IELTS READING TIPS

1. You don’t need to read everything word for word in the passage. Use skills such as SKIMMING.
Quickly read the passage for the main idea. Read the first sentence of the paragraph to get the main idea
FAST. (Topic Sentence) Sometimes, it could be the second, but commonly it’s the first. SCANNING is
done by looking for keywords or specific details.
2. SPEED. Spend less time on the earlier questions. Remember, IELTS reading questions are sequential.
17 minutes – Passage 1
20 minutes – Passage 2
23 minutes – Passage 3
3. Practice spelling (American English and British English)
4. Knowing Keywords (nouns, verbs, adjectives), Synonyms and idioms/expressions

SYNONYMS (2 minutes)
1. Kids Children who believe intelligence can grow pay more attention to and bounce back
2. Increase from their mistakes more effectively than kids who think intelligence is fixed, indicates
3. Concentrate a new study that measured the young participants’ brain waves.
4. Recover
5. Permanent The research suggests teachers and parents should help children pay more attention to
6. Errors the mistakes they make so they can better learn from them as opposed to shying away
7. Recoiling from or glossing over mistakes.
8. Avoiding
9. Research “The main implication here is that we should pay close attention to our mistakes and
finding use them as opportunities to learn,” said Hans Schroder, lead author on the study.
10. Chance

1. Understand Humans are able to interpret the behavior of others by attributing mental states to them
2. Associating
3. Cognitive (and to themselves). By adopting the perspectives of other people, we can assume their
4. Empathizing
with emotions, needs and intentions and react accordingly. In the animal kingdom, the
5. Feelings
6. Goals ability to attribute mental states (Theory of Mind) is a highly contentious issue.
7. The wild
8. Show Cognitive biologists could demonstrate with a new test procedure that dogs are not
9. Is looking at
10. Understand only able to identify whether a human has an eye on a food source and, therefore,
signals
knows where the food has been hidden. They ca also apply this knowledge in order to

correctly interpret cues by humans and find food they cannot see themselves.

(2 minutes)
Find the synonyms for “accidentally”, “exert effort”, “endeavor”

A) Simply telling people that hard work is more important than genes causes positive changes in the brain
and may make them willing to try harder, a study shows. “Giving people messages that encourage
learning and motivation may promote more efficient performance.” Said the lead investigator. “In
contrast, telling people that intelligence is genetically fixed may inadvertently hamper learning

B) Were Albert Einstein and Leonardo Da Vinci born brilliant or d they acquire their intelligence through
effort? No one knows for sure, but telling people the latter – that hard work trumps genes – causes instant
changes in the brain and may make them more willing to strive for success.

C) The findings suggest the human brain is more receptive to the message that intelligence comes from the
environment, regardless of whether it’s true. And this simple message, said lead investigator Hans
Schroder, may ultimately prompt us to work harder.
(1 minute)

Finding the main idea of the paragraph

A. Salty foods make you thirstier We’ve all heard it: eating salty foods make you thirstier. But

B. Salty foods make you less thirsty what sounds like good nutritional advice turns out to be not true

in the long run. In a study carried out during a simulated

C. Salty foods make you energetic
mission to Mars, an international group of scientists has found
D. Salty foods are important on Mars
exactly the opposite to be true. “Cosmonauts” who ate more salt

retained more water, weren’t as thirsty, and need more energy.

Questions 1-2
Multiple Choice The unstoppable rise of the internet has given rise to fears that
1. What is the main problem
with the IAT? increasing numbers people are becoming unable to without regularly

A. It relies on old data going online. The Internet Addiction Test (IAT) is the standard test used
B. It does not utilize modern
internet tools to measure excessive reliance on the internet, but the IAT was
C. It is outdated
D. It has changed developed in 1998, prior to the widespread use of smartphone
significantly over time
technology. In addition, internet use has changed radically over the last
2. One particular problem
with the IAT is….. 18 years, through more people working online, media streaming, social
A. It may be overstating
results media, etc. The IAT questionnaire may not be picking up problematic
B. It is not standardized
modern internet use, or showing up false positives for people who were
C. It was developed prior to
1998 simply using the internet rather than being over reliant on it.
D. It doesn’t measure internet
reliance

Questions 3-6
Yes, No, Not Given
3. People who are visually
creative suffer more frequent
nightmares.
Do you ever dream of becoming the next Picasso? A new study
comparing art and social science students has found that the visually
creative people evaluate their sleep as of lower quality. Visually creative

4. Visually creative people people report disturbed sleep leading to difficulties in daytime
daydream more than normal
people functioning. In the case of verbally creative people, they sleep more

hours and go to sleep and get up later. In other words, the two types of
5. Verbally creative people sleep
longer than visually creative creativity were associated with different sleep patterns.
people.
This demonstrates that the expression of visual creativity involves
6. Visual and verbal creativity
utilize similar mental and different psychological and biological mechanisms to those found in
physical workings.
verbal creativity.

Questions 7 – 10 After a rough night’s sleep, your ability to recognize whether those
Choose NO MORE THAN ONE around you are happy or sad could suffer. Participants had a harder
WORD from the text for each answer.
time identifying facial expressions of happiness or sadness when they
7. Recognising happiness or
sadness after a hard night’s were sleep deprived versus well-rested.
sleep may __________.

8. In order to survive major
threats, we are hardwired to
recognize emotions that are
considered more __________.
The sleepy participants’ ability to interpret facial expressions of other
emotions – anger, fear, surprise and disgust – was not impaired,
however. That’s likely because we’re wired to recognize those more

9. Social emotions are less primitive emotions in order to survive acute dangers.
important for us to recognize
as they don’t depend on our
__________. While emotions such as fear and anger could indicate a threat, social

10. When it comes to our emotions such as happiness and sadness are less necessary for us to
immediate safety and well-
recognize for immediate survival. When we are tired, it seems we’re
being, we are more likely to
reallocate our mental more likely to dedicate our resources to recognizing those emotions
__________.
that could impact our short-term safety and well-being.

Worms

(5 minutes)
 About a quarter of the world's population could have worms living in their guts. For many years experts have
recommended treating large groups at risk of infection - but is this mass approach worthwhile? 

Evidence showing the benefits of large-scale deworming projects has come under scrutiny in recent weeks - the
debate has even been dubbed "worm wars". Parasites, such as roundworm, hookworm and whipworm could be
living inside more than 1.5 billion people according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 

"People are usually infected through contaminated food but hookworm larvae can also burrow into feet, get
into blood vessels and make their way to the heart and lungs. From there they can climb up to the oesophagus*
and be swallowed, ending up in the gut where they grow. 

Worms are not usually fatal but in serious cases they can cause abdominal pain, diarrhoea, loss of appetite,
weight loss, fatigue and anaemia. In children, they can also contribute to malnutrition, stunted growth, and
absences from school. A nurse gives deworming treatment to a boy in India 

*oesophagus – throat

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

1. Now scientists doubt whether it is _________ to treat large groups of possibly infected people.
2. The experts called the debate __________
3. Hookworm larvae might make his way to the _________ and then be swallowed.
4. Although dangerous, worms are rarely __________.