ACTIVE TIPS FOR READING [DAY 2]
Here is an opportunity to learn the "ACTIVE" skills needed to tackle reading questions in the IELTS exams.Learn theses skills daily and apply it while practicing sample tests.Daily practice of tests and application of these skills will enhance your reading test tackling quality and can get higher score.
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LEARN ACTIVE SKILLS AND BE PRO-ACTIVE FOR THE TEST!!!
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Active Tips for IELTS Reading Section
[click here to read Active Reading Tips DAY 1 & Reading Task type 1]
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To learn the "ACTIVE" reading skills,we are going to use a sample reading passage given below.It have 11 section A - K.
Sample reading text
Lessons from the Titanic
A From the comfort of our modern lives we tend to look back at the turn of the twentieth century as a dangerous time for sea travelers. With limited communication facilities, and shipping technology still in its infancy in the early nineteen hundreds, we consider ocean travel to have been a risky business. But to the people of the time it was one of the safest forms of transport. At the time of the Titanic's maiden voyage in 1912, there had only been four lives lost in the previous forty years on passenger ships on the North Atlantic crossing. And the Titanic was confidently proclaimed to be unsinkable. She represented the pinnacle of technological advance at the time. Her builders, crew and passengers had no doubt that she was the finest ship ever built. But still she did sink on April 14, 1912, taking 1,517 of her passengers and crew with her.
B The RMS Titanic left Southampton for New York on April 10, 1912. On board were some of the richest and most famous people of the time who had paid large sums of money to sail on the first voyage of the most luxurious ship in the world. Imagine her placed on her end: she was larger at 269 metres than many of the tallest buildings of the day. And with nine decks, she was as high as an eleven storey building. The Titanic carried 329 first class, 285 second class and 710 third class passengers with 899 crew members, under the care of the very experienced Captain Edward J. Smith. She also carried enough food to feed a small town, including 40,000 fresh eggs, 36,000 apples, 111,000 lbs of fresh meat and 2,200 lbs of coffee for the five day journey.
C RMS Titanic was believed to be unsinkable because the hull was divided into sixteen watertight compartments. Even if two of these compartments flooded, the ship could still float. The ship's owners could not imagine that, in the case of an accident, the Titanic would not be able to float until she was rescued. It was largely as a result of this confidence in the ship and in the safety of ocean travel that the disaster could claim such a great loss of life.
Lessons from the Titanic
A From the comfort of our modern lives we tend to look back at the turn of the twentieth century as a dangerous time for sea travelers. With limited communication facilities, and shipping technology still in its infancy in the early nineteen hundreds, we consider ocean travel to have been a risky business. But to the people of the time it was one of the safest forms of transport. At the time of the Titanic's maiden voyage in 1912, there had only been four lives lost in the previous forty years on passenger ships on the North Atlantic crossing. And the Titanic was confidently proclaimed to be unsinkable. She represented the pinnacle of technological advance at the time. Her builders, crew and passengers had no doubt that she was the finest ship ever built. But still she did sink on April 14, 1912, taking 1,517 of her passengers and crew with her.
B The RMS Titanic left Southampton for New York on April 10, 1912. On board were some of the richest and most famous people of the time who had paid large sums of money to sail on the first voyage of the most luxurious ship in the world. Imagine her placed on her end: she was larger at 269 metres than many of the tallest buildings of the day. And with nine decks, she was as high as an eleven storey building. The Titanic carried 329 first class, 285 second class and 710 third class passengers with 899 crew members, under the care of the very experienced Captain Edward J. Smith. She also carried enough food to feed a small town, including 40,000 fresh eggs, 36,000 apples, 111,000 lbs of fresh meat and 2,200 lbs of coffee for the five day journey.
C RMS Titanic was believed to be unsinkable because the hull was divided into sixteen watertight compartments. Even if two of these compartments flooded, the ship could still float. The ship's owners could not imagine that, in the case of an accident, the Titanic would not be able to float until she was rescued. It was largely as a result of this confidence in the ship and in the safety of ocean travel that the disaster could claim such a great loss of life.
D In the ten hours prior to the Titanic's fatal collision with an iceberg at 11 40 pm six warnings of icebergs in her path were received by the Titanic's wireless operators. Only one of these messages was formally posted on the bridge; the others were in various locations across the ship. If the combined information in these messages of iceberg positions had been plotted, the ice field which lay across the Titanic's path would have been apparent. Instead, the lack of formal procedures for dealing with information from a relatively new piece of technology, the wireless, meant that the danger was not known until too late. This was not the fault of the Titanic crew. Procedures for dealing with warnings received through the wireless had not been formalised across the shipping industry at the time. The fact that the wireless operators were not even Titanic crew, but rather contracted workers from a wireless company, made their role in the ship's operation quite unclear.
E Captain Smith's seemingly casual attitude in increasing the speed on his day to a dangerous 22 knots or 41 kilometers per hour, can then be partly explained by his ignorance of what lay ahead. But this only partly accounts for his actions, since the spring weather in Greenland was known to cause huge chunks of ice to break off from the glaciers. Captain Smith knew that these icebergs would float southward and had already acknowledged this danger by taking a more southerly route than at other times of the year. So why was the Titanic traveling at high speed when he knew, if not of the specific risk, at least of the general risk of icebergs in her path? As with the lack of coordination of the wireless messages, it was simply standard operating procedure at the time. Captain Smith was following the practices accepted on the North Atlantic, practices which had coincided with forty years of safe travel. He believed, wrongly as we now know, that the ship could turn or stop in time if an iceberg was sighted by the lookouts.
F There were around two and a half hours between the time the titanic rammed into the iceberg and its final submersion. In this time 705 people were loaded into the twenty lifeboats. There were 473 empty seats available on lifeboats while over 1,500 people drowned. These figures raise two important issues. Firstly, why there were not enough lifeboats to seat every passenger and crew member on board. And secondly, why the lifeboats were not full.
E Captain Smith's seemingly casual attitude in increasing the speed on his day to a dangerous 22 knots or 41 kilometers per hour, can then be partly explained by his ignorance of what lay ahead. But this only partly accounts for his actions, since the spring weather in Greenland was known to cause huge chunks of ice to break off from the glaciers. Captain Smith knew that these icebergs would float southward and had already acknowledged this danger by taking a more southerly route than at other times of the year. So why was the Titanic traveling at high speed when he knew, if not of the specific risk, at least of the general risk of icebergs in her path? As with the lack of coordination of the wireless messages, it was simply standard operating procedure at the time. Captain Smith was following the practices accepted on the North Atlantic, practices which had coincided with forty years of safe travel. He believed, wrongly as we now know, that the ship could turn or stop in time if an iceberg was sighted by the lookouts.
F There were around two and a half hours between the time the titanic rammed into the iceberg and its final submersion. In this time 705 people were loaded into the twenty lifeboats. There were 473 empty seats available on lifeboats while over 1,500 people drowned. These figures raise two important issues. Firstly, why there were not enough lifeboats to seat every passenger and crew member on board. And secondly, why the lifeboats were not full.
G The Titanic had sixteen lifeboats and four collapsible boats which could carry just over half the number of people on board her maiden voyage and only a third of the Titanic's total capacity. Regulations for the number of lifeboats required were based on outdated British Board of Trade regulations written in 1894 for ships a quarter of the Titanic's size, and had never been revised. Under these requirements, the Titanic was only obliged to carry enough lifeboats to seat 962 people. At design meetings in 1910, the shipyard's managing director, Alexander Carlisle, had proposed that forty eight lifeboats be installed on the Titanic, but the idea had been quickly rejected as too expensive. Discussion then turned to the ship's decor, and as Carlisle later described the incident … 'we spent two hours discussing carpet for the first class cabins and fifteen minutes discussing lifeboats'.
H The belief that the Titanic was unsinkable was so strong that passengers and crew alike clung to the belief even as she was actually sinking. This attitude was not helped by Captain Smith, who had not acquainted his senior officers with the full situation. For the first hour after the collision, the majority of people aboard the Titanic, including senior crew, were not aware that she would sink, that there were insufficient lifeboats or that the nearest ship responding to the Titanic's distress calls would arrive two hours after she was on the bottom of the ocean. As a result, the officers in charge of loading the boats received a very half- hearted response to their early calls for women and children to board the lifeboats. People felt that they would be safer, and certainly warmer, aboard the Titanic than perched in a little boat in the North Atlantic Ocean. Not realizing the magnitude of the impending disaster themselves, the officers allowed several boats to be lowered only half full.
I Procedures again were at fault, as an additional reason for the officer’s reluctance to lower the lifeboats at full capacity was that they feared the lifeboats would buckle under the weight of 65 people. They had not been informed that the lifeboats had been fully tested prior to departure. Such procedures as assigning passengers and crew to lifeboats and lifeboat loading drills were simply not part of the standard operation of ships nor were they included in crew training at this time.
H The belief that the Titanic was unsinkable was so strong that passengers and crew alike clung to the belief even as she was actually sinking. This attitude was not helped by Captain Smith, who had not acquainted his senior officers with the full situation. For the first hour after the collision, the majority of people aboard the Titanic, including senior crew, were not aware that she would sink, that there were insufficient lifeboats or that the nearest ship responding to the Titanic's distress calls would arrive two hours after she was on the bottom of the ocean. As a result, the officers in charge of loading the boats received a very half- hearted response to their early calls for women and children to board the lifeboats. People felt that they would be safer, and certainly warmer, aboard the Titanic than perched in a little boat in the North Atlantic Ocean. Not realizing the magnitude of the impending disaster themselves, the officers allowed several boats to be lowered only half full.
I Procedures again were at fault, as an additional reason for the officer’s reluctance to lower the lifeboats at full capacity was that they feared the lifeboats would buckle under the weight of 65 people. They had not been informed that the lifeboats had been fully tested prior to departure. Such procedures as assigning passengers and crew to lifeboats and lifeboat loading drills were simply not part of the standard operation of ships nor were they included in crew training at this time.
J As the Titanic sank, another ship, believed to have been the Californian, was seen motionless less than twenty miles away. The ship failed to respond to the Titanic's eight distress rockets. Although the officers of the Californian tried to signal the Titanic with their flashing Morse lamp, they did not wake up their radio operator to listen for a distress call. At this time, communication at sea through wireless was new and the benefits not well appreciated, so the wireless on ships was often not operated around the clock. In the case of the Californian, the wireless operator slept unaware while 1,500 Titanic passengers and crew drowned only a few miles away.
K After the Titanic sank, investigations were held in both Washington and London. In the end, both inquiries decided that no one could be blamed for the sinking. However, they did address the fundamental safety issues which had contributed to the enormous loss of life. As a result, international agreements were drawn up to improve safety procedures at sea. The new regulations covered 24 hour wireless operation, crew training, proper lifeboat drills, lifeboat capacity for all on board and the creation of an international ice patrol.
Reading task type two: matching headings to paragraphs
[click here to read Active Reading Tips DAY 1 & Reading Task type 1]
Task description
In this type of question, you will be given a list of headings. The instructions will also indicate around 4 to 6 paragraphs from the reading text. The task is to find the most suitable heading for each of the paragraphs. There will be more headings than paragraphs, and you shouldn't use any heading more than once unless the instructions tell you that you can.
To complete this task well, you will need to be able to identify each paragraph's main focus. The correct heading will sum up the main idea of the paragraph.
What is being tested is your ability to:
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List of Headings
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[click here to read Active Reading Tips DAY 1 & Reading Task type 1]
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Subscribe now for interactive online training program for READING [strategies and tips only]. Click the titles below to know more
K After the Titanic sank, investigations were held in both Washington and London. In the end, both inquiries decided that no one could be blamed for the sinking. However, they did address the fundamental safety issues which had contributed to the enormous loss of life. As a result, international agreements were drawn up to improve safety procedures at sea. The new regulations covered 24 hour wireless operation, crew training, proper lifeboat drills, lifeboat capacity for all on board and the creation of an international ice patrol.
Reading task type two: matching headings to paragraphs
[click here to read Active Reading Tips DAY 1 & Reading Task type 1]
Task description
In this type of question, you will be given a list of headings. The instructions will also indicate around 4 to 6 paragraphs from the reading text. The task is to find the most suitable heading for each of the paragraphs. There will be more headings than paragraphs, and you shouldn't use any heading more than once unless the instructions tell you that you can.
To complete this task well, you will need to be able to identify each paragraph's main focus. The correct heading will sum up the main idea of the paragraph.
What is being tested is your ability to:
- Identify the main idea of a paragraph
How to approach matching headings to paragraphs
Step 1: Read the instructions carefully. Note that the heading you choose should sum up the main idea of the paragraph. Also note which paragraphs you need to look at, as you are often not required to do them all.
Step 2: Familiarise yourself with the list of paragraph headings by skimming through them quickly.
Step 3: Read through the first paragraph for which you have to find a heading. Remember that you are reading to find out the main idea of the paragraph. Concentrate on the main idea or focus of the paragraph and try not to be distracted by details or by unfamiliar vocabulary.
Step 4: Choose the heading from the list which best sums up the main point of the paragraph you have just read. If you can't choose between two headings, go on to the next paragraph _ you can come back to that question later. But don't forget to make a choice before the end of the test because if you leave a blank or you have marked two answers on your answer sheet, you will be graded as incorrect for that question.
Now Apply the Active tips you have learned here in the following exercise. Step 1: Read the instructions carefully. Note that the heading you choose should sum up the main idea of the paragraph. Also note which paragraphs you need to look at, as you are often not required to do them all.
Step 2: Familiarise yourself with the list of paragraph headings by skimming through them quickly.
Step 3: Read through the first paragraph for which you have to find a heading. Remember that you are reading to find out the main idea of the paragraph. Concentrate on the main idea or focus of the paragraph and try not to be distracted by details or by unfamiliar vocabulary.
Step 4: Choose the heading from the list which best sums up the main point of the paragraph you have just read. If you can't choose between two headings, go on to the next paragraph _ you can come back to that question later. But don't forget to make a choice before the end of the test because if you leave a blank or you have marked two answers on your answer sheet, you will be graded as incorrect for that question.
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Sample task
Choose the heading which best sums up the primary cause of the problem described in paragraphs D, E, G, H and I of the text. Write the appropriate numbers (1 to 10) in the boxes on your answer sheet.
Choose the heading which best sums up the primary cause of the problem described in paragraphs D, E, G, H and I of the text. Write the appropriate numbers (1 to 10) in the boxes on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
- Ignorance of the impending disaster
- Captain's orders ignored
- Captain's over-confidence
- Rough sea conditions
- Faulty design
- Iceberg locations not plotted
- Low priority placed on safety
- Number of lifeboats adequate
- Inadequate training
- Ice warnings ignored
||click here to SHOW ANSWERS
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[click here to read Active Reading Tips DAY 1 & Reading Task type 1]
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Subscribe now for interactive online training program for READING [strategies and tips only]. Click the titles below to know more
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[Note:-The active tips,questions,sample writing tasks,top 6 words,its meaning,sentences,teaching methodology & related details are obtained from various sources.Please click here REFERENCES for details of sources.The role of web page owner is limited to finding & modifying the questions,words,sample writing tasks and editing the content for our intended purpose.The purpose of this page is to promote IELTS training and English education for free as far as possible.However , not to misuse this opportunity and to minimize the losses incur, a fee is being charged for training session conducted by the live trainer through online chat.]
[Note:-The active tips,questions,sample writing tasks,top 6 words,its meaning,sentences,teaching methodology & related details are obtained from various sources.Please click here REFERENCES for details of sources.The role of web page owner is limited to finding & modifying the questions,words,sample writing tasks and editing the content for our intended purpose.The purpose of this page is to promote IELTS training and English education for free as far as possible.However , not to misuse this opportunity and to minimize the losses incur, a fee is being charged for training session conducted by the live trainer through online chat.]
Hi,
ReplyDeleteIts been one year since we have started our endeavors in sharing our knowledge about IELTS and many have benefited with it.Its our pleasure and honour to thank one and all in supporting us to grow and flourish further.Some of the persons who have benefited from this training had taken some time to share their experience about us to the outer world.These are been scripted here http://onlineieltshelp.blogspot.com/2010/03/hi-my-training-session-include-mock_16.html (go to last section of the page).Please have a look at it.
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Raj
http://onlineieltshelp.blogspot.com