An IELTS 6.

0+ Preparation Course provided by Thầy Hải – ESPD/HANU

haint@hanu.edu.vn/ ESPD-HANU

IELTS Reading: Lesson 1

 Introduction to the Reading Test
 Focus: Completion Questions (without bank)

Question types Two important points

 Completion questions (without bank)
 Matching questions 1. ________________________
 Multiple-choice questions
 T/F/NG questions 2. ________________________

Here is a list of advice and techniques for IELTS reading:

1.Don't read the whole text; you haven't got enough time. Just go straight to the questions.
2.'Paragraph' questions are much easier if you do them last. Do other sections first.
3.The answers to most questions should be in the correct order in the text, so you don't need to go
back to the beginning to start looking for the next answer.
4.Read all instructions carefully.
5.Look for 'keywords'. There are usually words in the questions that are similar to words you need to
find in the text. For example, if the text contains the word "global", the question might use the word
"international". If you find the similar words, you have probably found the answer.
6.You must get to the end and answer every question. If you don't finish, you might miss some easy
points.
7.Some questions are difficult because their aim is to distinguish bands 8-9 from the others. Don't
waste time on difficult questions. Miss them, finish the exam, and return to them at the end.

* GAP-FILLING (COMPLETION QUESTIONS WITHOUT BANK):

♦ Summary completion
♦ Table/ Chart/ Diagram completion
♦ Sentence completion
♦ Short answer questions

* Strategies:
 Have a quick look at the whole group of questions to check you can locate the relevant
information in the reading passage quickly.
 Questions are often in order, so you don’t need to read them all at once. Read up to 2
questions at a time and identify the type and form of the missing word(s).
 Underline the key word in the question and work out its equivalent in the reading text.
 Once you’ve found an answer, double check if it fits both grammatically and semantically. Copy
the exact word(s) from the passage for your answer.

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 >>> Skill practice 1
The killer whale club
Fish-eating killer whales live in stable family
groups called pods that contain an average of
ten individuals. However, despite spending the
vast majority of their time within their own pod,
killer whales have recently been discovered to
have social inclinations outside their group as
well, and to have taken a liking to a spot located
in the Avacha Gulf, off the coast of Russia, for
casual meeting.
Several years ago, scientists were amazed to
discover up to 100 of the creatures, joined
together in a ‘superpod’ lurking in the waters. At
first they had no real explanation as to why the
whales were engaging in this type of behaviour.
It was unlikely that the whales were gathering
for protection, as they have no natural
predators. And the suggestion that they were
gathering to hunt for food was dismissed, since
a larger concentration of whales diminishes the
amount of food available to each one.
However, a new scientific study comes with a
possible explanation – the whales gather at the
meeting place in order to form, grow, and
maintain social ties with each other. At least ten
such groups come together in order for the
massive assembly in Russia to take place.
This phenomenon is not limited to Russian
waters. Similar gatherings have been discovered
in British Columbia, Alaska, Iceland and
Antarctica, and can take place in any area
where large concentrations of orca pods appear.
Experts from the Moscow State University and
the Far East Russia Orca project took an interest
in the ‘clubs’ and carefully observed the whales
in Russia.
They noticed that the animals moved around in
small groups of two to six individuals. ‘In every
direction, you see groupings of two to six killer
whales surfacing, spouting, then dipping below
the surface. Each grouping has a focal mother
figure surrounded by her offspring,’ stated
Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
(WDCS) project co-director Erich Hoyt.
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It was observed that the whales rarely herded fish and
fed when they gathered in the superpod. However,
they did interact much more during these gatherings,
which lasted from a few hours to almost half a day.
When meeting killer whales from other family pods,
they made contact with each other, swam in
synchrony and rubbed flippers much more.
‘The superpods are the whale equivalent of social
clubs. These clubs could help them stay acquainted,
but could have other functions that we need to learn
about. Understanding more about their social lives,
including their reproduction, will be crucial to our
future understanding of them and our ability to keep
their population healthy,’ Hoyt concludes.
Questions 1-8
Complete the sentences below, using NO MORE THAN
TWO WORDS from the reading passage for each
answer.
1. The Avacha Gulf is a place where pods of killer
whales enjoy __________________.
2. Scientists didn’t think that the whales were joining
together to protect one another from
_______________________.
3. Research suggests that the whales meet for
____________________ reasons.
4. A minimum of __________________________
pods are necessary to form a superpod.
5. Social meetings between pods are known to
____________________ in other areas away from
Russian waters.
6. During the observation, groups of two to six killer
whales were seen to appear above the water’s
_______________________.
7. In the superpod, whales were observed to
_____________________ more than they usually
do.
8. Hoyt believes it is ________________ for humans
to understand why whales meet in superpods.
IELTS 6.0+ - Reading
 >>> Skill practice 2
Australian culture and
culture shock
by Anna Jones and Xuan Quach
Sometimes work, study or a sense of adventure take
us out of our familiar surroundings to go and live in
a different culture. The experience can be difficult,
even shocking.
Almost everyone who studies, lives or works
abroad has problems adjusting to a new culture.
This response is commonly referred to as ‘culture
shock’. Culture shock can be defined as ‘the physical
and emotional discomfort a person experiences
when entering a culture different from their own’
(Weaver, 1993).
For people moving to Australia, Price (2001) has
identified certain values which may give rise to
culture shock. Firstly, he argues that Australians
place a high value on independence and personal
choice. This means that a teacher or course tutor
will not tell students what to do, but will give them
a number of options and suggest they work out
which one is the best in their circumstances. It also
means that they are expected to take action if
something goes wrong and seek out resources and
support for themselves.
Australians are also prepared to accept a range of
opinions rather than believing there is one truth.
This means that in an educational setting, students
will be expected to form their own opinions and
defend the reasons for that point of view and the
evidence for it.
Price also comments that Australians are
uncomfortable with differences in status and hence
idealise the idea of treating everyone equally. An
illustration of this is that most adult Australians call
each other by their first names. This concern with
equality means that Australians are uncomfortable
taking anything too seriously and are even ready to
joke about themselves.
Australians believe that life should have a balance
between work and leisure time. As a consequence,
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some students may be critical of others who they
perceive as doing nothing but study. Australian
notions of privacy mean that areas such as
financial matters, appearance and relationships are
only discussed with close friends. While people
may volunteer such information, they may resent
someone actually asking them unless the
friendship is firmly established. Even then, it is
considered very impolite to ask someone what
they earn. With older people, it is also rude to ask
how old they are, why they are not married or
why they do not have children. It is also impolite
to ask people how much they have paid for
something, unless there is a very good reason for
asking.
Kohls (1996) describes culture shock as a process of
change marked by four basic stages. During the
first stage, the new arrival is excited to be in a new
place, so this is often referred to as the
“honeymoon” stage. Like a tourist, they are
intrigued by all the new sights and sounds, new
smells and tastes of their surroundings. They may
have some problems, but usually they accept them
as just part of the novelty. At this point, it is the
similarities that stand out, and it seems to the
newcomer that people everywhere and their way
of life are very much alike. This period of euphoria
may last from a couple of weeks to a month, but
the letdown is inevitable.
During the second stage, known as the ‘rejection’
stage, the newcomer starts to experience
difficulties due to the differences between the new
culture and the way they were accustomed to
living. The initial enthusiasm turns into irritation,
frustration, anger and depression, and these
feelings may have the effect of people rejecting the
new culture so that they notice only the things that
cause them trouble, which they then complain
about. In addition, they may feel homesick, bored,
withdrawn and irritable during this period as well.
Fortunately, most people gradually learn to adapt
to the new culture and move on to the third stage,
known as ‘adjustment and reorientation’. During
this stage a transition occurs to a new optimistic
IELTS 6.0+ - Reading
 attitude. As the newcomer begins to understand more of the new culture, they are able to
interpret some of the subtle cultural clues which passed by unnoticed earlier. Now things
make more sense and the culture seems more familiar. As a result, they begin to develop
problem-solving skills, and feelings of disorientation and anxiety no longer affect them.

In Kohls’s model, in the fourth stage, newcomers undergo a process of adaptation. They have
settled into the new culture, and this results in a feeling of direction and self-confidence.
They have accepted the new food, drinks, habits and customs and may even find themselves
enjoying some of the very customs that bothered them so much previously. In addition, they
realise that the new culture has good and bad things to offer and that no way is really better
than another, just different.

Questions 1-7
Complete the table below, using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the reading
passage for each answer.

THE STAGES OF CULTURE SHOCK

Name Newcomers’ reaction to problems

They notice the 2. ____________ between different

Stage 1 1. ____________ nationalities and cultures. They may experience
this stage for up to 3.__________.

They reject the new culture and lose the

Stage 2 Rejection
4.__________________ they had at the beginning.

They can understand some 5.__________ which

Adjustment and
Stage 3 they had not previously observed. They learn
reorientation
6._____________ for dealing with difficulties.

They enjoy some of the customs that annoyed

Stage 4 7._______________
them before.

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 >>> Skill practice 3
The World Wide Web from
its origins
Science inspired the World Wide Web, and the Web has
responded by changing science.
“INFORMATION Management: A Proposal”. That
was the bland title of a document written in March
1989 by a then little-known computer scientist
called Tim Berners-Lee, who was working at CERN,
Europe's particle physics laboratory, near Geneva.
His proposal, modestly called the World Wide Web,
has far more than anyone had expected at the time.
In fact, the web was invented to deal with a specific
problem. In the late 1980s, CERN was planning one
of the most ambitious scientific projects ever, the
Large Hadron Collider(*), or LHC. As the first few
lines of the original proposal put it, “Many of the
discussions of the future at CERN and the LHC era
end with the question—‘Yes, but how will we ever
keep track of such a large project?' This proposal
provides an answer to such questions.”
The web, as everyone now knows, has found uses
far beyond the original one of linking electronic
documents about particle physics in laboratories
around the world. But amid all the changes it has
brought about, from personal social networks to
political campaigning, it has also transformed the
business of doing science itself, as the man who
invented hoped it would.
It allows journals to be published online and links to
be made from one paper to another. It also permits
professional scientists to recruit thousands of
amateurs to give them a hand. One such project,
called GalaxyZoo, used these unpaid workers to
classify 1 million images of galaxies into various
types (spiral, elliptical and irregular). This project,
intended to help astronomers understand how
-----
(*) The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s
largest particle accelerator and collides particle beams. It
provides information on fundamental questions of
physics.
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A proud father
galaxies evolve, was so successful that a successor
has now been launched, to classify the brightest
quarter of a million of them in finer detail. People
working for a more modest project called
Herbaria@home examine scanned images of
handwritten notes about old plants stored in
British museums. This will allow them to track the
changes in the distribution of species in response
to climate change.
Another new scientific application of the Web is to
use it as an experimental laboratory in its own
right. It is allowing social scientists, in particular,
to do things that were previously impossible. In
one project, scientists made observations about the
sizes of human social networks using data from
Facebook. A second investigation of these
networks, produced by Bernardo Huberman of HP
Labs, Hewlett-Packard's research arm in Palo Alto,
California, looked at Twitter, a social networking
website that allows people to post short messages
to long lists of friends.
At first glance, the networks seemed enormous—
the 300,000 Twitterers sampled had 80 friends
each, on average (those on Facebook had 120), but
some listed up to 1,000. Closer statistical
inspection, however, revealed that many of the
messages were directed at a few specific friends.
This showed that an individual’s active social
network is far smaller than his “clan”.
Dr.Huberman has also helped uncover several
laws of web surfing, including the number of times
an average person will go from web page to web
page on a given site before giving up, and the
details of the “winner-takes-all” phenome-non
whereby a few sites on a given subject grab most
of the attention, and the rest get hardly any.
IELTS 6.0+ - Reading
 Scientists have been good at using the web to carry out research. They have, however, not
been so effective at employing the latest web-based social-networking tools to open up
scientific discussion and encourage more effective collaboration.

Journalists are now used to having their articles commented on by dozens of readers. Indeed,
many bloggers develop and refine their essays as a result of these comments. Yet although
people have tried to have scientific research reviewed in the same way, most researchers
only accept reviews from a few anonymous experts. When Nature, one of the world's most
respected scientific journals, experimented with open peer review in 2006, the results were
disappointing. Only 5% of the authors it spoke to agreed to have their article posted for
review on the web—and their instinct turned out to be right, because almost half of the
papers attracted no comments. Michael Nielsen, an expert on quantum computers, belongs
to a new wave of scientist bloggers who want to change this. He thinks the reason for this the
lack of comments is that potential reviewers lack of incentive.

Questions 1-4
Complete the note below, using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the reading passage
for each answer.

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND INTERNET USE

Web used by social scientists (including Dr. Huberman) to

investigate the (1)___________ of social networks.

Most (2)__________ intended for limited number of people –

not everyone on list.

Dr. Huberman also investigated:

 (3)________ to discover how long people will spend on a
particular website;
 why a small number of sites get much more
(4)____________ than others on same subject.

Questions 5-7
Answer the questions below, using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the reading
passage for each answer.

5. Whose writing improves as a result of feedback received from readers?

_____________________________
6. What type of writing is not reviewed extensively on the Web?
_____________________________
7. Which publication invited authors to publish their articles on the World Wide Web?
_____________________________
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>>> Exam practice 1

Introducing dung1 beetles into a pasture is a simple process: approximately 1,500 beetles are
released, a handful at a time, into fresh cow pats2 in the cow pasture. The beetles immediately
disappear beneath the pats digging and tunneling and, if they successfully adapt to their new
environment, soon become a permanent, self-sustaining part of the local ecology. In time they
multiply and within three or four years the benefits to the pasture are obvious.

Dung beetles work from the inside of the pat so they are sheltered from predators such as birds
and foxes. Most species burrow into the soil and bury dung in tunnels directly underneath the
pats, which are hollowed out from within. Some large species originating from France excavate
tunnels to a depth of approximately 30 cm below the dung pat. These beetles make sausage-
shaped brood chambers along the tunnels. The shallowest tunnels belong to a much smaller
Spanish species that buries dung in chambers that hang like fruit from the branches of a pear
tree. South African beetles dig narrow tunnels of approximately 20 cm below the surface of the
pat. Some surface-dwelling beetles, including a South African species, cut perfectly-shaped balls
from the pat, which are rolled away and attached to the bases of plants.

For maximum dung burial in spring, summer and autumn, farmers require a variety of species
with overlapping periods of activity. In the cooler environments of the state of Victoria, the
large French species (2.5 cms long), is matched with smaller (half this size), temperate-climate
Spanish species. The former are slow to recover from the winter cold and produce only one or
two generations of offspring from late spring until autumn. The latter, which multiply rapidly
in early spring, produce two to five generations annually. The South African ball-rolling species,
being a sub-tropical beetle, prefers the climate of northern and coastal New South Wales where
it commonly works with the South African tunneling species. In warmer climates, many species
are active for longer periods of the year.
-----
Glossary : 1. dung: the droppings or excreta of animals 2. cow pats: droppings of cows

Question 9 – 13
Complete the table below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

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>>> Exam practice 2
SPOKEN CORPUS COMES TO LIFE
A The compiling of dictionaries has been historically the provenance of studious professorial types - usually
bespectacled - who love to pore over weighty tomes and make pronouncements on the finer nuances of
meaning. They were probably good at crosswords and definitely knew a lot of words, but the image was
always rather dry and dusty. The latest technology, and simple technology at that, is revolutionising the
content of dictionaries and the way they are put together.
B For the first time, dictionary publishers are incorporating real, spoken English into their data. It gives
lexicographers (people who write dictionaries) access to a more vibrant, up-to-date vernacular language
which has never really been studied before. In one project, 150 volunteers each agreed to discreetly tie a
Walkman recorder to their waist and leave it running for anything up to two weeks. Every conversation
they had was recorded. When the data was collected, the length of tapes was 35 times the depth of the
Atlantic Ocean. Teams of audio typists transcribed the tapes to produce a computerised database of ten
million words.
C This has been the basis - along with an existing written corpus for the Language Activator dictionary,
described by lexicographer Professor Randolph Quirk as “the book the world has been waiting for”. It
shows advanced foreign learners of English how the language is really used. In the dictionary, key words
such as “eat” are followed by related phrases such as “wolf down” or “be a picky eater”, allowing the
student to choose the appropriate phrase.
D “This kind of research would be impossible without computers,” said Delia Summers, a director of
dictionaries. “It has transformed the way lexicographers work. If you look at the word “like”, you may
intuitively think that the first and most frequent meaning is the verb, as in “I like swimming”. It is not. It is
the preposition, as in: “she walked like a duck”. Just because a word or phrase is used doesn’t mean it
ends up in a dictionary. The sifting out process is as vital as ever. But the database does allow
lexicographers to search for a word and find out how frequently it is used – something that could only
be guessed at intuitively before.
E Researchers have found that written English works in a very different way to spoken English. The phrase
“say what you like” literally means “feel free to say anything you want”, but in reality it is used, evidence
shows, by someone to prevent the other person voicing disagreement. The phrase “it” is a question of
crops up on the database over and over again. It has nothing to do with enquiry, but it’s one of the most
frequent English phrases which has never been in a language learner’s dictionary before: it is now.
F The Spoken Corpus computer shows how inventive and humorous people are when they are using
language by twisting familiar phrases for effect. It also reveals the power of the pauses and noises we use
to play for time, convey emotion, doubt and irony.
G For the moment, those benefiting most from the Spoken Corpus are foreign learners. “Computers allow
lexicographers to search quickly through more examples of real English,” said Professor Geoffrey Leech of
Lancaster University. “They allow dictionaries to be more accurate and give a feel for how language is
being used.” The Spoken Corpus is part of the larger British National Corpus, an initiative carried out by
several groups involved in the production of language learning materials: publishers, universities and the
British Library.

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>>> Exam practice 2

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>>> Exam practice 3
IMPLEMENTING THE CYCLE OF SUCCESS: A Case Study

Within Australia, Australian Hotels Inc. (AHI) operates nine hotels and employs over 2000 permanent full-
time staff, 300 permanent part-time employees and 100 casual staff. One of its latest ventures, the Sydney
Airport hotel (SAH), opened in March 1995. The hotel is the closest to Sydney Airport and is designed to
provide the best available accommodation, food and beverage and meeting facilities in Sydney's southern
suburbs. Similar to many international hotel chains, however, AHI has experienced difficulties in Australia
in providing long-term profits for hotel owners, as a result of the country's high labour-cost structure. In
order to develop an economically viable hotel organisation model, AHI decided to implement some new
policies and practices at SAH.

The first of the initiatives was an organisational structure with only three levels of management - compared
to the traditional seven. Partly as a result of this change, there are 25 per cent fewer management
positions, enabling a significant saving. This change also has other implications. Communication, both up
and down the organisation, has greatly improved. Decision-making has been forced down in many cases
to front-line employees. As a result, guest requests are usually met without reference to a supervisor,
improving both customer and employee satisfaction.

The hotel also recognised that it would need a different approach to selecting employees who would fit in
with its new policies. In its advertisements, the hotel stated a preference for people with some 'service'
experience in order to minimise traditional work practices being introduced into the hotel. Over 7000
applicants filled in application forms for the 120 jobs initially offered at SAH. The balance of the positions
at the hotel (30 management and 40 shift leader positions) were predominantly filled by transfers from
other AHI properties.

A series of tests and interviews were conducted with potential employees, which eventually left 280
applicants competing for the 120 advertised positions. After the final interview, potential recruits were
divided into three categories. Category A was for applicants exhibiting strong leadership qualities,
Category C was for applicants perceived to be followers, and Category B was for applicants with both
leader and follower qualities. Department heads and shift leaders then composed prospective teams using
a combination of people from all three categories. Once suitable teams were formed, offers of employment
were made to team members.

Another major initiative by SAH was to adopt a totally multi-skilled workforce. Although there may be some
limitations with highly technical jobs such as cooking or maintenance, wherever possible, employees at
SAH are able to work in a wide variety of positions. A multi-skilled workforce provides far greater
management flexibility during peak and quiet times to transfer employees to needed positions. For
example, when office staff are away on holidays during quiet periods of the year, employees in either
food or beverage or housekeeping departments can temporarily.

The most crucial way, however, of improving the labour cost structure at SAH was to find better, more
productive ways of providing customer service. SAH management concluded this would first require a
process of 'benchmarking'. The prime objective of the benchmarking process was to compare a range of
service delivery processes across a range of criteria using teams made up of employees from different
departments within the hotel which interacted with each other. This process resulted in performance
measures that greatly enhanced SAH's ability to improve productivity and quality.

The front office team discovered through this project that a high proportion of AHI Club member
reservations were incomplete. As a result, the service provided to these guests was below the standard
promised to them as part of their membership agreement. Reducing the number of incomplete
reservations greatly improved guest perceptions of service.

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>>> Exam practice 3

In addition, a program modelled on an earlier project called 'Take Charge' was implemented. Essentially,
Take Charge provides an effective feedback loop from both customers and employees. Customer
comments, both positive and negative, are recorded by staff. These are collated regularly to identify
opportunities for improvement. Just as importantly, employees are requested to note down their own
suggestions for improvement. (AHI has set an expectation that employees will submit at least three
suggestions for every one they receive from a customer.) Employee feedback is reviewed daily and
suggestions are implemented within 48 hours, if possible, or a valid reason is given for non-
implementation. If suggestions require analysis or data collection, the Take Charge team has 30 days in
which to address the issue and come up with recommendations.

Although quantitative evidence of AHI's initiatives at SAH are limited at present, anecdotal evidence
clearly suggests that these practices are working. Indeed AHI is progressively rolling out these initiatives in
other hotels in Australia, whilst numerous overseas visitors have come to see how the program works.

Questions 6-13
Complete the following summary of the last four paragraphs of Reading Passage using NO MORE THAN
TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.

WHAT THEY DID AT SAH

Teams of employees were selected from different hotel departments to participate in a (6) ___________
exercise. The information collected was used to compare (7) ______________ processes which, in turn,
led to the development of (8) ______________ that would be used to increase the hotel's capacity to
improve (9) ______________ as well as quality. Also, an older program known as (10)_____________
was introduced at SAH. In this program, (11) _____________ is sought from customers and staff.
Wherever possible (12) ______________ suggestions are implemented within 48 hours. Other
suggestions are investigated for their feasibility for a period of up to (13)__________________.

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 >>> Exam Practice 4

Third culture kids

In a world where international careers
are becoming commonplace, the
phenomenon of third culture kids (TCKs)
– children who spend a significant portion
of their developmental years in a culture
outside their parents’ passport culture(s)
– is increasing exponentially. Not only is
their number increasing, but the cultural
complexity and relevance of their
experience and the adult TCKs (ATCKs)
they become, is also growing.

When Ruth Hill Useem, a sociologist, first They have seen the world and often learnt several
coined this term in the 1950s, she spent a languages. More importantly, through friendships that
year researching expatriates in India. She cross the usual racial, national, or social barriers, they
discovered that folks who came from their home (or have also learned the very different ways people can
first) culture and moved to a host (or second) culture, see life. This offers a great opportunity to become social
had, in reality, formed a culture, or lifestyle, different and cultural bridges between worlds that traditionally
from either the first or second cultures. She called this would never connect. ATCK Mikel Jentzsch, author of a
the third culture and the children who grew up in this best selling book in Germany, Bloodbrothers - Our
lifestyle third culture kids. At that time, most expatriate Friendship in Liberia, has a German passport but grew
families had parents from the same culture and they up in Niger and then Liberia. Before the Liberian civil
often remained in one host culture while overseas. war forced his family to leave, Mikel played daily with
those who were later forced to become soldiers for that
This is no longer the case. Take, for example, Brice war. Through his eyes, the stories of those we would
Royer, the founder of TCKid.com. His father is a half- otherwise overlook come to life for the rest of us.
French/half-Vietnamese UN peacekeeper while his
mom is Ethiopian. Brice lived in seven countries before Understanding the TCK experience is also important for
he was eighteen including France, Mayotte, La other reasons. Many ATCKs are now in positions of
Reunion, Ethiopia, Egypt, Canada, and England. He influence and power. Their capacity to often think
writes, “When people ask me ‘Where are you from?,’ I “outside the box” can offer new and creative thinking
just joke around and say, ‘My mom says I’m from for doing business and living in our globalising world.
heaven’.” What other answer can he give? But that same thinking can create fear for those who
see the world from a more traditional world view.
ATCK Elizabeth Dunbar’s father, Roy, moved from Neither the non-ATCKs or ATCKs may recognise that
Jamaica to Britain as a young boy. Her mother, there may be a cultural clash going on because, by
Hortense, was born in Britain as the child of Jamaican traditional measures of diversity such as race or gender,
immigrants who always planned to repatriate “one they are alike.
day”. While Elizabeth began life in Britain, her dad’s
international career took the family to the United In addition, many people hear the benefits and
States, then to Venezuela and back to living in three challenges of the TCK Profile described and wonder why
different cities in the US. She soon realised that while they relate to it when they never lived overseas because
racial diversity may be recognised, the hidden cultural of a parent’s career. Usually, however, there have
diversity of her life remained invisible. grown up cross-culturally in another way, perhaps as
children of immigrants, refugees, bi-racial or bi-cultural
Despite such complexities, however, most ATCKs say unions, international adoptees, even children of
their experience of growing up among different minorities. If we see the TCK experience as a Petri dish
cultural worlds has given them many priceless gifts.

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compiled and/or adapted by Thầy Hải ESPD-HANU at haint@hanu.edu.vn \ 0983.099.183
 >>> Exam Practice 4

of sorts – a place where the effects of growing up among many cultural worlds accompanied by a
high degree of mobility has been studied – then we can look for what lessons may also be relevant to
helping us understand issues other cross-cultural kids (CCKs) and others may also face. It is possible
we may discover that we need to rethink our traditional ways of defining diversity and identity. For
some, as for TCKs, “culture” may be something defined by shared experience rather than shared
nationality or ethnicity. In naming our stories and developing new models for our changing world,
many will be able to recognise and use well the great gifts of a cross-cultural childhood and deal
successfully with the challenges for their personal, communal, and corporate good.

Questions 1-7
Complete the note below, using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the reading
passage for each answer.

THIRD CULTURE KIDS – ADVANTAGES AND RESULTS

Area Advantage for ATCKs Possible result

• Know how different people • Can act as bridges between

Friendship
(1)______________ worlds that are usually separate

• May cause (2)___________ among

certain people
Business • Creative thinking
• Can lead to (3)___________
despite similarities
• Can teach us about problems
faced by (5)___________ of all
kinds
• Knowledge of many cultural
Whole • Current ideas of what both
worlds and a great deal of
experience (6)___________ mean may be
(4)________________
considered wrong

• Belief that culture depends on

(7)____________

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compiled and/or adapted by Thầy Hải ESPD-HANU at haint@hanu.edu.vn \ 0983.099.183