 You just find the ultimate guide to IELTS reading. This is the longest, most detailed, most comprehensive guide to IELTS reading you'll find anywhere on the internet. It's going to help you understand things about the format of the test, tips, and strategies that only Band 9 students really understand. We're also going to give you a strategy that is going to help you constantly improve that thousands of my students have used to get a Band 9. Not only that, we're also going to give you two of our VIP step-by-step strategies for true, false, not given, and matching headings. And at the end, I'm going to give you one of our VIP practice tests for free and show you exactly how to get 40 out of 40 by giving you a complete step-by-step walkthrough demo of the practice test. So sit back, relax, and get ready to improve your IELTS reading score. So let's start off by talking about the IELTS reading format. One thing that IELTS Band 9 students who get a Band 9 in reading understand is that general training and academic are the same but different. What does that mean? So one of the key differences is that on the academic test, you will get academic texts. These will be the kind of texts that you would find in a university textbook. And general training students don't have academic texts, they have general texts. These could be any texts that you find in everyday life. But what is exactly the same is the types of questions that you will get and the strategies that you will use for those questions. So on both academic and general training, you'll get multiple choice, you'll get true, false, not given, you will get matching headings, and you should approach them in exactly the same way. So what Band 9 students normally do is they will practice using both academic tests and general training tests because they understand that it is exactly the same strategy and types of questions. And Band 9 students also understand that general training and academic are the same difficulty. That is because for general training, you need a score of 40 out of 40 to get a Band 9. But for academic, you can get one wrong, you can get 39 out of 40 and still get a Band 9. And to be honest, the only people who think that general training is much easier than academic are people who do the academic test and fail to get the score that they need. It's just a way of making themselves feel better by breaking other people down to their level. The second big thing that Band 9 students understand about the reading test format is that there are three sections and it gets progressively more difficult as you go through the three sections. So section one is the easiest section, section two gets a little bit more difficult, and section three is the most difficult. Now, why is this? Why do they do this? Well, Band 3 really separates out Band 7, Band 8, and Band 9. If you think about it, they ask you the more difficult questions at the end so that someone who maybe has full marks but is really at a Band 8 level, they'll get the last couple of questions wrong and that brings them down to the real level, which is a Band 8. Well, that's the theory anyway, but generally it works quite well that way. So Band 9 students don't just start practicing and automatically get a Band 9. Normally the students that we work with that eventually get a Band 9 start off and get a 7.5 or an 8 or an 8.5. And when they get those scores, they don't panic, they understand that they need to focus in on those questions that they get in section three, those questions that they get incorrect and figure out why they got those incorrect and we'll talk a lot more about that in the rest of this video. The other significant thing related to this point is that Band 9 students tend to spend a lot less time on section one compared to section two and section three because Band 9 students think strategically about time. What a Band 9 student doesn't do is spend an equal amount of time on each question. That is just a bad system, a bad strategy because what that does is you'll spend too much time on the easier questions and not enough time on the more difficult questions. Band 9 students spend very little time on the first part and most of their time in the middle and towards the end. And we'll talk a lot more about strategy in terms of time management later on in this video. We'll show you how to get everything done on time and what Band 9 students do very, very differently when it comes to time management than all the other students. The third big, big thing, and this is probably the biggest thing when it comes to the difference between Band 9 students and Band 6 and 7 students, is that Band 9 students understand that there are many, many different types of questions that you might get. You might get true, false, not given, multiple choice, labeling questions and short answer questions, matching headings questions and on and on and on and on. My Band 9 students understand why IELTS ask you all of these different questions. What they're doing is they're testing a range of different reading skills and sub-skills in different orders. Therefore, crucially what Band 9 students do is they have a separate strategy for each of the different types of question that might come up. Band 6 and 7 students, what they generally do is they will have one strategy for all of the different types of questions. I've never met a Band 9 student that did that. Every Band 9 student that I have worked with has consistently showed me that they have a separate strategy for all the different types of questions. It takes more work to learn that, but did you really think that Band 9 students worked less than Band 5 and Band 6 students? And don't worry, we'll show you how to use those strategies and give you some of those strategies later on in the video. Now let's talk about computer-based versus paper-based. Are there any trends? Do Band 9 students do paper more than computer-based? The short answer is no. There's no real connection between a Band 9 student and if they go and do it on the computer, that they will generally get a much, much higher score. Remember, they are testing your ability to read in English. They're not testing your ability to read on paper or read on a screen. However, a lot of students have commented that doing it on a computer is less stressful and more convenient. It does not boost your marks, but it does reduce stress and it's just easier to do. For example, if it is a multiple-choice question, you can just click it on the screen. A lot of students say that that is much, much easier than transferring your answers over. So if you have a choice, I would choose the computer-based one, but it's not really going to improve your score. Now let's talk about time management. Do Band 9 students have some secret Band 9 time management strategy tips? No, they are better at reading. What does that mean? Well, think about a race. Think about Usain Bolt running in the 100 meters. Did Usain Bolt the night before the Olympic final go and Google top 10 magic time management tips for running? No, he was probably sleeping. What he did was for years, practice running and become better at running. He wasn't faster than the other guys, he was better at running. This is exactly the same with Band 9 students. I've never met a Band 9 student that improved to a Band 9 because they got some magic Band 9 time management tips. They were constantly improving their ability to read in English. Also what they did was, as I said before, they had separate strategies for each of the different types of questions and they memorized those strategies by heart. If you put a true false not given question in front of them or a multiple choice question in front of them, they didn't even think about what the strategy was. They'd done it so many times that they just used it. The example I always use is riding a bike or tying your shoelaces. You don't have to think about riding a bike or think about tying your shoelaces. You've done it so many times that you do it naturally. That's exactly what Band 9 students do and that leads to them completing everything very, very quickly. When I did the test, I got a Band 9 in 20 minutes. That's not because of time management. It's because it's my job to do this and I'm very, very good at reading. Finally, Band 9 students understand the different skills that are needed. But most importantly, when to use those skills and in what order. So they don't just skim and scan and then find the correct answer. They do it completely different from other students and we'll talk about that in the skills section of this video. I hope you're enjoying this video on reading but if you really want to improve your IELTS reading, I have a free course for you that is even better than anything that we put on YouTube. It's called the IELTS reading challenge. What it's gonna do is give you strategies for all of the different types of questions, 100% free and also show you where you can find real reliable practice tests and strategies that will help you constantly improve your IELTS reading score. If you wanna sign up for free, just click the link in the description, enter your email address and we'll send you all of that information for free. Now, back to the video. Okay, let's give you some tips and tricks that Band 9 students normally use to improve their score. Number one, Band 9 students understand that the IELTS reading test is a vocabulary test, not just a reading test. What does that mean? Well, during the reading test, you're constantly going to be looking at the questions and looking at the text and there will be lots of words in the questions that will be synonyms in the text. So you have to have a wide-ranging vocabulary in order to find the location of the correct answer to understand what that sentence, what that word means and decide the correct answer. So often students will come to me and say, I keep getting 6.5 or 6 or 7, I don't know how to improve my reading skills. Often it is not a problem with their reading skills or anything else, it is just their vocabulary is an issue. But another thing that Band 9 students understand is the best way to improve your vocabulary is reading. When you are reading, if you see a word that you do not understand, note it down in your notebook, look up the meaning, add synonyms, add all the information you need and then you will have a vocabulary notebook full of new words. So you will be practicing reading, improving your reading skills and improving your vocabulary all at the same time. All of the Band 9 students that I've worked with have followed that system. The second tip the Band 9 students follow is you will not understand every word in the text and that's okay. When I did the test, there were a lot of words that I simply did not understand. English is a huge language. If English professors from Oxford and Cambridge looked at some of the reading texts, there would be a few words in there that they might not understand. And Band 9 students understand that this is totally natural. If you move to an English speaking country and you're working or you're studying there, you're constantly going to be finding new words that you don't understand. That doesn't mean that you can't read and understand the sentence. So what Band 9 students do is they deploy systems when they are practicing their reading or when they're reading in general to cope with this and actually use it to improve their reading and improve their vocabulary. So one thing that Band 9 students do is they get used to guessing the meaning from context. What does this mean? Well, if you are reading a sentence and there's a word in that sentence that you do not understand, what Band 9 students do is they don't panic and go, oh my God, I'm terrible at English. They look at the word and they guess what that word means based on the words around it, based on the context. And this forces them to be constantly using this skill, guessing meaning from context. And then what they do is they look up the meaning of the word after they guess it and 95% of the time or even more than that, they have guessed the meaning correctly. So this means that you don't have to be constantly looking at your iPhone and dictionaries and apps that are showing you the meaning of stuff. This is how native English speakers read. Native English speakers aren't constantly checking up words and dictionaries. They guess what it means from context. And also Band 9 students don't panic when they do not understand a word. So often you will see a word and you'll look at the words around it, you'll try to guess the meaning, but you still won't be sure. A lot of the time it is not essential that you understand the meaning of that word to find the correct answer. So the biggest difference between a Band 7 student and a Band 9 students in this context is all about mindset. The Band 6, the Band 7 student will panic. Panic and stress during the IELTS test is not a good strategy to have. Band 9 student will look at that word. Do I need to know this? No, let's move on. Remember, your job is not to understand all of the words. Your job is to get as many correct answers as possible. Tip number three, Band 9 students read actively, not passively. What's the difference between active reading and passive reading? Well, passive reading, so when you're reading a book and you're not really doing anything, you're just reading for enjoyment, you're just reading for reading's sake. Active reading is when you are reading, but you are doing something at the same time. You're actively trying to work on something. So that could be trying to improve your reading skills, your vocabulary, your grammar, your spelling. And we've already given you an example of that in this video. Remember, we said that when a student sees an unusual word, a word they don't really understand, instead of just moving on, they practice the skill of guessing meaning from context, or they try to improve their vocabulary by writing it down in their vocabulary notebook. They're actively improving and actively doing something. Every single Band 9 student that I've worked with has used this technique to improve their weaknesses. So if you want a Band 9, you're going to have to read. Anyone who thinks that they're going to get a Band 9 in reading without reading is insane. So now that you've accepted that you're going to have to spend time reading in English, you have a choice. Read passively, which will lead to pretty much zero improvement, or read actively. And now that you've taken the smart decision to read actively, what should you try and improve your biggest weaknesses? So if you suck at spelling, when you see a new word and you're like, that looks weird, the spelling looks weird, write it down, write the correct spelling down. If you need to improve your grammar, let's say you need to improve your use of punctuation. When you're reading, notice where the commas are. Why is the comma after there? Why is there no comma there? It does sound a lot like hard work, but 10 minutes of active reading will improve you a lot more than one hour of passive reading. So which is more work? An hour of passive reading, and then you go and fail the test, or 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes of really intense focus, and then you get the score that you need. Tip number four, band nine students really read the instructions carefully. I know that it's boring, I know that you're under pressure, I know that you're stressed out, and you just wanna go and attempt the questions. Band nine students tend to be a lot calmer, read the instructions, and do exactly what the instructions do. And they understand before the test, what does one word only, or two words and or a number, what do those things actually mean? Tip number five, band nine students are very, very good at spelling. Many of the band six, band seven students that we work with have equally as good vocabulary and reading skills, and they're just as good at reading as a band eight or a band nine student, but their spelling is poor. And if it is one letter out, it is wrong. And I know many students complain about that, band nine students don't complain about that. They just follow the rules, get better, and give the examiners what they want. So how do you improve that? Active reading. You're starting to see a pattern here. Band nine students, as I've said before, are not born band nine students. They didn't come out of the womb being able to read and get 40 out of 40. They all had weaknesses just like you had weaknesses. But what they did was they understood what those weaknesses are. We'll show you how to do that later on this video. And then they actively worked on those. So if you need to improve your spelling, every time you make a spelling mistake, note it down and then write the correct spelling beside it. And what you will start to notice are patterns. You'll start to notice particular types of words or individual words that you just have a problem spelling. Then you can do an 80-20 analysis on that. You know, are there words that every time you spell them or types of words, you make a mistake. If you improve that weak area, you're eliminating 80, 90% of your mistakes. Tip number six, band nine students practice slow and fast. What does that mean? Well, imagine you are learning how to drive a car. On day one, does the driving instructor take you out to the motorway and say drive at 100 miles an hour? No, that would be crazy. But a lot of band six, band seven students do that. What they do is they try and get everything done in 60 minutes. And then when they fail to get a high score, they beat themselves up and they're like, I'm terrible at reading. No, you're not terrible at reading. You just aren't ready to go at full speed. So what band nine students generally do is when they are beginning their practice, especially when they're learning new strategies or they're working on their weaknesses, they practice extremely slowly. They might take, you know, let's say six true, false, not given questions and they might spend half an hour or an hour just working on those six questions. Because what they are doing is not trying to get the correct answer. They're trying to perfect the strategy and learn the strategy. And that simply takes time. But what they do is they get faster and faster. So some of the band nine students that I've worked with, when they first started, they were taking three or four hours to do a practice test. And then they would go to two and a half hours and then to two and then to one and a half and then one minute 15 and then one minute five. And then eventually they were getting to an hour. I know many of you want to be told how to magically get a band nine in 60 minutes today. You should go and watch one of the other channels if that is what you are after. You're going to get the truth here. We are going to lie to you here and give you tips and tricks that are going to guarantee that you get a high score immediately. But let me share with you the best strategy that I've ever used with students that has produced more band nine students than any other. Let's look at the ultimate band nine strategy for IELTS reading. What you will need are two or three real practice tests. Do not use fake tests that you find online. Get the real Cambridge books for this. Number two, do these under exam conditions. What does exam conditions mean? Number one, don't do tests that you know the answers. Don't cheat. Do it as if you are really in the test, which means you've seen this test for the first time the day you do it. And the second part is that you do it in 60 minutes and again, no cheating. If you cheat, you're only cheating yourself and the system, the strategy will not work. Step three, go to the back of the book and find out how many questions you got wrong. If it is spelt incorrectly, if you made a silly mistake, don't give yourself the correct answer, it is wrong. Again, you're only cheating yourself. You need to really find out which questions are wrong. Step number four, and this is the most important part. Why did you get those questions wrong? What we're looking for here are patterns. So for example, if 80% of your incorrect answers are spelling mistakes, then spelling is your key weakness. It could be vocabulary. If you couldn't find the answer because you didn't understand the words, that is a vocabulary issue. Or it could be particular types of questions. So if you did three tests and every time you've seen a true, false, not given question, you got most of those wrong, then that's a strategy issue with that particular type of question. Or if you got most of the questions correct in parts one and two, but most of the questions wrong in section three, then that's normally a reading skills or a vocabulary issue. Or it just might be that you got most questions correct up until the 60 minutes and then you got a lot of questions wrong because you didn't finish on time. That's normally a skills or a vocabulary, but most importantly, a strategy issue. You just need to understand the different strategies that are gonna help you get everything done efficiently. Now that you understand what your weaknesses are, we go on to the final step, which is the most difficult step, but is the most important step. You need to work on those weaknesses. If you're in problem with spelling, you need to improve your spelling. Vocabulary improve your vocabulary. Strategy, you need to improve your strategy. We'll show you how to improve those things later in the video. But if you just look at it and start crying and start complaining, oh, I'm terrible at spelling. We all suck at different things. We are all bad at different things. The difference between people who are successful and unsuccessful is the unsuccessful people generally cry about it. The successful people, they feel uncomfortable, but they continue to work and turn those weaknesses into strengths. That's the real difference between a band nine student and everyone below them. This video is sponsored by us, IELTS Advantage and the IELTS VIP course. The IELTS VIP course is the most successful IELTS course in the world. That is a fact because we have more than seven, eight, and nine success stories than any other IELTS course in the entire world. We do that by simplifying the whole IELTS process, supporting you with some of the best IELTS teachers in the world and being with you every step of the way until you get the score that you need. To thank you for making it this far in the video, I want to give you 10% off our VIP course. All you have to do is just look down in the description. You will see our special link that you need to get 10% off. Just click that and you can sign up. If you have any questions about the VIP course, always feel free to get in touch with us. Chris at IELTSAdvantage.com is my email address. We answer 100% of the questions that we get. Hope that you would become a VIP. If not, enjoy the rest of this free video. Okay, now that you know the ultimate band nine strategy, part of that strategy is finding real practice tests. So let's talk about that now, where to find these and where not to find them. So there are only four sources of practice tests. One is the British Council. Two is IDP. Three is Cambridge English. And four are the Cambridge English books. Any other source is not a reliable source. Don't waste your time in the comments and ask, well, what about real, genuine practice tests? We promise they're real.com or we promise we're not a fake IELTS company.com. Like don't waste your time. They are not reliable. They are all fake. If you are using fake tests, you're taking a huge risk because the people making these fake tests, the only reason they make them is not to help IELTS students. It's to make money. If you click on their website, then they're going to make money from you. They are very, very, very rarely IELTS experts. There's a huge difference between someone who runs an IELTS YouTube channel or an IELTS website and a real IELTS expert. It takes decades to be able to produce these tests reliably. So the people making these tests will either make them really, really easy or more commonly, really, really difficult. So if they make them too easy, you will get a high score during your practice test and you'll be like, great, I'm ready for my test. You'll go and spend your $300 and you'll fail. Or if they are too difficult, you will lose confidence and you will never do the test because you think that you're going to fail and it just adds a huge amount of stress and worry and just general negativity to your life. These people do not care about you. They care about their bank accounts. Do not help them by using their fake tests. And there are so many real genuine tests that you can buy or use for free, which brings us on to our next point, probably not in the comments there are people writing, but the Cambridge Passpaper books are so expensive. Yes, they are, but they're also not really. Listen, I totally understand that many of you do not come from money. You don't have, you know, $25, $30 to just spend on a book. But spending the money on those books, and I have no affiliation with Cambridge, I don't make any money if Cambridge makes money. Spending money on those books is one of the best investments you can ever make because you're not going to fail your test, which is going to save you at least $300. If you fail your test three times, which is about the average for most students, not you because you're watching my videos, you're going to get the score that you need next time. But the average student is spending, you know, close to $1,000 on test fees, but won't spend $25 on practice tests. That is insane. Also, if you think about it, why are you doing the IELTS test? Probably so you can go to a prestigious university and get an amazing education, which will make you cumulatively millions of dollars in the future, or to move to a better paying job in a new country, which again, over the next 10, 20 years, you're probably going to earn millions of dollars. If you are really, really, you just do not have $25, I understand. We'll put links in the description to where you can find the free practice tests from the British Council, IDP, and Cambridge, or all you have to do is just go to Google and write IELTS reading practice test and then plus British Council, IDP, or Cambridge English. Now let's talk about reading skills like skimming and scanning and what band nine students understand about these skills that most students don't. So there are three core skills that all students use when they are reading and everybody uses these on a day-to-day basis. So let's start off with skimming. So something we all do every day is read a newspaper. Is it either a physical newspaper or we click on to the news online? When you click on a story, it is extremely rare for a person to read every single word carefully. What most people do is they will skim through the article to get the general meaning of what that article is trying to tell you. This is exactly the same skill that we use when we are doing the reading test. So we will look at a paragraph and we will read through it quite quickly in order to understand generally what that paragraph is about. So for example, if you get a matching headings question, what they are testing is your ability to understand the general meaning of each paragraph and you will not have time to read every word carefully. So you will look at each of the paragraphs and you will skim through it quite quickly in order to understand the general meaning. So that's quite different from the skill of scanning. So I want you to imagine you're going to the cinema and you look at the movie times for the cinema. Do you read every single movie time or do you just scan to find the name of the movie you want to go to and then scan for the time that is convenient for you? We're not reading everything. We are looking for specific information. We also use this in the reading test. So for example, if we were doing a true false not given question and we were trying to find the location of the correct answer, we would scan for those words from the question or synonyms from those words, not to find the correct answer, but to find the location of the correct answer because these skills are just tools that are helping us find the correct answer. But the third and most important skill is something called close reading. And this is something that band nine students use more than any other. This is reading carefully around the area where you think the correct answer is located. So you've identified the position, the location of the correct answer and then you're reading that passage very, very carefully. You're also reading the question carefully and then deciding the correct answer. Close reading is the most important skill because it helps you find the correct answer but it's also the skill most overlooked by a band six or a band seven or a band eight student whereas a band nine student, they're spending a lot of their time, a lot more of their time close reading. But what band nine students really understand about these skills is when to use them and when not to use them and in what order to use them. So let's talk about reading strategy now. So on a very basic level, a strategy is just telling you what to do and in what order to do. So step one, do this, step two, do this, step three, do this. So some strategies will tell you to skim first and then scan. Other strategies will have no skimming whatsoever and they'll tell you to scan first. Other strategies will really focus on understanding the questions. Other strategies will be more of a focus on the actual text. Every question is different. All of the types of questions are different because they're testing different skills and different sub skills. And I know that sounds very overwhelming but you need to remember that strategies are there to remove overwhelm. All you have to do is memorize them, practice them and then you'll be able to use them effectively and all they really are is a guide. So once you do imagine, we decide to climb Mount Everest and we are the world's greatest mountain climbers. But what every mountain climber, no matter how good they are, what they need to do is they need to hire a Sherpa. A Sherpa is a guide. They know where all the dangerous routes are so we can avoid them. They know where all the danger points are and they know the most efficient and most convenient route up the mountain. Strategies act as your Sherpa. They are your guide. Band 9 students, even though their reading skills or vocabulary is very, very, very high, they still need strategies to guide them to the correct destination. And that's all strategies are. They are not magic. On the flip side, I want you to imagine now that we decide to climb Mount Everest and we are terrible mountain climbers. Our fitness is terrible. We can hardly walk. We are not very good at climbing. We could get the world's best Sherpa, the world's best guide and we would struggle to even get to base camp. Strategies are not magic. You'll see a lot of these videos online, especially on YouTube. You know, use this magic secret strategy to guarantee a band line. They are useful and will go through how useful they are and will teach you those, but they are only part of the equation without using the other stuff in this video and improving your weaknesses and improving your skills and your reading strategies and your reading ability and vocabulary. You won't be able to get a band line. Okay, so the most confusing part of true, false, not given is true, false, not given. A lot of students are used to true, false and they have no problems with true and false questions, but once you throw not given in there, it can be quite confusing and quite difficult. So what I'm going to do is demonstrate a little technique that we teach our VIP students that will remove any confusion for you. So what you need is a pen and a piece of paper. I'm going to demo this first and then I'm going to ask you to do it at home. So what you're going to do is, at the top of the page, you're going to write question statement. And then what you're going to do is you're going to think of a fact about you. All right, I'm going to demo it about me because I am me, but think about something that is true about you. Could be your name, could be your age, your nationality, something that is a fact. So Chris is 40 years old. So this is a fact about me. So imagine this is in your questions, all right? So this is part of the question part of true, false, not given. What we're going to do now is we're going to write a statement, the text that is true, all right? We're going to write a true statement that matches this fact. So what I'm going to do is I am going to write, Chris was born on 16th of December, 1982. So today, while I'm filming this, it is July, 2023. So a true statement, Chris was born on the 16th of December, 1982. So these two statements agree with one another, all right? They agree, they mean the same thing. So this is a true statement. Now what you're going to do is you're going to think of something completely false. So you're going to write false here. Chris is 21. I wish I was 21, unfortunately I'm not. This is completely false. It disagrees with this statement, okay? Now what you're going to do is you're going to think of a statement that is related to this but doesn't give enough information for you to really decide if it is true or false. So we're going to write Chris is middle-aged. So what middle-aged means is people who are living in the middle of their lives. It can be people who are 40 years old but it could be someone who is 50 years old or 55 years old. Do these two statements match? Do they mean the same thing? No. You also don't disagree with one another. You can't say that this is false. There's just not enough information in this statement for you to say that this statement is true or false. So it is not given. There is not enough information given for you to say if it is true or false. There's not enough information given. Think about it that way. What really confuses people is they look for something that is not there. So if I told you to go into the next room here and look for a pen that is not there, you would be looking for a very long time. And that is what happens when students are trying to search for not given. They're searching for something that is not there. Instead, look for information that shows that not enough information is given and then you will confidently be able to say not given. And then the reason why I'm personalizing this, you should not write Chris. You should write your own name. People remember things and they relate to things that are related to them, all right? So we're personalizing it so that it makes sense to you. So I'm gonna do another one here because this often causes a lot of confusion. So again, write one thing at the top, question statement that is true about you. Chris is an Irish national. I have Irish nationality. So I'm gonna write a true statement here that matches with this statement. Chris was born on the island of Ireland and has an Irish passport. These two things match. Now let's write something that is false. Chris is Vietnamese. So not based on how I look or how I sound, but it is a fact that I am not Vietnamese because I do not have Vietnamese nationality. I don't have a Vietnamese passport. I wasn't born in Vietnam. So this is false. Chris is married to a Vietnamese woman and his sons are Vietnamese passports. So my wife is Vietnamese, my sons are Vietnamese, am I Vietnamese? We don't know. So this is not given. There's just not enough information for us to look at this question statement and say whether it is true or whether it is false. Some of you from Vietnam might be writing in the comments saying you were not born in Vietnam, therefore you cannot get Vietnamese citizenship. You should never ever take previous knowledge, knowledge from outside of the text and apply it to the text. You're only applying it to what the text says. So based on this text, you cannot establish whether I'm a Vietnamese citizen or not. Ignore what I look like and how I sound. You're only basing it on the text. So again, do this two or three times for yourself and then in the test, if you're ever confused, you'll be like I am X years old or I am a whatever citizen or I am a woman, I am a man. That might be a little bit tricky in 2023, but you get the point. Okay, before we look at the step-by-step strategy for true, false, not given, which is really going to help you, it's important that you understand what not to do and understand a few tips that are going to help you. So don't skip ahead to the strategy. Understanding the common problems is really going to help you. So common problem number one is not understanding the difference between true, false and not given. What I would really suggest is you do that strategy but also go and look at the official books from Cambridge, do some true, false, not given questions and then think about why was this true? Why was this false? Why was this not given? And you'll find all of the correct answers at the back of the book. Don't use fake papers that might not be true, might not be false, might not be given. Use the real ones. The coffee stains are completely optional. The second related problem is spending too much time searching for not given. We talked about this already. Often students will look at the question statement. They will find the correct location of where it is but they don't have the confidence to really say this is not given. This leads to them wasting a lot of time. Remember you only have one hour to get everything done so that can become a problem. Really how you solve that is you just go through logically. Is this true? No. Is this definitely false? No. Well then it's not given. And it's about just practicing and getting into a groove and having the confidence to just say this is not given. You will not be able to do this on test day without practice and without thinking about it. The third common problem is not understanding what the question statements actually say. So you'll be given question statements like we have here and you'll be given the text which we have here. A lot of students immediately go and look at the text without spending time really thinking about these questions. If you don't understand what these mean, it's impossible to say whether they are true, false or not given. These questions are not really asking you to just focus and understand the text. That is only part of what they are asking you to do. A huge part of this is really understanding what do these things actually mean. So students that tend to do much better than others are students that spend more time thinking about this and it's not a waste of time, it is an investment of time. The fourth common problem is focusing too much on keywords. Often you'll find YouTube videos or blog articles or social media posts that simplify IELTS reading a little bit too much. What they say is you know, underlying keywords, skim, scan, find the correct answer. That just simply doesn't really work. If you focus too much on keywords within these questions then you are not really understanding the full sentence. What they're asking you to do is not identify keywords. Keywords are part of the strategy but they're really first asking you what does this actually mean? So if you're just going polar bears, polar bears, polar bears, where are polar bears? You're gonna get completely lost and confused and then you're just going to end up either just guessing the answer or getting very stressed, running out of time and you know, your life is over. Your life's not over, you can do the test again. Okay, now let's give you some tips that really help with True Fox Not Given. Tip number one, ignore any previous knowledge about the topic, don't use common sense, don't use anything other than the questions and exactly what it says here. So to go back to the example that I gave you before about my nationality and whether I can become a Vietnamese citizen or not, a lot of people know that that would be extremely difficult even though I'm married to a Vietnamese lady but you should not bring that knowledge to the questions. Often with True Fox Not Given, especially Not Given, what people will do is they'll try and cheat the test in some way by thinking what is the logical answer or what is the answer that makes most sense and I've even seen YouTube videos that say, get a band nine without reading the text. You can become a famous YouTuber without reading any IELTS books or becoming an IELTS expert but you can't get a bad nine without reading the text. Tip number two, identify any words that qualify any of the nouns. So for example, some or all are similar words but if you think about it, completely different words. Would you like to have some questions correct or would you like to have all questions correct? They are two very, very different words and what they do is they qualify words within here and not just some, all, many. You can also look at, for example, polar bears here versus brown bears. There is a difference between a polar bear and a brown bear. Same with number five, female polar bears. A female polar bear is very different from a male brown bear or a male polar bear. I know this is frustrating and I know it's like, it takes a lot of brain power to actually focus on this and really think about it but you're doing an academic test, you have to think. And what these words are doing is testing whether you just focus on keywords like polar bear or whether you understand the entire sentence, female polar bear. Tip number three, there will always be at least one true answer, one false answer and one not given answer. So if you get to the end, for example, if there were four questions and the first one is true, number two is false, number three is false, then number four is definitely not given. If you got the other ones correct, that is. The next tip is don't rely solely on skimming and scanning. Skimming helps you understand the general meaning of the text. Scanning helps you find the location of keywords, helps you find the area where the answer might be but the main skill here that is being tested is close reading. You need to read carefully. Skimming and scanning are the opposite of close reading. So if all you do is just, let's just look at keywords and skim and scan, you won't really be using the skill that they are testing. And we'll talk more about that in the strategy part. The next tip is be aware of synonyms. For example, in this one, the polar bear's mechanism for increasing bone density, what is a synonym of bone? Well, it might say something like skeleton, for example, or they could get very fancy and use skeletal system or something like that. I don't know if that's even correct or not. I'm sure people will let me know in the comments. But if you are going over to the passage here and you're looking for bones, bones, bones, bones, you might find bones but it is completely the wrong part of the actual text or it might not say bones at all. It might say skeleton. So if you're just looking for that word and you can't find it, then think, okay, what synonyms could it be? And that will help you locate the area where you can find the correct answer. The next tip is if you cannot find the correct answer, what you should do is put NG beside it. So for example, let's say number three, I can't find the correct answer. I'm not really sure. What I would do is put NG beside number three because it's probably not given. And then depending on how much time I have at the end, I can go back and look back at the area that I think that it might be in and I can read it a lot more carefully and decide if it is really not given. Or if I'm running out of time, what I can do is just circle the NG or decide that it's going to be NG because it probably will be. Okay, now let's move on to the step-by-step strategy for true, false, not given questions. What I would recommend is that you follow this strategy exactly, don't follow it halfway because if you do, it won't work. Also, none of these strategies can be looked at one time and then applied. Remember when we talked earlier in the video about the difference between band nine students and students below them. Band nine students practice slowly, take as much time as you need to practice these strategies until they become completely memorized by heart. So when you see a true, false, not given question, you can just follow this system without even thinking about it. That's your goal. So step one, read the instructions carefully and also think about is this a true, false, not given question or a yes, no, not given question. If it's a yes, no, not given question, the strategy will be slightly different. Step number two, read each of the question statements entirely, all of the question statements. Do not look at key words and try and highlight key words. This is not a question that is testing your ability to identify key words. It is testing, first of all, your ability to understand each sentence as a whole. Also think about any qualifying words that might come up. Now that you've read and understood all of the question statements, you want to think about are there any possible synonyms that might come up in the text that might be different in the text. For example, polar bears suffer from various health problems due to the buildup of fat under their skin. So various health problems, they might mention specific health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, things like that. Instead of it saying a buildup of fat, they might say that they are overweight because the next step is to match the question statement with the correct part of the text. So this is the text. What we're going to do next is we're going to take each of the question statements and we're going to locate where the correct answer is. We're not going to establish the correct answer. We are only trying to find the correct location. So either you will find the exact words or synonyms of those words. So if we have a look here at question number one, polar bears suffer from various health problems due to the buildup of fat underneath their skin. So if we have a look at the first paragraph here, what we're going to do is scan for those words or synonyms of those words. So if we have a quick scan here, fat underneath their skin. If we have a look here, buildup of fat under their skin. So it's slightly different, but pretty much the same. So what we know now is the answer to this question is probably in this paragraph. So now we know the location of the correct answer. We need to go back and read this again. What does this sentence actually mean? Polar bears suffer from various health problems due to the buildup of fat under their skin. Next step, we need to read this part of the text carefully to decide the correct answer. True, false or not given. So polar bears are being increasingly threatened by the effects of climate change, but their disappearance could have far reaching consequences. So it's talking about climate change here. It's not talking about anything related to health problems, but let's continue to read it carefully. They're uniquely adapted to the extreme conditions of the Arctic Circle where temperatures can reach minus 40 degrees. One reason for this is that they have up to 11 centimeters of fat under their skin. Humans with comparative levels of adipose tissue, that's just a scientific way of saying fat, would be considered obese and would be likely to suffer from diabetes and heart disease. Yet the polar bear experiences no such consequences. So what they're doing here is they're talking about disease, they're talking about health problems, heart disease, diabetes, but they're saying that if humans had all of this fat, 11 centimeters of fat underneath their skin, I can talk from personal experience, but they're saying that the polar bear has no consequences. So polar bears suffer from health problems due to the buildup of fat under their skin. What this is saying, polar bears experience no health consequences. They don't get diabetes. They don't have heart disease because they are fat. So what we would do is we would underline and hone in on the exact words that give us the correct answer. Polar bears experience no such consequences. The consequences are health problems. Let's have a look now at the statement again. Polar bears suffer from various health problems. It's not agreeing with that, all right? Those two statements do not agree with each other. So we're quite confident now to put false. But if we just weren't sure, if we were like, ah, I don't know, you know, are polar bears getting fat? Is this a problem? I'm not 100% sure. What you would do then is you would put NG and you would move on to the next question and then you can come back to that. But it's pretty obvious now that it is false. And then what you would do is you would just follow that exact same system for each part of the true, false, not given question. So number two, find the location, read it carefully, read the statement, hone in on the exact part of it, read it again, really think about is this true, false, or not given? Then decide the answer and keep going, keep moving on. Let's check if that is actually false. And it is false. I don't look silly in front of hundreds of thousands of people. Now let's go through the strategy for matching headings. Before we look at the step-by-step strategy, what we're gonna do is look at the common problems so that you can avoid them and then give you some tips that are very, very useful, including one tip that really transforms these questions for students. And this one thing has led to hundreds if not thousands of my students radically transforming their reading score from like band six to even band eight or band seven to band nine because these questions are often a big worry for students and if you are worrying about them then it tends to affect the rest of your test as well. So learning this is really, really important. Okay, so here's an example question. So you will always get a list of headings here and then you will get the text here. It's important that you understand what they are actually testing. The main thing that they are testing is can you look at each of these paragraphs and understand the general meaning of these paragraphs? That is really what they are testing. They are also testing your ability to differentiate between the meaning of these lists of headings. So you might get two or three headings that are similar in meaning. You might look at them and think these mean exactly the same thing. So it's about being able to look at two or three similar headings and understand which one matches to the general meaning of these paragraphs. So all this strategy, what it does is it helps you understand the general meaning of the text quickly, helps you understand the difference between the meanings of the headings and then match them together. That's why it's so effective. Now let's think about common problems because once you're aware of these common problems then you'll be able to tackle them much easier. So the first common problem is there's just so much information to process and not enough time. I'll give you a few tips in a minute that will help you process the information a lot more quickly. The second common problem that we come across is that students don't spend enough time really understanding the meaning of the headings and differentiating between the meaning of similar looking headings and it's impossible to find the correct answer if you don't fully understand those headings. Problem number three is just not spending enough time thinking about the difference in meaning and if you don't spend enough time then you're going to get very stressed and you're going to find it difficult to find the correct answer which will lead to more stress which will lead to more time wasting and all this snowballs into students hating these questions but don't worry we're gonna solve all that for you today. And last but not least the biggest problem is not understanding the general meaning of the paragraphs. That is what is being tested and we'll give you a tip now that is going to make this very, very easy for you. Okay, let's move on to tips for matching headings. Now we know the problems. How do we solve these problems? Tip number one, if this type of question is in the section that you're doing so remember there are three sections section one, section two, section three. If this type of question matching headings is in that section, do this question first. So for example with this one we have the third section here and the matching headings are the first question and then after it we have our multiple choice questions here but if it was flipped around if the multiple choice were first and the matching headings were second I would skip the multiple choice questions and do the matching headings question first. And the reason for this is quite simple. They are testing your ability to understand the general meaning of the text as a whole. So if you do that first it is really going to help you answer the subsequent questions, the questions that come next. So it's a little time-saving technique and just makes all the questions in that section much, much easier to handle. Tip number two is don't expect to read every single word or understand every single word. This is not really testing your ability to close read, to read in detail and really understand specific words, specific sentences and the meaning of those. It is testing your ability to understand the general meaning as a whole. Now that doesn't mean that you can just read the first couple of words or the last couple of words or skim very, very quickly through it. But if you see a word that you don't understand don't panic, it might not be essential that you know the meaning of that word to understand the overall general meaning. The next tip is to do with if you don't understand the difference in meaning between the different headings. And what we do is there's a couple of techniques that you can use. What you can do is like use your pens or your rulers or whatever you have with you to cover up the other ones, just relieve those ones remaining so that you're only focusing on those or you could write down, let's say there are two different ones that are similar in meaning. You could write those two down beside each other and normally that will make it much, much easier because it's just not lost in a sea of information. You're really being able to focus just on those two or three sentences. And the last tip is if you don't understand the difference in meaning between the sentences or you cannot find the answer, don't panic, move on to the next question and come back to that question because there's no point in ruining your chances of getting the correct answers later on because you get lost on one question. Remember for academic, you can get one wrong and still get a bad nine. You can get quite a few wrong and still get a seven, 7.58. But if you get lost on one question and you just spend like five minutes or 10 minutes on one question, then you're ruining your chances of getting the correct answer to the rest of the questions. Okay, now let's give you the step-by-step strategy and go through a question with me. Step number one, if matching headings are in the section, do this first. It's already the first one here so we can go right into it. Number two, importantly, do not look at the heading. I repeat, do not look at the headings first. This is testing your ability to understand the general meaning of the text. So it is important that you look at the text first. If you look at the headings first, you're going to get confused. You will get lost in the text. Now here comes the most important thing that you can do. Read the paragraph and try to write a heading without looking at the headings. So here we have A, so there's three paragraphs here. Sometimes like C, there'll just be one paragraph. Sometimes there'll be three, sometimes there'll be two. What you want to do is read this paragraph and try to create your own heading. What this forces you to do is think about the general meaning because it is impossible to write a heading without thinking and understanding the general meaning. So you're forcing your brain to do exactly what this question is testing. Okay, so let's do this together. Artificial intelligence can already predict the future. Police forces are using it to map when and where a crime is likely to occur. Doctors can use it to predict when a patient is most likely to have a heart attack. Researchers are even trying to give AI imagination so it can plan for unexpected consequences. So it's listing the benefits of AI. But remember, we're writing a heading for the whole thing, the whole three paragraphs, not just one. Many decisions in our lives require a good forecast and AI is almost always better at forecasting than we are. Yet for all these technological advances, we still seem to deeply lack confidence in AI predictions. Recent cases show that people don't like relying on AI and prefer to trust human experts even if these experts are wrong. So this is about the superiority, how it is better than humans, but humans don't really trust it. So we have the benefits of AI, how AI in many circumstances is better at decision making than humans, but humans don't really trust it. If we want AI to really benefit people, we need to find a way to get people to trust it. To do that, we need to understand why people are so reluctant to trust AI in the first place. So why don't human beings trust AI despite it being much, much better? So we can't write three headings. Remember, we're only writing one heading. So what we need to force ourselves to do is make a decision that if I could only write one heading about this, what would it be? So listing all the benefits, why it is better than humans, but humans don't really trust it. So we can't write AI is better than humans, but humans don't trust it, all right? Because that is two separate headings. So we're gonna summarize this very simply. Try and simplify it as much as possible. AI is better at many things than humans. And then you would repeat that process for the rest of them. And by the time you've finished for A, B, C, D, E and F, you have your own headings. The next step is to then look at the headings. So this is the first time you're looking at the headings. I'll just read through them and understand the difference in meaning. So an increased divergence of attitudes towards AI. So this is different people thinking different things about AI. Reasons why we have more faith in human judgment than in AI. So why do people think that humans are better? The superiority of AI projections over those made by humans. Why AI is better than humans at making projections, at making predictions. The process by which AI can help us make good decisions. That's pretty obvious what that means. The advantages of involving users in AI processes. Again, very obvious what that means. Widespread distrust of an AI innovation to many, many people not trusting it. Encouraging openness about high AI functions. A surprisingly successful AI application. So now that we've understood what those mean, the next step is to match our heading with the headings here. So the great thing about this technique is often there will be headings that match exactly or nearly exactly what you wrote down here. And if that happens, then it's the correct answer. So let's use ours to see which one. So AI is better at many things than humans. Let's see if it matches any of those. So I'm going to do an X and a tick here, but you don't have to do that. Just for the purposes of this video, I'm going to make it just super clear. So no reasons why we have more faith in human judgment. Maybe the superiority of AI projections over those made by humans. Why AI is better? Yes. The process by which AI can help us make good decisions. No, not talking about process. The advantages of involving humans. No widespread distrust. Maybe encouraging openness about high AI functions. No, and a surprisingly successful AI projection. No. So we have one that we think probably is the correct answer and two maybes. So what we do now is we look at the difference between those three. So reasons why we have more faith in human judgment than in AI. Now we can go back and think, does it talk about reasons why we have more confidence, more faith in AI? It doesn't give any reasons. So we can turn this into an X. Widespread distrust of an AI innovation. So the keyword there is an AI innovation. A singular AI innovation. At the top here, they're talking about many, many different AI uses. So it's not talking about widespread distrust of one thing. So we can eliminate that. So we're pretty sure that it is three, the superiority of AI projections. So here it's talking about how it is very, very good. Talking about a good forecast, that is a projection, a prediction, is almost always better at forecasting. It is superior. So it's pretty obvious that the correct answer for 27 is three. Let's see if this video was a complete waste of time and whether I got the correct answer or not. 27 is three. Whew, I was correct. And then you would just follow that process. So whatever your heading is for B, look at the headings, which ones can you match? And you just repeat that process until it is finished. But remember, if you get stuck, what you should do is just mark something on the paper or write down something on paper if you're doing the computer-based version of an educated guess, what you think it probably is, and then come back to that later. It's really, really important that you don't spend like five minutes worrying about these questions. And remember what is being tested. General meaning, not specific things. A big, big problem is students get lost in the detail of this. It's not testing detail, it's testing general meaning. And just to anticipate some of the comments, what a lot of people will do is they will say, well, recent cases show that people don't like relying on AI or if we want to make it better then we should trust it more or how can we trust it more? That's similar to some of the things why is that not the case. You are getting lost in the detail. You are focusing on individual words and individual sentences. You are looking at the general meaning of the whole paragraph. What is the most suitable heading for that? Not what does one word or one sentence say within that paragraph. Once you start to understand this, these become much, much easier. And once you start to get used to creating your own headings, then you can get through these much, much faster and more accurately. Okay, so welcome to the reading test demo part of this video. If you have not watched the rest of this video, I would strongly recommend that you do. You're an adult, so you can choose whatever you want to do. But a lot of this won't make any sense unless you watch the rest of the video. And it probably will mean that you also pass your reading test so you don't waste a huge amount of time and waste a lot of money. But as I said, you're an adult. It's up to you how you do that. Okay, so here I have one practice test. And what I'm gonna do is go through this practice test and talk you through exactly how I would answer this. So that's gonna help you with strategy, with understanding where you could go wrong and how to overcome those issues. And just to see how an expert, if we could hit that word, but if you could call me an expert, how I would navigate this. When I did the real test, I got a bad nine in 20 minutes. So that's probably a good indication that I know how to do these quite well. I will put a link to a download so you can download this. And there are a few different ways that you can watch this demo. You can download the practice test first and do it yourself and don't check the correct answers. I know that's difficult not to do, but do the whole test. Don't check the correct answers and then come back and watch this video and see how I answer the questions. See how do I do the things the same way as you did or do I do things differently? If I'm doing things the same way, that's probably a good indication that you're on the right track. But if I am doing things completely differently to you, then that's a good indication that you need to change a few things. So that's the first way that you could do it. And that's probably the most effective thing. Second way is you could just sit back, relax and watch the video. That's probably the most relaxing way. And just think about what I do and how I answer the questions while I'm answering these. The third way is you just download the practice test and you go immediately and check all the correct answers and then go and check why those correct answers are correct. That isn't a very useful way, but you're a big girl, you're a big boy, do whatever you want. So let's begin and have a look. Okay, so the first thing I'm gonna do in part one is I'm going to check what type of questions are gonna come up. So this is labeling a diagram, sentence completion and true, false, not given. The reason why I did that was if there were any questions like matching headings, for example, that require me to read this quite quickly to understand the general meaning, I would have done those questions first, but those questions haven't come up. So we can just dive right into the first question, which is labeling a diagram. Is the first thing I'm gonna do is read the instructions very carefully because with these often people don't read the instructions and they add too many words or too many numbers. So label the diagram below with the names of the layers of the sun. Choose no more than two words from the reading passage for each answer. So no more than two words, I can write one word or I can write two words, but no more I can't write three, four or five. Next, I'm going to study the diagram just to see generally what's going on. So I'm not a physicist, I don't know anything about the sun, but I don't need to understand anything about the sun. When you see an unfamiliar concept, don't panic, it doesn't require you to be a nuclear physicist to understand what is going on in the sun. So it looks like we have one, two, three, four, five layers here. So we've got this layer here, this layer here, the core, this layer here and this layer here. What I've also noticed is that one is slightly below the surface, below this kind of pink line and four is the pink line right at the surface. So I need to look for things that are differentiating these different layers, so the pink surrounding layer and the one just below it. Also, number two is probably going to be next to the core and number three is going to be below number one here. Also, I noticed that the core is already labeled so we don't need to worry about that, but what I would be thinking when I'm doing this is they're going to say next to the core or after the core or something like that. Number one is probably not going to be the actual structure of the sun, if that's correct, but this kind of thing coming off the sun. You can't really take any knowledge that you already have, but I'm going to assume that this is radiation of some kind. It's not part of the sun, but it's coming off the sun, but I may be proved completely wrong in the actual text and it actually looks like one is the radiation and photosphere is actually the bit below the pink line. So it's really, really important that you do study this because if you don't understand this, then you might have some misconceptions just like I have already done. The next step is we would look for any keywords. Okay, we have photosphere, we have core, we've already talked about that. We don't need to worry about that, we can move on. Next we're going to predict the type of words that might come up or predict what might come up at all. Type of words as in nouns, adjectives, verbs, things like that, probably is going to be a nine, all right, a one or a two word nine. It's probably not going to be an adjective describing the sun or an action word. It could be, keep your mind open. For example, there's some arrows here, so it could be talking about, you know, something moving within the sun, but probably is going to be a nine. So we're thinking about the type of words that might come up and then if I could predict, I'd probably say number one would be radiation, but again, I might be completely wrong. Okay, so now what we're going to do is we're going to use scanning. So we're going to scan the text to find the location, not to find the correct answer, to find the location of the correct answer. So what will I be scanning for? Well, number one, you have this bit outside of the sun or around the sun, so we're going to look for keywords or synonyms that talk about that. So if I have a look here, the core, we're not looking for the core, we're looking for something else. The sun is a sphere, no, this just seems to be introduction. Okay, just outside the core, no, that would be describing just next to the core. Okay, the visible surface of the sun is known as the photosphere. So the visible surface of the sun here is the photosphere. So next to the photosphere is number one, so this shows us that this might be the correct location. So the chromosphere is a zone about 2,000 kilometers thick that lies directly above the photosphere. So chromosphere above this. So number four is probably chromosphere. So we'll put a little four here, but we're looking for number one. So the outermost layer of the sun and the outermost part of its atmosphere. So atmosphere means the thing that is surrounding a star or a planet. That looks very much like this thing here, the atmosphere is called the corona. It is the sun's halo or crown. So halo is something on top. The corona extends millions of kilometers into space. So it is extending millions of kilometers into space. This is it. So what is it called? It is called this. So we're going to put the corona and not the corona that you guys are thinking of. So remember we find number four. The chromosphere is the zone about 2,000 kilometers thick that lies directly above the photosphere. So the photosphere is here. The pink line is the chromosphere. Okay, number two, what we're looking for is talking about the region or the part next to the core. So the core is the innermost area, so we're scanning. Okay, so it's not that part. Just outside the core is the radiative zone, which has a temperature of about 7 million degrees Celsius. So just outside the core, just outside the core, radiative zone. And that leaves us with number three. So it seems to be going core and a little bit further out, the radiative zone and then a little bit further out. Is it the photosphere? But let's double check that. The visible surface of the sun is known as the photosphere. Okay, visible surface means that we can see it. Does it look like we can see this part? Probably not, so we have to read in a little bit more detail. This is the region of the sun that emits sunlight. It is also one of the coolest layers of the sun looking at a photograph of the sun's surface. We cannot see this when we glance. And then if we look back here, we can see photosphere. So it's definitely not this, it's something else. Okay, so if we go back here, we have the core, we have the radiative zone. And then if we look here, surrounding the radiative zone is the convection zone. So here, hot material from near the sun's center rises, cools with the surface and then plunges back down. So remember, we talked about that have these arrows going up and down here. This is another indication that this is the correct answer, the convection zone. So you see how important it was to really understand the diagram before you look at the text. If you looked at the text, you might get confused, but if you really understand the diagram first, then it becomes much, much easier. Okay, we're just gonna check that we follow the instructions, two words, no more than two words, correct spelling, we can move on. Okay, so let's observe what type of question are they asking here? Complete each sentence with the correct ending. So this is sentence completion. It's really important that you understand what the type of question is because the strategy is gonna differ from question to question. Now, let's carefully read the instructions as always. Write the correct letter A to I in boxes five to nine on the answer sheet. So we're just gonna write the letters here. We're not gonna put it onto the answer sheet because we don't have enough room. So the first thing we're gonna do is read the incomplete sentence first so that we can understand it and then we can predict what the next word will be based on grammar. So will the next word be a noun? Would that make sense or a verb or an adjective or whatever? The vast majority of the total mass of the solar system is accounted for by, so this is going to be some kind of an object or something with mass. Something with mass is something like this pen has mass, clouds have mass, planets have mass, stars have mass. So it's probably going to be something like that. It's going to be a noun, something with mass. So what we're gonna do now is we're gonna look at this sentence and we're going to look at keywords and think about words that will be in the text. So that might be mass, that could be size, that could be weight. I don't think that's technically correct according to you physicists, but just thinking of different things that might come up. It probably will just say mass, but let's have a look. Okay, scanning the first paragraph here, mass. Counter-intuitively added together, they account for only, okay. So the planets only account for 0.2%. The sun makes up 99.8% of the mass in the solar system. So it is the sun. The vast majority of the total mass of the solar system is accounted for by, so we're looking for the sun. G, the biggest single object in the solar system, which is the sun. So you want to now read that again and think, does that make sense? The vast majority of the total mass of the solar system is accounted for by the biggest single object in the solar system, which is the sun. Go back here. Sun makes up the remaining 99.8% of the mass of the solar system. They match up. I think you can confidently put G there. Okay, and we just repeat that process. There is no fixed outer edge. That could be because something, something, something. That could be of something. There is no fixed outer edge. So we're looking for outer edge. It might also say outer surface or something like that. So if we have a look here, defined outer boundary, fixed outer edge. A boundary and edge are the same things. So our sun consists almost entirely of the elements hydrogen and helium. And because the sun is not solid, it does not have a defined outer boundary. It does, however, have a definite internal structure. So we need to go back and have a look at these and see if there are any obvious candidates. There is no fixed outer edge can be fixed. So that doesn't make sense grammatically. So it's not that one. There is no fixed outer edge is extremely hot. No, it's invisible. No, there is no outer edge. No, there is no outer edge, a small proportion. No, there's no outer edge sunspots. No, there is no outer edge, the biggest single object in the Earth. No, there is no outer edge, the planets and their moons. There is no outer edge to the sun due to the fact that it is mostly made up. So grammatically, I is the only one that makes sense. So that is why we ask students to predict what is coming up next, because it will help you understand which one is the correct answer, grammatically. Made up of gas and plasma. Let's go back here to where we talked about that. Made up of hydrogen and helium, which are gases. It is not a solid. Plasma means not a solid. So we can comfortably let her say I. Now you might be thinking, I don't know what plasma is. I've never heard of plasma. You might be unfamiliar with helium and hydrogen even. It might be completely different in your language. But if you're hoping to get a band seven, eight or nine, you know basic grammar. You know that I is the only one grammatically that makes sense. So that's gonna help you answer the question. The core produces energy which, which is, could be which verb, which powers. So it could be describing it. It could be talking about what it does. Let's have a look for the core. So we know the core is here. So it might be talking about which is 27 million degrees Celsius. When we look back here, is there anything talking about how hot it is? No, so we need to go back there. It moves similarly to gas. So it might be talking about moving, moves, D moves. Does that make sense? The core produces energy which moves at a very slow pace. Let's have a look at the other alternatives. And what we'll do here is we will eliminate these two because we're very, very confident that these aren't. So it just makes it easier for us to use elimination to find the next one. So core produces energy which can be seen in the photosphere. No, doesn't make sense. Which is extremely hot and used to create hydrogen. Possibly. Which is invisible to humans and can damage our skin. Doesn't talk about that. Which moves at a very slow pace through the area surrounding it, possibly. Which a small proportion of the light, which is sun, no. Which sunspots, no. Which the planet and moon. So we've got now, could be B or it could be D. So we need to go back and read very carefully what it says here about the core. And specifically about the core energy. So in the core, nuclear reactions combine hydrogen and helium releasing vast amounts of energy in the process. The energy released then begins to move outward. So vast amounts of energy, does that mean extremely hot? No. And then it also says you used to create hydrogen here. Here it's talking about combining hydrogen to make helium. Combining, it's not creating hydrogen. It's probably not this one. But we wanna continue reading just to make sure the energy released then begins to move outward. Just outside the core is, the energy released in the core travels extremely slowly. Travels moves at a very slow pace through the surrounding area. So I'm pretty sure that it's D. Just through again, elimination and close reading. Eight, our planet only receives. So think about what the planet receives. It receives light, it receives energy, it receives radiation. So probably will be one of these things. So it receives no sunspots, no a small proportion of the light with the sun emits. It's the only one that makes sense, but we're gonna have to go back and see if this is exactly what it says. So we're scanning for our planet and what it receives. So sunlight is emitted from the sun's photosphere. A fraction of the light that travels from the sun reaches earth. A small proportion, a small proportion. So a fraction, a small proportion. These are direct synonyms. So we're gonna put eight as E. So you can see these questions are as much vocabulary questions as they are reading questions. It's testing, scanning, but when you're scanning, can you identify the correct synonym? Finally, nine, one kind of light emitted by the sun, which is, which can be. So it's not this one because that doesn't make sense grammatically. The only three remaining that makes sense grammatically are one kind of light emitted by the sun, which can be seen in this photosphere, is a form of superheated gas. One kind of light emitted by the sun, which is extremely hot and is used to create hydrogen. One kind of light emitted by the sun, which is invisible to humans, can damage our skin. So what we're gonna look for here is related to see this is the one that makes the most sense. So we're going to search for superheated gas. So we're going to search for skin damage. So we're scanning for skin damage. And we have here sunburn. Skin damage, sunburn, synonyms mean the same thing. So it is see. Okay, now let's move on to the next questions, 10 to 14, which are true, false, not given. So as always, we're gonna read the instructions. Do the following statements agree with the information provided in passage one? So we need to write true, false, or not given beside each of these four statements or five statements, sorry. So the first thing we're gonna do is read the statements to fully understand what they mean. If we don't understand the meaning, we cannot say if they are true or false. So the interior of the sun is composed of a mixture of only two elements. So the key word there really is only. If there are other elements, if they talk about, you know, there being three or four or there are two and there are others, then this will be false. If it talks about there only being two, then it's going to be true. If it just doesn't provide any information on this, then it will be not given. So what we need to do now is scan for the location where they talk about the composition of the sun. So the interior is the core. So we're looking for the core. Okay, so the core is here, the core is here. Do they talk about elements? Yes, they're talking about hydrogen and helium. They also talk about hydrogen and helium up here. So what I would do is I would read these two very carefully to decide which is correct. So our sun consists almost entirely of the elements, hydrogen and helium, and because the sun is not solid, it does not have a defined outer boundary. So the key word there is almost, almost entirely. The interior of the sun is composed of a mixture of two elements. Only means there are only two, almost entirely means there are more than two. So this one is false, almost entirely does not match with only two elements. And then we repeat that process with the others. So the movement of matter back and forth between the radiative zone and the area that surrounds it gives rise to surface features like solar flares. So radiative zone and the area that surrounds it. So remember we have our little diagram here, the radiative zone and the convection zone. So we're talking about those two areas. So the radiative zone, convection zone, so the correct answer is probably in this area. So we need to read this carefully to see if this agrees or disagrees with this statement. The movement of matter back and forth between the radiative zone and the area that surrounds it gives rise to surface features like solar flares. So it doesn't say anything about solar flares in this kind of area, solar flares. Surrounding the radiative zone is the convection zone. Here, hot material from near the sun center rises and cools at the surface and then plunges back downward to receive more heat from the radiative zone. This movement helps create solar flares. The movement of matter back and forth and the area that surrounds it gives rise to surface like solar flares. So this is true, right? Says exactly the same thing. If a person were to stare at the sun for a long time whilst using equipment to protect the eyes, they would be able to see that most of the surface of the sun is not yellow. So we're going to be looking for surface and colors and looking at the sun. We're going to look for those keywords to find the correct area. So the visible surface, visible looking at it, yellow, reds. So it's in this area. Now we read it carefully to decide the correct answer. So looking at the photograph of the sun, you can see that it has several different colors, oranges, yellows and reds. If a person were to stare at the sun, they would be able to see that most of the surface of the sun is not yellow. So what does this mean? Most of the surface of the sun is not yellow. That means that more than 50% is not yellow. Does it say that? Looking at the photograph of the sun, you can see that it has several different colors, orange, yellows and reds, giving it a grainy appearance. So it talks about that it is different colors, but it doesn't talk about mostly other than yellow. It doesn't talk about proportions or percentages. Let's keep reading it. We cannot see this when we glance quickly because our eyes can't focus. So the only area that it's talking about colors, it doesn't say proportion of those colors. So we don't know if it is true. We don't know if it is false. So therefore it is not given. Light travels faster through the chromosphere than it does through the radiative zone. So we're looking for chromosphere radiative zone, but particularly light traveling fast. So you have the chromosphere here. Does it say anything about light? Jets of gas fire up through the chromosphere at speeds of up to 72,000 kilometers per hour. So that's not light, that's gas. Those are two completely different things. So it doesn't say anything here about the speed of the light. It talks about chromosphere here, radiative zone. Let's have a look at the radiative zone here. Okay, it can take a photon. A photon is light as long as 50 million years to travel all the way through the radiative zone. Wow, that's amazing. I knew thought I was slow making this video. So let's go back, have a read of the sentence. Light travels faster through the chromosphere than it does through the radiative zone. So this is comparing the speed of light through two different zones. It talks about the speed of gas here and it talks about the speed of light in one section or part of the sun here, but it doesn't compare anything. So we don't know. So this is not given because it's not given. It doesn't talk about it. Nearly all the energy on our planet is produced originally by means of a nuclear reaction. So we're looking for energy and we're looking for a nuclear reaction. We have a look here, energy. The sun is the source of almost all the energy on earth and sunlight parts for the synthesis as well as warming and illuminating our earth. So we read this more carefully to conclude the sun's core, nuclear fusion, is a type of nuclear reaction, generates energy and that provides us with all our energy, nearly all the energy. Almost all, nearly all mean the same thing. Nearly all, almost all produced by a nuclear reaction. This is true. Okay, so let's start section two. So first of all, we're gonna check what type of questions are gonna come up. So we have short answer questions here and we have matching headings and multiple choice. So we've got a matching headings question here. So we're gonna do the matching headings question first because what the matching headings question asks us to really do is to read the whole article, read the whole text and understand the general meaning of each paragraph here. So the first thing we're gonna do is look and read the instructions. Passage two has six sections labeled A to F, choose the correct heading and then we have five questions here. So we're not going to look at the headings. We are going to look quickly at each section here and we're gonna try and create our own heading for each section. So it's really talking about European colonization. So I'm gonna have the impact or the effect of European colonization. And this is more the impact of invasive species and plants and animals that are not from that area. So this is really talking about pollution from other regions having an impact on the Pacific Ocean. So this is pollution from other regions. Let's say on oceans or ocean. This seems to be about a debate about the extent of the problem maybe. This is about beaches, shorelines, this is about climate. So the next thing we're gonna do is we're gonna look at the actual headings. So beach garbage from far away, fish consumption, high pollution from outside of Oceania, reaches the region, hypothesizing change, the effect of human migration on the region, the extent of the plastic problem, the impact of foreign wildlife, the serious danger posed by climate change, the spread of tax and pollution. So those are all pretty straightforward. I understand what those are. What I can do now is I can look at my headings and see if any of these match directly. So impact or effect of European colonization. So there's nothing here about European colonization but there is effect of human migration. Europeans are humans. And as you can see, that is the correct answer. It has given us that correct answer as an example. So let's go to B, impact of invasive species. So we're thinking about wildlife, the impact of foreign wildlife on Oceania. So this is matching nearly exactly the same. So you can see how powerful this strategy is. So we're gonna put seven there. We're going to delete this one and we're gonna delete this one. So C, pollution from other regions on the ocean. High pollution from outside Oceania reaches the region. Probably that one. Let's see if any of the others, it could be no. So we'll put that as three. D, wasn't sure about the sort of debate or the extent of the problem. Beach garbage from far away. No fish consumption. No pollution from that one. Hypothesizing change, the extent of the problem. Serious danger posed by climate change, probably not. So we're not sure about this one. So what we'll do is we will act a little bit strategically. We will go to E and F and we'll eliminate those ones. So we'll try and find, see if they are easier to find than D and then we will see. So E, impact on the beaches, impact on the shorelines, beach garbage, beach garbage from far away, extent of the problem, beach garbage. Yeah, so it's probably that one. Then F was all about climate change, the serious danger posed by climate change. So it's definitely that one. Okay, so we're not sure about D. So we have one, two, three, four options. So let's go, fish consumption does talk about that. So it is maybe, maybe that one. Hypothesizing change, nothing really in there about change. The extent of, so I've put extent. Okay, so probably should have picked up on that one earlier. Probably is this one. Let's just see the spread of tax and pollution. Some theorize the patch is as big or as bigger. So it's as big as Texas. No, so it's not that one. Fish consumption, they do talk about consuming fish, but this is just one small part of this paragraph. The overall one is that. So remember, we are not focusing on individual words or individual sentences within matching headings. We're looking at what does the whole paragraph mean? So hopefully we got all those correct. Well, we'll check at the end. But don't forget, we did this one first, so we have to go back. Don't make the mistake of just continuing forward and forgetting that you have missed out these ones. So these are short answer questions. These are the questions that you would get in school when you were a kid. So just asking for direct answers to these questions. But very importantly, you need to check how many words because the answer to these questions is quite open-ended. So this is one of the most important questions for reading how many words and numbers they want you to put in here. So choose no more than two words and or a number. If you wanna know what that means, go back to the previous part of the video where we talked about that. Now the good thing is because we have read the whole thing, it's much, much easier for us to get our heads around this and locate the correct answer because we've already established what it's about. We have a good idea what it's about. So according to this article, what environmental problem has been caused by the dairy industry in New Zealand? So what we need to do is find, scan for the location of this correct answer. So New Zealand, there's no real other way of saying New Zealand. So we're gonna scan for New Zealand. So we have New Zealand here. Cats have been banned in parts of New Zealand. All right, so it's not about cats. This is about the dairy industry. If you didn't know what the dairy industry is, then you might not be able to find the answer to this question. That's why it's so important to develop a wide-ranging vocabulary because if you didn't know what dairy meant, you would go and look at, oh, New Zealand, cats. Let's just write that down. So it's not this New Zealand. Is there any other part of this that says New Zealand? New Zealand here, pollution from dairying in New Zealand has led to high levels of water pollution. So that's actually quite interesting because you could assume that even if you didn't know dairy meant cows, you know, milking cows, you would just have to look for the word New Zealand and then see dairy, dairy, what is it? High levels of water pollution. Okay, so the answer is high levels of water pollution but no more than two words under our number. What is the answer? It cannot be high levels of water pollution because that is five words. So the answer is water pollution. What measure has been introduced in Australia to reduce problems caused by foreign animals and vegetation? So remember, we created our own headings and it's talking about foreign animals. We talked about invasive species here. So again, it's much, much easier to find the correct answer because we can go up here. Okay, find Australia here. Australia has adopted a system of strict quarantine in an attempt to limit damage from non-native plants and animals. What measures have been introduced to reduce problems caused by foreign animals and vegetation? Vegetation, plants. So again, you need to have a wide-ranging vocabulary but strict quarantine. So we're going to put strict quarantine. Approximately how long does it take for a piece of plastic rubbish to reach the Great Barrier Pacific Garbage Patch from the west coast of the USA? So they were talking about the big patch here from other areas, so from the west coast of the USA. A water bottle improperly disposed on the western coast of North America will make its way to Great Pacific Garbage Patch in around six years. So the answer is six years. And if you're wondering the number six, like six years is also acceptable, so don't worry about that. What proportion of Camillo Beach is comprised of plastic? Where is Camillo Beach? Talking about beaches, Camillo Beach, 90%. What problem is affecting coral reefs in Hawaii, including ones in Hawaii? Coral bleaching has been documented in other reefs, including ones in Hawaii. Now you might not know what coral bleaching is, but it doesn't sound great. And you could assume that that's what they're talking about because it's the only place where you see the words reefs and Hawaii together, so you put in coral bleaching. So I think we can learn two things from this. One, how useful it is to have a strategy. Because if we did these questions first, it would be much more difficult to find the correct answers. We found these relatively quickly because we'd already done the hard work and we needed to do that hard work anyway to find the answers to these questions. So it's not about, well it is, you need to be good at reading and vocabulary and everything, but it is also about being smart. All right, having a strategy. So we can move on to our multiple choice questions. And part of the strategy for multiple choice is skimming the text to understand the general meaning. We've already done that. So again, that's one way of saving time. The first thing we do as always is check the instructions. Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D. Okay, so it's standard multiple choice. The first thing that we're gonna do is read the question to understand the question. We cannot answer the question correctly if we do not understand it, specifically understanding the difference between the four options or if there's three options to three options. According to the text, the great Pacific garbage patch can be seen to consist mostly of plastic is known to be nearly as large as Texas, is of unknown size, is believed by some to stretch all to all the world's oceans. So A is about the makeup. What is or what are the constituent parts of the garbage patch? Whereas B, C, and D are about the size of the garbage patch. So the next thing we need to do is find a location. Luckily for us, we've already done that. So it's gonna be quite easy for us to find that. There should be in this area. So we now need to read closely in this area to see if we can find the correct answer. So some have theorized the patch is as big or bigger than the US state of Texas. While others note that the idea of a patch of garbage is really a misnomer, means it doesn't really make sense, as there are concentrations of trash throughout the world's oceans. So it's not that one. It does mention Texas, but just because you see a keyword, and this is the problem with the keyword strategy, you'll often hear YouTubers talking about just underlying keywords and find the keywords and that'll give you the correct answer. All that does is it gives you part of the answer or the location of the answer. So is known to be nearly as large as Texas. Some have theorized. So some people, not everyone, have theorized there's a big difference between a theory and a fact, all right? That is as big or as bigger is known to be nearly as large as Texas. Is known is meant like it's not disputed. It's not a theory. Not some people think it. So it's not that one. So if we go back and we read around this area, because of the great garbage patch contains such small pieces of plastic, and most of the plastic is below the surface of the ocean, it is not easily visible with the naked eye, and it is difficult to estimate its size. So we can't see it properly. So it's probably of unknown size. Can be seen to consist mostly of plastic. Doesn't really talk about that. So we can say that it is C. And then we repeat that process. So coral changed their behavior as a result of exposure to a certain amount of heat. Experienced mass bleaching regularly prior to 1990 of undergoing the most severe damage in Hawaii exist in the Great Barrier Reef due to increasing temperature. So these ones are about Hawaii and the Great Barrier Reef. This one is about bleaching, and this one is about the behavior of coral. Because coral is a living thing, I believe. I might be wrong though. So we know the location of that. It is here. So we need to read carefully the bit where it talks about coral. So the Great Barrier Reef is currently experienced periods of coral bleaching due to increased ocean temperatures. Exist, coral exists in the Great Barrier Reef due to increasing temperatures. No, it doesn't say that. When waters get too warm, coral experience stress and expel the colorful algae-like organisms that live within them. Change their behavior as a result of exposure to a certain amount of heat. When waters get too warm, they change. It's probably this one, but let's check the other ones. Experienced mass bleaching regularly prior to 1990s. Mass coral bleaching has occurred several times since the late 1990s. So since not before, so it's not that long ago, but it's not that long ago. So we need to read carefully the bit where it talks about coral bleaching due to increased ocean temperatures before, so it's not that one. I've undergone the most severe damage in Hawaii. Coral bleaching has also been documented in other reefs, including ones in Hawaii. Doesn't mention anything about the severity in Hawaii. So it is A. In Fiji, so we're talking about Fiji here. Let's read this. Diseases have meant that many people have needed to relocate. Higher sea levels have led to food shortages. Some citizens have been moved to other locations due to increasing sea levels. Most diseases involve fever as a principal symptom. So this is about disease. This is about food. This is about relocation. And this is about specifically the type of diseases people are getting. So Fiji has already experienced an increase in infectious diseases related to higher temperatures, record breaking high tides, and has had to relocate citizens due to rising ocean levels. Some citizens have been moved to other locations due to increasing sea levels. It is that one. So it says exactly what it says there. It does mention diseases, but it doesn't talk about people having to relocate because of diseases. Now we can move on to section three. Okay, so section three, we have table completion. We have matching information. And we have matching names. Okay, so a lot of matching. So the first one is table completion. The first thing we need to do is read the instructions. Complete the table below. So we have one, two, three, four. So make sure we fill those in. Choose no more than two words and or a number. Very important that we follow that. Okay, so we need to understand the table here first. So we have date, event, and people involved. All right, so we have missing date here, the unification of Catholic Spain. And we have also the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella. So what we need to do is think, are they going to have synonyms for here? Ferdinand and Isabella might talk about Kings and Queens. Unification of Catholic Spain. Spain is Spain. I don't think it's going to change, but unification joining or reuniting or something like that. So what we need to do is just quickly go and look at the text to find the correct area. So we're scanning for location, not to find the correct answer, but to find the correct area. Okay, so here the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in 1469, unified Catholic Spain. Isabella, Ferdinand, Catholic Spain, 1469. So no more than two words and or a number. So 1469, put that in there. Okay, so something happened on October 12th, 1492, and it involved Christopher Columbus, probably his arrival in, we all know, but I'm sure Christopher Columbus arrived in many different places. So we'll double check that it is not just America. It might not be. So scanning for October 12th, 1492, scanning here, let's read it carefully. On October 12th, 1492, however, he made landfall on an island in the Bahamas. So we're gonna make sure it says he, but is it definitely talking about him? Columbus, yes. So we're gonna put arrival in the Bahamas. Okay, 1493, Columbus sends two copies of a report sent to the king. Okay, so let's find 1493. May I have it here? Columbus's 1493 letter. So he sent it to Louis. Who else did he send it to? Okay, so it's not here. There's nothing here. And it's actually because in 1493, he sent two copies of something Probanza de Merito to the king and queen and their minister of finance, oh, so it's minister and finance to the king and queen. No more than two words. So sent to the king and the queen. So you can skip this one. 1507, 1507, the naming of, and it's to do with this guy, Waters, someone's name I can't pronounce. Among those who read his reports was the German map maker using the explorer's first name as a label for the new landmass. He attached America to his map. The naming of America, could it be? Using the explorer's first name as a label for the new landmass. Oh, I didn't know that. America was named after an Italian. Using the explorer's first name as a label, attached America to his map. So it is the naming of America. Now we're going to match information. First thing we're gonna do is read the instructions. Passage three has A to F, yes it does. Which paragraphs contain this information? Why Ferdinand and Isabella at first refused to fund Columbus's expedition. So we need to find, scan for Ferdinand and Isabella and Columbus and their expedition. So Columbus is first mentioned here. And including Ferdinand and Isabella at first rebuffed him. Rebuffed means to say no. Their nautical experts all concurred that Columbus's estimates of the width that had to go were far too low. So even if you didn't know what rebuffed meant, it's saying, explaining why they said rebuffed. And then you could guess the context that that means no. But we're pretty sure that is what we're talking about. C, how Spain's imperialist ambitions began. So the beginning of this is probably closer to the start. This is just really giving some context. The history of the Spanish exploration begins. Let's double check that. How Spain's imperialist ambitions, the history of Spanish exploration. Yeah, this is that one. The difficulty of analyzing the letters written to the Spanish king and queen. There's some mention of letters here. Columbus's letters. Okay, so we have letters, but we need to read carefully to see if there's difficulty analyzing it. So it doesn't say directly here. You need to read kind of between the lines and understand the context here. So they have bias and have a subjective nature. They are also filled with distortions and fabrications. Now, all of these are negative things when it comes to using these as reliable sources. But even if you didn't really understand that, this is the only place where they talk about a letter. This is more talking about a report. So we can put E in here. Columbus's first discoveries. We can go back up here. So we're talking about the Bahamas. And that was 1492, 1492, the Bahamas, that is D. The number of journeys undertaken by Columbus to the New World. Okay, so I don't know where that is. So I have to scan here. Okay, Columbus would make three more voyages over the next decade. So this is F. So what we are doing there is just looking at the remaining ones and searching for numbers, journeys, voyages, travels, synonyms of journeys. And we find it. So we can move on to the last part, which is matching names. Read the instructions. Look at the information below. Match each piece of information with the correct person. So we need to first read these to understand them. Assisted Columbus in getting money for his voyage. An Italian explorer created a map based on the reports of a famous explorer. Finally conquered the Iberian Peninsula. Okay, so let's take each of these and find out where they talk about them. So Christopher Columbus, where is Christopher Columbus mentioned? He's mentioned in this paragraph, this paragraph, this paragraph, and this paragraph. So that's going to be quite difficult because he's mentioned a lot of times. Let's narrow it down a little bit by finding people who are not mentioned all over the place. So Francisco Pizarro. Francisco is mentioned here. He's only really mentioned here. So we can, again, we're moving on. Ferdinand and Isabella. So they were the king and queen. They financed Columbus's expedition. Assisted, so that is C. All right. Louis de Santangueur, who was scanning for Louis. It's Louis de Santangueur, sent two copies. He also helped Columbus obtain funding. So this could be D as well. So let's move on to Martin. Remember, Martin helped name it. Using the explorer's first name as a label for the new Lamas, touched America to his map of the new world. Created a map, so 39 is E. So an Italian explorer. Christopher Columbus was actually from Genoa, Italy. So an Italian explorer. A, finally conquered the Iberian Peninsula. So it's not Louis, because Louis just helped them get money. So it's not Louis. It's not Francisco Pizarro, because Francisco Pizarro is only mentioned here and nowhere else, I believe. So it's not him, which means finally conquered the Iberian Peninsula. This is C and that would make sense because there are the king and queen, which means this one is D, assisted Columbus in getting money. And we're done. So you can check whether I got a band nine or not. You can also let me know what score you got in the comments. Hey, Chris here again. I hope that you enjoyed that video and the practice test really helped you prepare for IELTS reading. If you feel like you're not completely ready for IELTS reading, this video here is gonna show you exactly where you're going wrong and how to improve. Click this video and it will help you.