness what comes to mind so what does it mean to be prepared for an earthquake so what's all of the information that you think of before you read any more words when you think of what does it mean to be prepared for an earthquake what does that mean for you Abhishek says an earthquake drill yeah that means in practicing in case of an earthquake yeah it's also fire drills practicing for fires right so in this case it's an earthquake drill okay puja says what do you do when you face an earthquake yeah but puja what do you do so don't just paraphrase the question puja but give an answer what do you do so think about it yeah charlie it's same thing so instead of just thinking about a question how to avoid casualties think about the answer so what do you do so far Amar's farah mars tava so Leon says take some precautions what are those precautions like have bottled water a flashlight okay when you're predicting you want to be specific all right sake bow says maybe some medication mm-hmm Charlie says get out of the house get out of the office okay find open ground Khyber says check your hazards in your home what kind of things you have a huge glass chandelier that weighs 500 kilograms which could fall in smash and crush okay check for hazards in the home okay Miguel Baron says have some batteries I'm on John says move away from buildings demon slayers says have an emergency kit time or your front says have a fire extinguisher I think is what you're saying okay fire extinguisher students that's the device used to put out fires that's a very good word to know in English fire extinguisher that's when you put the fire out okay good now you're rolling with it now you're thinking about the right way so that's what you want to do okay so when you predict using the title of the passage think in detail and see the pictures in your mind clearly alright fantastic so you're doing that you're doing a good job this is happening super super fast quickly right you're seeing all those pictures and then step 2 take a look at the questions read ones that have information from the passage and ignore ones that have extra and false information okay so that's your next step so step one read the title predict predict with a lot of details step two look at the questions and all of this is happening fast students you have to only do all of this read and answer questions in 20 minutes okay so we look at the questions here we have our questions do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in passage - yes no not given do I read this type of question before reading the passage so do I read this type of question what Rick says no Abhishek says no bumi says no Jack Patel says no and so many of your seeing or no which is fantastic okay when I first started teaching IELTS years ago so many people said yeah read it and I was like oh no but I'm so happy that these bad habits are changing and now students are realizing that these kinds of questions are an absolute waste of time to read before the passage so do not read yes no not given or true false not given it's the same obviously same idea okay so good good you're realizing that that's just a waste of time you can't have yes no not given questions where the answer is not given no no not given yes imagine reviewing that wasting time okay so questions 18 to 21 it says complete each sentence with the correct ending so this is sentence completion type question and here we have for questions worse half sentences and then here we have seven choices that will be the answers or at least four of the seven will be the answers for this so what do I do here what should I do with this kind of question where I have half of the sentence here and I have seven possible choices what do I do khyber says read only the questions and khyber is right okay again the logic is all of this information is in the passage so reading it or skim reading it fast to get an idea it's it's good it's somewhere in there okay but don't read these choices because three of the four of these which means almost half okay are false or wrong information and we don't know which ones and that's confusing so read the statements only okay so let's do that let's read this together the first step after waiting out aftershocks is to pour construction results in buildings that offer even otherwise well-constructed buildings may be at risk because they buildings along the west coast of North America and Japan are designed to alright so I know that there's going to be information in the passage about buildings specifically buildings in North America Japan I know there's going to be information about construction well-constructed buildings not well constructed buildings and there will be some information about aftershocks aftershocks or the smaller earthquakes that happen after the big earthquake okay good that's some valuable information for me as the student or as the candidate okay and then here I have kind of summary type question so it says complete the summary using the list of words a to H below so I have a list of words a to H I don't need those right now but I can definitely read this summary because again this summary is really helpful okay this gives me it's kind of like an abstract does everybody know what an abstract is if you're an academic student and you're in university studying masters PhD bachelors you'll know that the abstract is kind of like a summary but it comes before the passage it's called an abstract it's kind of a synonym for summary but it comes before the passage in many academic journals okay so this is kind of like an abstract of the passage so it's really good to read that ok khyber it's not that kind of abstract it's another definition ok so let's read this I'll make a note after so read with me earthquake planning planning is incredibly important for surviving an earthquake they must make sure in advance that they have appropriate to survive after the event is the most critical resource after an earthquake since municipal sources may be damaged and unavailable conversely will be less scarce because it is less likely to be compromised in an earthquake some measures to take in preparation for an earthquake include storing medical supplies in a safe place not hanging picture frames above your bed and identifying in your home and workplace in the event of an earthquake try to call for help using your phone or if you are trapped try on a pipe so all you do here is you read this summary with the blanks excluded of course and so now I know that there will be information in the past about earthquake planning and what kind of steps to take in preparation for an earthquake and we had one of our students mention that with the prediction so that was great okay all right so a couple of important notes for this step okay for some questions like complete the sentence endings you need to read only be part of the question that is included that is in the passage okay some questions are really helpful to understand the passage like summary completion okay this is a sort of abstract for the passage okay now abstract is used in scientific journals which is given to the reader before the journal discussion okay so you're you University students will remember these abstracts okay so it's not the same kind of abstract khyber that you're thinking of where you can't touch or see it clearly this is another definition of the word abstract okay all right so let's get into reading that's our next step so step three is read the passage in about 10 minutes paying attention to be an active reader focusing on the main idea of each paragraph and visualizing the content be sure to know and respect the correct structure of an essay okay introduction with thesis plus body plus body you'll see why I'm saying this in a moment here plus conclusion okay so keep that structure in mind you're always looking at an essay these IELTS passages and even the reading short passages in the general IELTS they're really just different kinds of essays okay you might have some expose Ettore essays some persuasive essays but at the end of the day they're essays okay active reader Roman bara means that you're thinking about the information while you're reading so you're creating pictures in your mind and you're also thinking about the what why how structure what is the author saying why are they saying this how are they seeing this we're going to do this right now veterans saying do we need to understand the whole passage not necessarily back John okay so that was a good question as long as you here's a bit of information so as long as you understand 70% of the passage and use good logic you can get a band seven or even more okay I've seen it so you can do quite well if you get about 70% of the passage and you're using your logic wisely okay all right we're gonna do this so you'll see okay here we go let's do it so we're gonna go back we're gonna do some active reading pay attention to all those elements again practice will make perfect now for full-time students in a canadian-american Australian University you have to read about a 150 pages like this each week so you have to have good reading fluency to survive in University okay all right here we go let's start reading from the top timoni SHhhh to get the high bands in an easier way you can't just skim read it's not gonna work come on ish okay won't work you can't just skim read it's not enough all right here we go so read with me and we'll do it together earthquake preparedness of all natural disasters earthquakes are likely to be the most devastating though earthquakes most of the time our only weak tremors which are not even strong enough to knock picture frames off walls at their strongest earthquakes can destroy entire cities killing thousands and displacing millions for regions of the world affected by earthquakes being prepared for the big one is crucial to surviving when it eventually occurs earthquake preparedness takes three forms education construction and planning that's the introductory paragraph that gives us the background it gives us the importance of the question it gives us the thesis of the question I can see these very clearly what's the thesis here students what is the thesis of this question and you have to pay really careful attention you can't just skim read Justyna or jyoti it's not enough and I'm gonna show you exactly why and how so what is the thesis in this introductory paragraph and if you are skim reading please do not just skim read the introductory paragraph that's the worse now facade says it's education construction and planning as the last sentence very good hina yeah so this very last sentence earthquakes air earthquake preparedness takes three forms education construction and planning that's the thesis that's given to us by the author so what is the first body paragraph going to be about so according to this thesis what is the first body paragraph going to be about in this essay or the first one or two body paragraphs potentially Alex Joseph says it will be about education yeah absolutely so you know that it's about education what is the middle of this essay going to be about very good everyone very good nice so you understand the concept of a good thesis the middle of the essay will be about construction right yeah there we go there's a little bit of delay between us and you but yeah construction and then we know that near the end it's going to be about planning so just understanding this concept of thesis and how that works will already give you an advantage when you're looking at the questions to know where the information is is that clear okay so just a quick tip there all right so the thesis statement will give you the organization of the essay so pay special attention to it okay that will really help you identify where information can be located okay good so let's do this let's keep reading the speed that I'm going to read is absolutely an average speed it's an OK speed all right yeah Beck John you should have a thesis in all of your reading passages the outs examiner's are very good authors and they will have it sometimes Beck John the thesis will be an indirect thesis but you'll also find direct thesis statements it's always there okay all right here we go so let's get into it read with me those who grow up in earthquake zones are very familiar with so-called earthquake drills these exercises take place multiple times each year in school and students practice the appropriate steps to take in the event of an earthquake the first step is to take shelter under a strong structure in schools this is often a wooden desk in the absence of such furniture a doorframe is recommended as this is the strongest structural part of any room next drop to the ground cover your head and neck and only move if there is a safer place to seek shelter within short crawling distance keeping your head and neck covered are of critical importance since falling hazards are one of the biggest dangers in an earthquake once the shaking is stopped people are advised to wait for any aftershocks to occur many deaths and injuries occur during after sha smaller earthquakes which occur shortly after the initial quake so staying sheltered is recommended for up to ten minutes after the main event once sufficient time is passed people should get to open ground taking care to avoid falling hazards especially glass structures such as windows okay so there we read about education for earthquake what to think about when an earthquake is happening and of course hopefully many of you were visualizing this so hopefully many of you saw the table and saw the person underneath the table covering their head with their arms okay so they're hiding under the table hopefully you saw another person hiding in the doorframe also maybe covering their head okay and then maybe you saw a person or yourself moving to open ground maybe it's a soccer field okay where you're all away from buildings and so on so maybe you saw yourself crawl to that doorframe so that's a lot of visualization and you have to visualize okay very very important very very important to see what you're reading all right okay picture it and include yourself that's a really really important part of this is to be in the picture don't just see random people moving around without faces but actually picture yourself your friends okay all right okay let's keep going let's do this so here we go one of the biggest factors that affects the number of casualties in an earthquake event is the quality of the construction of buildings that people work and reside in in areas with poor construction standards these buildings provide little to no protection against earthquakes in the major earthquake that occurred in Haiti in 2010 poor construction standards were to blame for a large proportion of the casualties while other countries have high standards often these standards are not designed with earthquakes in mind many buildings may be built to an otherwise high safety standard but be almost as defenseless as the Haitian buildings when facing a strong earthquake in high-risk earthquake zones all buildings must be constructed with an eye to earthquake preparedness buildings in areas such as Japan and the west coast of North America are constructed to shift a certain amount along with an earthquake this elasticity allows the buildings to survive the quake instead of shaking and being knocked down they are shaken and returned to their original place this type of construction greatly minimizes the risk to inhabitants in the event of a major earthquake okay so here we're talking about construction we talked about three examples of construction one poor construction like what happened in Haiti with bad construction a lot of buildings collapsing to good construction but good construction which is not designed for earthquakes which are still dangerous if an earthquake happens and three good construction that is designed for earthquakes like in Japan and North America so I have each of those points in mind that's the active reading that a student was asking about earlier okay let's keep going now this is reading students so I'm not just lecturing here I'd like you definitely to read with me okay all right here we go now I'm guessing that this next paragraph will be about planning okay which makes sense the final form of earthquake preparedness is planning people in high-risk areas must have a plan for what to do in the event of an earthquake and they must plan beforehand so they have appropriate supplies to survive in the initial days after the event the most important resource after an earthquake is water and it is recommended people keep enough water for a week approximately 28 liters per person food will not usually be difficult to come by but water which relies on municipal delivery systems which are very likely to be compromised by the quake is precious other critical items such as medical supplies and personal documents should also be stored in a safe place so they can be retrieved after the event other measures which are useful to prepare for an earthquake are keeping a flashlight and whistle next to your bed not hanging falling hazards such as picture frames over your bed arranging a family contact person outside of your area arranging a family meeting place and identifying both hazards and Refugee areas within your home school and workplace okay so lots about planning lots of visualization there you should remember points like the most valuable resource is water not food keep a flashlight keep a whistle okay let's keep going keep reading again read with me in the event that you are trapped after an earthquake do not struggle or kick up dust instead try to make sounds such as blowing on a whistle or tapping on a pipe so that rescuers may locate you if you have a mobile phone use it to call or text for help earthquakes can be deadly all the preparedness in the world will not help if a sufficiently large earthquake hits the wrong spot what can be done however is to improve the chances of survival through education appropriate construction and diligent planning countless lives can be saved all right so that is clearly the conclusion notice how it ends on a paraphrase of the thesis as well okay kind of reminding you of all that all right so let's keep going Zelda says I think we practiced this passage before if you've practiced the passage before students that's great it's a really good idea Zelda to reread some passages that you've done before just to see how much your reading has improved so there's no shame students and going back over the same passages we will have some brand new passages coming up for you in the next couple weeks by the way all right so let's do these yes no not given questions together now with the yes no not given the strategy that you should use is first figuring out if the information is given or not and then figuring out if the information is true or not okay so the idea for yes no not given questions is as step number one figure out if it's given or not given ok that's your first step if it's given then your second step is to figure out whether it's true or yes or or no okay so that's what you have to figure out now to do that you have to ask some logical questions all right the first question that you need to ask yourself okay this is for yes no not given question number one is is this information important for this passage topic okay if yes then likely given if no then not given okay so that's what we're gonna do first here so let's figure this out always ask the full question so here the statement is most most earthquakes are strong enough to cause some damage full question is it important for earthquake preparedness to know whether or not earthquakes are strong most earthquakes are strong enough to cause some damage is it important to know that so is it important to know for earthquake preparedness that most earthquakes are strong enough to cause some damage yeah sure yeah so many of you are saying yeah that's important so we say yes it's important so important so if it's important therefore it must be given so then we go on to step two right and we have to ask is it true so is it true that most earthquakes are strong enough to cause some damage abhishek says no I don't think so Jenny lo says yes bumi says yes Amir says no Billy says no somewhere deep says yes okay well what if your answers I don't know no I don't know sad face so I don't know okay then what do you do mmm you take a look okay now if you are visualizing you should remember where this is found and usually true false not given or in the order of the passage so I'm gonna check the introduction oh I'm happy again cuz I know what I'm doing smiley face okay all right this is something that I would look for in the introduction because clearly the strength of an earthquake is most likely discussed in the introduction because it's giving background information okay background information so I'm gonna check the the introduction and look for that now I'm looking for the word strong or strength okay so earthquakes most of the time are only weak tremors which are not even strong enough to knock picture-frames off walls okay so here it's telling me that most earthquakes are not strong enough to knock picture frames off walls most earthquakes are strong enough to cause some damage well if it can't knock a picture frame your wall it's likely not gonna do much damage so the answer is no okay now make sure you use the correct format it's not true false not given its yes no not given okay yes no not given all right so with the same kind of strategy we keep going the strongest part of a room is farthest away from the windows that can shatter okay is it important to know that the strongest part of the room is the furthest away from windows that can shatter is that important to know for this passage yeah so far Amar's says it's not exactly said it's no okay so therefore it's not given one way that you can figure out not given answers is when they're awkward and untrue okay so here's a little bit of a tip that I haven't given you before and you'll see these types of statements and the true false not given or the yes are not given if the statement seems both false and awkward okay it is most likely not given because the writer would not mention such information okay that makes sense that's logical so what do I mean the strongest part of a room is furthest away from windows that can shatter that doesn't make sense at all because what if you have a window in the room and again use your visualization that can break but right underneath the window you have a steel table a metal table okay if there were an earthquake I would feel very comfortable getting underneath a metal table even if it's right beside the window so why would the IELTS examiner make such a crazy outlandish irrational statement they wouldn't so I'm not even going to search for it okay so if it seems false and really awkward there's not gonna be any information given around that all right so use your logic all right okay so here we go with the next one your head and neck are the weakest parts of your body and must be protected okay your head and neck are the weakest parts of your body and must be protected is it important to know that the head and the neck are the weakest parts of the body and must be protected I would say no for the same reason of number 15 okay so know therefore not given why because the head I don't know about you but my head is pretty hard I have a skull there okay your neck is pretty strong it has to be protected okay that's true but I don't think the author would say that it's the weakest parts of your body that's false and strange okay so it's really false and strange to say that the head and the neck are the weakest parts of the body let's take a look at that okay so maybe you're thinking hmm I don't know right so maybe you're thinking maybe and so we can look for this information here the head and the neck because we read about that so again if you have to search search specifically for information and that was in education right not in construction that was in education so that was still body paragraph 2 and right away I can find it keeping your head and neck covered are of critical importance sins falling hazards are one of the biggest dangers in an earthquake so it says that keeping your head and neck covered are important but it doesn't say that you have to keep your head and neck covered because they're weak parts of your body it says that you have to keep your head and your neck covered because there are a lot of falling hazards so falling objects so in this case the author doesn't give that information so it's not given ok so again it's not given for the same reason that the that question 15 is not given ok so no not given not given ok aftershocks are incredibly dangerous is it important to know so in earthquake preparedness is it important to know if aftershocks the so called smaller earthquakes are important or not yeah so min says yes and it is so we know it's given and is it true so then we ask the second question is it true that aftershocks can be very dangerous yeah and pooja says it's true so again it's true so it's yes ok you should not have to search for that if you are reading actively because it says that hey you have to stay in the same spot for 10 minutes ok so no not given not given yes looking good came and then we keep going so here we get to the questions where it's complete the sentence so the trick here is complete on your own from your own knowledge and then match okay so that's what you have to do you have to complete these from your own knowledge from what you got from the passage and then match so the first step after waiting out aftershocks is to so from your own knowledge from what you read what is the first thing to do after the aftershock so you're waiting the earthquake happens then those smaller little shocks happen after what do you do so Charlie sent says leave the building Bhoomi says go to an open place shut bar very good okay so very good all right okay so now we find the closest match to those answers they are not designed to withstand earthquakes be leave the building and find open ground that seems like a perfect match so I'm not even gonna keep reading but maybe I should because there could be a better match a modicum of other earthquake protection move in response to an earthquake lack the flexibility of Haitian buildings withstand earthquakes okay little protection in the earthquake and none of those seemed okay so I'm gonna put B in there so B now a next step okay so first you give your own answer then you find the match and the next step is read the two together so you make sure that the grammar makes sense the first step after waiting out aftershocks is to leave the building and find open ground is the grammar okay so if I read the complete sentence here with this is the grammar okay yeah it is so it matches my own thinking the grammar is okay so there's a 99% chance that it's the right answer okay so that's what we keep doing with these poor construction results in buildings that offer what so poor construction results in buildings that offer my finish here is little protection little or no protection from earthquakes okay so that's how I would finish that sentence poor construction results in buildings that offer little or no protection from earthquakes so I'm gonna look for a match okay not are not designed to withstand earthquakes that looks interesting a modicum of earthquake protection no move in response to an earthquake lack the flexibility that patient buildings have withstand earthquakes due to their rigid construction little protection in an earthquake this one seems like the closest match okay I don't know the definition of that word so I don't want to choose it especially when this looks more accurate so I'm gonna take G and I'm gonna put it into that sentence poor construction results in buildings that offer little protection and an earthquake grammars good I stick with it so G it is okay that's how I do it careful students like sometimes what students will do is oh that looks like a really difficult word I don't know what it means so it must be the right word because they're trying to trick me what No okay not necessarily that's not what's going on if you don't know what a word means be really careful okay it could be a completely wrong answer so that's a really weird strategy don't do that all right I've seen students do that where they think if they don't understand the words in the question it must be correct because it's difficult or something all right number 20 even otherwise well-constructed buildings may be at risk because they even otherwise well-constructed buildings may be at risk because they are not made for earthquakes that would be my ending for this even otherwise well-constructed buildings may be at risk because they are not made for earthquakes okay are not designed to withstand earthquakes whew that looks really close to are not made for earthquakes so I can go through the other ones and I'll realize that a is definitely the closest one so a it is and I can read it with the sentence again so even otherwise well constructed buildings may be at risk because they are not designed to withstand earthquake sounds good all right buildings along the west coast of North America and Japan are designed to move with an earthquake okay so I remember picturing how those buildings can kind of move if there's an earthquake so they don't fall down for dobbsy and says withstand an earthquake sure so let's see any one of those here are not designed I've picked that one leave the building no move in response to an earthquake Oh move with an earthquake move in response to an earthquake that looks really good so I read the other ones and I realized that okay my answer is D and then I read it together buildings along the west coast of North America and Japan are designed to move in response to an earthquake that sounds perfect so I'll stay with that okay all right so I have just one set of questions left it's my summary completion where I have to put in the correct letters for the word so here is earthquake planning which is the third body paragraph I have my questions here and then I have my choices here so again the trick is the same as what we just did read it think about the correct answer and then choose so read think about your answer then choose okay all right so planning isn't incredibly important for surviving an earthquake they must make sure in advance that they appropriate to survive after the event supplies would be my word so they must make sure in advance that they have appropriate supplies or equipment maybe equipment or supplies something like that would be my guess so I look let's see I don't see equipment but hey look at that I see supplies there ok that looks good so I put in the letter H and I keep going okay so answers correct answers should come from your own mind if you are sitting the IELTS and your hope is to get a high band score by matching key words and by skimming and matching with the passage you're not going to get a band six point five or more and if you do then you could probably get a lot better mark if you did the correct steps okay so the IELTS is designed to not let people pass who are not actually using information from the content from the reading or in the listening the listening and from their own mind if you're playing a game of Go Fish blue fish red fish red fish red fish match bean if you're playing go fish yeah you get a mark for goldfish which will be a five point five all right the rest of these one so 23 24 25 and 26 I'll leave those for you to practice at home there are the choices and hey if you think you have the right answer send me an email and I'll send you the answer key with a discount for our premium packages okay so if when you finish that at home send me an email and I'll send you back the answer key with a discount to join our premium packages on our website so my email is adrianne @ae help.com send me your answers there and I will send you the answer key if you can't wait to join then ayyy help for academic IELTS in G outs help calm for general outs thank you so much students for joining me today tomorrow I will host a class for everybody on speaking part - and of course members we will finish that task 2 essay with the body paragraphs and the conclusion that we started today much love back at you Khyber bye-bye jainneil at least you're very very welcome Alex I look forward to seeing your answers ban thank you you're making me blush have an awesome day everyone much love to all of you from Budapest I'm Adrian bye for now

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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: nfgcqNR-DqU

Length: 56min 28sec (3388 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 04 2020