Explain what it means to have each of these personal qualities, using your own words.
Example: 1. an eye for detail - You do things like read documents very carefully and focus on all the small points, checking their accuracy.
- an eye for detail
- creativity
- an enquiring mind
- the ability to work in a team
- vision
- an outgoing personality
- good communication skills
- management skills
Now check you answers, matching the phrases to their definitions
Which of the qualities in the previous exercise do you think each of the photos illustrates?
Some could illustrate more than one quality.
- You hear a conversation between two people on a social topic.
- This is the easiest part of the Listening test. The other three parts are in increasing order of difficulty.
- In this section only, you are given an example at the beginning.
Before you listen, look at this advertisement, then discuss the questions below.
- What do you think happens at a graduate fair?
- Why do you think they are useful?
- Why do many jobs require you to have a university degree? When is vocational training more useful than a university degree?
- What might improve a graduate's chances of getting the job they want?
Listen 00:20-05:25
Look at Questions 1-10 and quickly check what type of information you need to fill each gap.
- Before you listen, think what type of information you need for each gap.
- Read ahead as you listen, because you only hear the recording once.
- Check your spelling and any standard abbreviations (e. g. cm for centimetres) that you use.
- If you need to write numbers, write them as figures, not words, as you are less likely to make mistakes.
Imagine you are talking to another student who you have met at the coffee bar at a graduate fair.
Introduce yourself and tell each other about your:
- studies and qualifications / current job
- career plans and reasons for them
- free-time interests and related qualifications.
Sometimes more than one answer is possible.
Choose the correct preposition in each of these sentences.
- In this part of the Speaking test, the examiner asks questions about your home town, work or studies and some other familiar topics.
- This part lasts between four and five minutes.
Listen to four students answering some Part 1 questions. As you listen, decide on the focus of each student's answer.
Listen 06:29-10:56
Complete the examiner's question by writing one word in each gap. In some cases, more than one answer is possible.
Listen again and complete each of these extracts with a word/phrase.
Choose the correct verb form in these extracts.
We use used + the infinitive to talk about past states and past habits or repeated activities which no longer happen in the present:
- It used to be a technical college, but now it's a university. (a past state)
- She used to call her mother every day when she was in Australia. (past habit or repeated activity)
The negative is did not use + infinitive:
- Katya didn't use to be a nurse.
The question form is Did … use + infinitive …?:
- Did you use to play the piano?
Note: used + infinitive is only used in the past. It cannot be used in other tenses.
We use would to talk about past habits or repeated activities:
- Every day, he would get up early and go for a run.
Note: we cannot use would for past states:
- The price of oil would used to be much lower.
We use be/become/get used to + noun/noun phrase/pronoun/verb+-ing to mean 'be/become/get accustomed to':
- You'll soon get used to living in Toronto.
Note: be/become/get can be used in any tense:
- He wasn't used to the cold weather.
- I've become more used to city life now.
Homework
Complete these sentences so that they are true for you.
- When I was a child, I used to …
- When I started secondary school, I had to get used to …
- After school, my classmates would …
- I have never got used to …
- Compared to the past, I am … than I used to be.
- By the time I went to secondary school, I was used to …
Answer these Part 1 Speaking questions using:
• the different forms of used to and would
• sentence stress to express yourself clearly
2. How did you feel about getting up early as a child?
3. Which teacher did you like best at school? Why?
4. What did you particularly dislike about your school days?
5. What did you look forward to most at school?
6. What skills did you learn at school that might be useful in your work?
You are going to read a passage about a prestigious university.
Before you read, discuss these questions.
1. What are the most prestigious universities in your country?
2. In general, what makes a university prestigious?
3. Why do many students want to go to a prestigious university?
Scanning and skimming are skills that will save you time when you do the IELTS Reading paper.
Skim the passage on pages 11-12. Which of these best describes the writer's purpose?
- to review the courses at MIT
- to explain why MIT has been so successful
- to describe the history of MIT
Scan the passage to find these phrases, then choose the idea(s) that they refer back to.
- Look at Question 1 in the task below and the underlined words. Scan the passage to find the same or similar words.
- Underline words or phrases in Questions 2-5 that might also occur in the passage.
- Scan the passage and underline the same or similar words to those in the question.
- Underline words or phrases in the question that will help you quickly scan for the right place in the passage.
- Read each statement carefully and decide on the main idea. Compare this with what is stated in the passage.
- Write 'TRUE' if the ideas are the same. If the passage says the opposite of the information in the question, write 'FALSE'; if the passage does not include the information expressed in the question, write 'NOT GIVEN'.
Read Questions 6-9 and quickly check what information you need for each gap.
Then, using the title to find the right part of the passage, answer the questions.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
- Use the title to find the right place in the passage.
- Read the notes and decide what type of information you need for each gap.
- The information in the notes may be in a different order from the information in the passage.
- Be careful to copy words from the passage in exactly the same form.
- Read Questions 10-13 and quickly check what information you need.
- Underline words in the questions which will help you to find the right place in the passage.
- Answer Questions 10-13.
Check your answers. You can lose marks with:
- answers that are hard to spell.
Did you copy your answers for Questions 6, 8 and 9 correctly?
- answers that consist of a phrase, rather than a word.
Did you write both words for Questions 6, 9, 11 and 12?
- questions that can easily be misinterpreted.
Is your answer to Question 10 a proportion and not a number?
Is your answer to Question 12 an innovation?
- Underline words in each question which help to find the right place in the passage. The questions follow the order of information in the passage.
- Read that part carefully and underline the answer.
- Copy the answer exactly, without including any unnecessary words.
Spin the wheel and answer the questions
Homework
Read and listen to these Part 1 extracts.
Underline the words in the sentences that the speakers stress.
- A couple of years ago, I decided that I wanted to work in the hotel industry.
- So that's why I've been doing a hotel-management course for the past two years.
- I know that cats don't talk, but this one did!
- He's two - he's a toddler now.
- I think my fitness level's a bit better than it used to be!
- using it to refer to something in a previous sentence?
- making a contrast between two things?
Underline the words in each sentence that you think should be stressed, and say why.
- I really don't like having animals in the home.
- I go running in the afternoon because I feel more energetic at that time of day.
- I think everyone's too busy these days to make anything by hand!
- I tried sewing at school, but I just couldn't do it.
- My brother did badly at school, yet he earns more than I do!
Read the answers and practice the stress to the previous exercise.
- You can expect to be asked questions on a range of familiar topics. Prepare yourself for this by thinking of a range of higher-level vocabulary you can use with these topics.
- Aim to answer questions using two to three sentences, giving reasons and extra details.
- Use stress to emphasise important information.
Answer these questions from Speaking part 1, using the stress technique.
- What do you study?
- Where do you study that?
- Why did you choose that subject?
- Is it a popular subject in your country?
- Do you like that subject?
- Do you get on with your colleagues?
- What was your first day like?
- What are the main aspects of your subject?
- If you had the chance, would you change subject?
- Do you plan to get a job in the same field as your subject?
- You write a summary of information from one or more graphs, tables, charts or diagrams.
- You must also compare some of the information and write an overview.
- You write at least 150 words in about 20 minutes.
Look at the Writing task below and complete this introductory sentence, using the words from the list to help you.
The graph gives information about how many …
- between
- Canadian
- graduates
- male and female
- students
Which FOUR of these statements (1–7) describe main features of the graph?
- The number of graduates fell between 1996 and 1998.
- The overall rise in numbers was not always steady.
- Just under 75,000 male students graduated in 1992.
- More women than men graduated between 1992 and 2007.
- In 2007, there were nearly 150,000 female graduates.
- The gap between the number of male and female graduates widened over the period.
- The trends for male and female graduates were similar.
Work in pairs. Read this continuation of the sample answer from the previous exercise and underline the sentences that describe the main features.
Draw two vertical lines on the graph to show how the student has grouped the information in paragraph 3 of the sample answer.
Answer these questions about the sample answer.
- What is the difference in focus between the second and third paragraphs?
- What is the purpose of the last paragraph?
- What phrases does the writer use in the second paragraph to mean... (not as great? / stronger?)
- What verb is used to describe the changing size of the gap between men and women?
- What phrase is used to introduce a close analysis of the graph?
- What verb is used to mean didn’t change?
- What phrase is used with data to mean a little more than?
- What adjective is used that means small?
Choose the correct alternative in italics in these sentences, written by IELTS candidates.
- Decide on the key features and the important details in the graph.
- Decide how to group the information into paragraphs, remembering that there are different ways this can be done.
- Write a short introductory paragraph saying what the graph shows. (This may be one sentence.)
- Support the key features with figures.
Look at this Writing task, then answer the questions below.
- How would you introduce the task?
- What are the key features in the information?
- How would you highlight the key features?
- How would you group the information?
Write your answer to the task in at least 150 words.
Complete this table.
Choose the correct verb tense to complete these sentences written by IELTS candidates.
Complete the summary of the graph by writing the correct form of the verbs in brackets.
Homework