IELTS Reading Tips: True False Not Given

hello my name's Liz and in this lesson I want to take a look at how to deal with IELTS reading true false not given questions and also the yes no not given questions it's the same technique for both in this lesson we're going to look at what these questions require you to do we'll look at the difference between true false not given and yes no not given and then we will look at the difference between each of the answers so what the difference is between an answer that is true an answer that is false and an answer that is not given so we'll do some practice and I will explain how you can see the difference for the answers after that there's a lot of tips to give you so that you can be more successful with this type of reading question and at the end or we'll give you some links so that you can practice this type of reading question for free so let's start with the first question what do we have to do for these types of questions here is an example of true false not given questions you can see here this would be your reading passage of paper with the article that you need to read and there will be questions each question is a statement so for example all people are influenced by media you need to look at that statement you need to read through the passage and you need to decide if this information is in the passage if you can find the information in the passage then the answer is true it's true the information is in the passage if the information in the passage is opposite to the statement then it's false and if the information cannot be found you've read through your passage and you cannot find this info your answer is not given now that's the basic requirement of this question let's have a look at the difference between true false not given and yes no not given the true false not given questions are all about factual information in the passage so it's not about opinions it's about fact true means that the statement in that your question agrees with the information in the passage false the statement in the question contradicts the information in the passage contradicts means it's the opposite meaning and not given means there is no information on this so what's the difference with yes no not given let's have a look the yes no not given questions are all about the writers opinion so it's not about the facts but about what the writer thinks so this is often called reading between the lines trying to understand what the writer is trying to tell you about their opinion if the answer is yes it means that the statement in your question agrees with the claims of the writer if it's no it means the statement is opposite it contradicts the claims of the writer and not given means it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this now the technique to tackling to dealing with true false not given and yes no not given is exactly the same and in this lesson we're going to learn how to look at true false not given and all these tips you can use for both types of questions and also this information here you don't need to remember it will be written on your question paper so don't worry about that now let's have a look at some true false not given questions and I will explain to you why the answers are true false or not given here is a typical example of a question for true false not given this is the information in the reading passage the majority of people who graduated University found it difficult to get a job and the question the statement in the question is after finishing their tertiary education or people had difficulties to find employment now the first step that you need to take is to look more closely at the statement don't try to find or understand your answer until you have analyzed the statement more so the first thing we're going to do is look at some vocabulary in the statement after finishing their tertiary education so here we've got tertiary education what does that mean well tertiary education means university education so after finishing their university education all people had difficulties to find employment and of course employment means work or a job so now we can take a look and we can see that it says here that the people who graduated University graduated means that they have finished their University and that's the same here after finishing their university education and it said the majority of people found it difficult to get a job they say people had difficulties to find employment so we have a lot of similarities now many students can see that a lot of the information is matching and immediately they decide the answer is true but you need to be more careful than that it's not about much keywords it's about matching all of the meaning so here we're going to take a look at this the word all all means 100% of the people so after finishing their university education 100 percent of those people had difficulties to find work that's the actual meaning of the statement now let's have a look here and here we've got the majority this does not mean everyone it means most of them so now we have a Miss match it doesn't match and remember that the false means it's the opposite information and of course we can see it here it's not a match it's not the same it is opposite if it is it all people or not all people and majority means not all people so the answer to this one is false the information in the statement does not match it's opposite to the information in the passage some of the words are similar but the whole statement does not have the same meaning so that's one example let's have a look at another here is the next question in the passage it says that the charity raises money to pay for education and the daily needs of poor people and the information in the question the statement is the charity spends more of the money raised on schooling for poor people than on their daily requirements so again we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at the statement so we've got spending money and this is money that has been raised on schooling and of course schooling means education van anh daily everyday requirements and requirements means needs so again in this statement we have a lot of similar words the charity raises money to pay for education schooling and the daily needs the daily requirements of poor people so we have a lot of matching information again what do you think true/false or not given well we need to look more deeply at the statement now remember if the answer is true it means that the information matches and if the answer is false it means this is the opposite information now we should prepare the opposite information to make sure that we can decide if it's true or false so they say the charity spends more huh suddenly we find a word here more of the money raised for schooling than on daily requirements what would be the opposite well the opposite meaning would be less the charity spends less money on schooling than on daily needs that would be the opposite so now we need to look at the statement we need to know does the charity spend more money on education or less money on education compared to daily needs and if we look at this sentence we've got information about education we have information about daily needs but it doesn't say which one the charity spends most of their money on which one is more and which one is less so that means even though we have a lot of matching information we do not find any matching information and we do not find any opposite information either in fact the comparison between the money on schooling and daily requirements isn't there so the answer for this is have you got it not given let's have a look at one more and here is the last practice question before I give you some very useful tips to help you improve your true false not given and yes no not given questions so this is a true false not given practice this is the information in the passage just over 400 million acres of land is being used for agriculture in America and the question at present in America about 400 million acres of land is allocated for agriculture so you can see some similarities and a few differences let's have a look further at the information in this statement we've got here a time phrase at present right now at this moment currently in America got about 400 million acres of land is allocated now allocated means it's given to be used for so that is very similar to this used for given to be used for an agriculture well that's exactly the same so we have similarities we've got in America 400 million acres is used for agriculture now let's look at the differences the differences is the time phrase here and the word about so do you think it is true false or not given well let's have a look further firstly the time phrase there's no time phrase here however is there another way to know whether we're talking about the present or not yes there is and that is grammar your grammar tense will tell you what time period we're talking about is it the present or the past and you can see here is being used for so here we've got a present continuous so that means present continuous we use that tense when we're talking about now at the moment at present so you can see it's not about just matching words it's about matching meaning and the meaning can be hidden in the grammar so you have to pay attention to everything in the statement and in the passage now let's look so that's the same now let's look at the next one which is about in the passage they say just over and in the statement they say about now before you tell me that it's not exactly the same we need to think about the meaning of truth and the meaning of force now the meaning of true is that it matches the meaning of false remember it doesn't mean that it doesn't match it means it's the opposite information contrary now the word about means close to nearly a little bit over a little bit under 400 million acres the opposite would be it is not close to 400 million acres in fact it's a lot more or it's a lot less but it's not close to 400 million acres that's the opposite meaning so now we take a look more carefully and we can see actually that information does match because about has the same meaning just over just under and here we've got a match just over 400 million acre so the answer for this one is true so you can see there are many different traps and difficulties that you can have with these types of questions so let me give you some very useful and important tips now to help you get your questions right tip number one the first tip is to spend time analyzing and reading the question statement many students jump to the question they read the statement quickly and try to find the answer that's not a good technique I wouldn't recommend it go to the question and spend some time reading it looking at the words looking at the meaning behind it then try to find the answer the more time you spend analyzing the statement the more likely you are to get the right answer the next one number two you are not trying to match keywords you don't look at the statement find key words and decide that's true or that's a yes answer because we're not interested in matching key words we're interested in matching meaning so understanding the statement understanding the passage more number three paraphrases of course vocabulary IELTS is very big on paraphrasing and using a range of different language for the same meaning so that means when you look at your statement you do need to think about possible paraphrases and that will help you identify where the answer is and to actually get the right answer number four look out for common traps there are common traps of course one of the common traps you already know and that's comparisons if you see a comparative sentence in your question more or less than make sure you also find a comparison in the passage because if it's not it will probably be given also look for these types of words if they say all and the question says some that's not a match if they say the majority and the question says some that's also not a match so this is really testing your ability to understand the exact difference and the exact meaning of words let's have a look at some more tips tip number five the true false not given and the yes no not given questions use the same technique so everything we learned today in this lesson for the true false not given you can use for yes no not given number six the answers come in order this is such an important tip what does it mean well it means that the answer to question number one will come here for example and the answer to question number two will follow that is in order and the answer to question number three will come after that and question four will come after that so each question follows the order of information in the passage that means that you should always start with question number one find question number one first and you know that question number two will follow that it also means that you need to keep your eye on the next question coming not just the question that you're doing at the moment so for example we know this is question number one and we're trying to find question number two now question number two might be not given and if it's not given many students read the whole passage to try to find it well don't do that because question number two the answer must come between number one and number three it cannot come after so don't waste time trying to find the true false not given keep your eye on the next question as well remember the content of the next question so that when you try to find question number two you are not going to read too far that will save you a lot of time in your reading test because you know reading is really difficult in IELTS because of the time limit so saving time is very important keep your eye on the next question the answers come in order remember it it will help you let's have a look at tip number eight the next tip remember the meaning of false and no many students think that the meaning of false are no is that the information does not match that is not the meaning don't try to think that it's about matching the meaning of false and no is that the information is opposite so it contradicts and you need to remember that and keep your eye on that so it's about an opposite or contradictory meaning tip number nine if the question in your reading test is true false not given you must remember to write true or false or not given on your answer sheet you can't write yes or no so if the answer is true and you write yes instead the answer is wrong and again if the answer is false but you have written no then the answer is wrong again so please make sure you remember if you're answering true false not given or yes no not given and write the correct word on your answer sheet tip number ten the last tip this is a common question many students ask me and that is can I write a letter instead of a word for your answer so if your answer is true can you write only tea well yes you can if you have tea it still means true and IELTS will give you a correct answer for that one point but if your writing is not clear please don't take a risk it would be easier to write the word so just to make sure that your answer is easy to read now before we finish here's your homework um this is a true false not given question this is the information in the passage by the second half of the 17th century coffee had found its way to Europe and here is the question for your homework coffee arrived in Europe after the 17th century I want you to decide is it true false or not given now I'm going to give you some links I will give you a link to find the answer to your homework I will give you a link so you can practice more true false not given and yes no not given questions for free and also links to other IELTS lessons well I hope that was useful for you if you did find it useful please press like if you have any questions just post them for me see you soon you

Channel: IELTS Liz

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Rating: 4.9517021 out of 5

Keywords: IELTS Reading, IELTS True False Not Given Questions, IELTS Reading True False Not Given, IELTS Reading Tips, IELTS Yes No Not Given

Id: WYl9PX7Ua_Q

Length: 24min 5sec (1445 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 25 2015