IELTS Reading Skills &

Strategies

Strategies and skills – good or bad? Why?

1. Read the text very carefully in order to understand it entirely.

2. Look quickly at the text to get an overview of format – headings, diagrams etc.

3. Look through the text very quickly the first time to get the main ideas.

4. Read the questions first to get an idea of what to look for in the text.

5. In general, spend about 1 minute on each question.

6. Read each question or group of questions carefully, and then scan text to find

possible answers.

7. Underline and mark the text e.g. question numbers against text to check later.

8. Follow the instructions.

9. If you have difficulty with a question, re-read the passage as often as necessary to

find the answer.

10. It is not necessary to stick to the time limits recommended at the start of each

section.

11. If you are not sure of an answer, write it down in such a way you remember to

check it later.

12. If you think a particular word is important, try to work out its meaning from the

context.

13. If you are not sure which is correct (A, B, C or D / T, F, NG), guess an answer.

14. It is better to complete the test by rushing over some difficult questions, than not

to finish the test.

IELTS Reading Reading Skills

Match each skill with its description/definition

A SURVEYING 1 Reading a text very quickly to get

the general understanding and to
activate your schematic knowledge.

B SKIMMING 2 Reading a text and working out the

meaning of vocabulary from the
surrounding context and information
given.

C SCANNING 3 Reading a text in order to discover

the writer’s opinions or feelings from
the language and way it has been
expressed or presented.

D READING FOR DETAIL / 4 Reading a text in order to

CLOSE READING understand the more complex
meaning.

E INFERRING MEANING 5 Looking at a text very quickly before

reading to get an idea of lay-out:
title, pictures, graphs, headings
which helps with PREDICTION

F DEDUCING MEANING 6 Reading a text with the specific

purpose of extracting information
such as numbers, facts, words etc.
 IELTS Reading Surveying &
Skimming

READING SKILLS

SURVEYING AND SKIMMING

1. In two minutes, survey and skim the text. Look at the: title
figure
first/ last sentence of each
paragraph
2. Answer these questions:
1 What is the subject of the passage as a whole?
2 Which paragraph contains information about the larvae?
3 Which paragraph contains information about adult beetles?
4 Which paragraph contains information about where the beetles live?

PREDICTION AND QUESTION ANALYSIS

3. WITHOUT looking at the text again. Decide in which paragraph 1, 2 or 3 you would look
for the answers to questions 5 to 10.

Question 5 6 7 8 9 10
Paragraph …. …. …. …. …. ….

4. Complete the summary below by choosing a maximum of three words from the passage
to fill the spaces 5 to 10.
The deathwatch beetle is found most often in …5… and …6... They infest damp-
prone timber which has been affected …7… Adults do not feed, so they survive on …
8… and live for only two or three months. The larvae, on the other hand, live for up to
…9…, feeding on the timbers during that time. They pupate in …10… but the adult
does not emerge until the following spring.

From: How to Prepare for IELTS Ray de Witt British Council

Hidden history: the beetle’s secret cycle of life

The deathwatch beetle is thought of as the devil’s pest in churches and old houses, but in
natural habitats it infests a wide range of decaying hardwoods. It has been found in
hornbeam, sweet chestnut, hawthorn, beech, ash, black poplar, elm, larch, spruce and yew,
but the two most commonly infected species in Britain are oak and willow. In buildings, oak
timbers are usually the focus of attack by the beetle, but the alder, walnut, elm, larch and
Scots pine can be affected too. Deathwatch beetles attack wood that has been decayed by
fungi, so it is the damp-prone parts of timber, at the ends and near leaking gutters and
enclosed spaces, that are normally attacked first.

Adult beetles emerge from holes in the timber in spring, or occasionally in autumn. They
breed once, and a week or two later the females lay eggs, usually about fifty, in small cracks
on the surface of the wood. Adults depend on stored reserves; they do not feed, so the adult
lifespan is largely determined by body size and metabolic demands. Emergent females
rarely live for more than ten weeks, and males eight or nine weeks, at a temperature of
about 20ºC.

Egg 0.6-0.7mm

Adult 5-7mm

Full-grown larva
11mm

Pupa
7-8.5mm

The eggs hatch after two to five weeks and the larvae then wander across the wood to find
suitable entry points through which to bore into the timber. Then they take between two and
ten years to complete their development. The larvae pupate in late summer to early autumn,
each individual having constructed a pupal cell just below the surface of the wood. After two
or three weeks, the immature beetle emerges from the pupal skin, but then remains torpid
inside the chamber until the following spring or early summer. The mature beetle then cuts a
perfectly round hole, three to five millimetres in diameter, and emerges covered in a fine
layer of wood powder.