03 IELTS Reading

http://ielts-help.com - My new site for learners wanting to improve their English.
This is the reading section of the IELTS test, taken from my 2003 VCD.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• IELTS
• Reading
• Ian
• Carter
• learn
• English
• improve

[nazmulmie]

really good

[IanCarterTheCaller]

@nazmulmie Nice of you to say so, thanks.

[Snnx27]

from passage:

Smoking is believed to be responsible for 30% of cancer related deaths

Question:

30% of deaths in United States are caused by smoking-related diseases

No - the question does not agree with what the writer wrote.

Not given - there is no information on how many deaths smoking is accounted for in the US

so which is correct? I see both answers as justifiable.

[IanCarterTheCaller]

@Snnx27 As I mentioned in a previous reply, "30% of deaths" means "30% of ALL deaths". The passage is more specific: "30% of CANCER-RELATED deaths". Since there _is_ some information given, we can't answer Not Given. We must answer No, as that's _not_ what the writer said.

I hope that's a bit clearer ...?

[schon4u]

If it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this, as you said, answer would be Not Given, the question states 30% of deaths related to smoking in the United States, but no statistics is given about the U.S. in regards to deaths by smoking or otherwise.There are no stats available for deaths percentagewise for U.S. so i think with that information not being there, how can we say its a no, i think the correct answer would be' Not Given' instead of a 'No'

[IanCarterTheCaller]

Simply because there IS some information about this, we can't say it's NG.

It's always a tricky one - and I don't always agree with the official answer, but in this case I do.

[saajal1]

good video to learn

[SabinaSofija]

Thank you so much,Sir!!!Really helpful tips.

[IanCarterTheCaller]

Any time.

By the way, you can use "take up" with any hobby, or sport, or pastime, e.g. "She took up golf" or "When he's older he plans to take up knitting" :)

[hoshmack]

Is that so? Didn't know. I though it as breathing smoke into your lungs ehhe. Phrasal verbs can be confusing to understand sometimes. But I'll never forget that one. Well thanks for the help.

[IanCarterTheCaller]

To "take up smoking" means to "begin actively smoking". There is no information about the non-smoker partner becoming an active smoker, which is why the answer is NG.

[hoshmack]

OK. From the same smoking test:)

As an illustration of the health risks, in the case of a married couple where one partner

is a smoker and one a non-smoker, the latter is believed to have a 30 per cent higher

risk of death from heart disease because of passive smoking.

* If one partner in a marriage smokes, the other is likely to take up smoking.

It looks like YES but the answer is NG. Can't we say that the non-smoker partner takes up smoking because he/she is a passive smoker?