IELTS

Here is an IELTS reading passage. Remember that the IELTS reading test is a test of reading speed. It is important to time yourself when you do a reading passage. You should be able to complete a passage within 20 minutes. LEGUMES A  The health benefit of legumes has been widely known for centuries. Also known as pulses or, more commonly, beans, they belong to an extremely large category of vegetables containing over 13,000 species. Only grains supply more calories and protein to the world’s population. Today, agricultural researchers and scientists are experimenting with varieties of legumes that are easier to harvest, more resistant to disease and yield better crops. B  Beans are often referred to as to ‘the poor person’s meat but this label is unfair-considering the health benefits of legumes, they should really be called ‘the healthy alternative to meat’. Beans contain a rich and varied supply of nutritional substances, which are vital for keeping in good health....

Most IELTS reading tests your extensive or global reading skills: you are given quite difficult texts on unfamiliar subjects. You are not expected to understand every word that you come across. However, you are expected to have the ability to work out and guess the approximate meanings of words. An understanding of how words are constructed with various affixes will help you do this. Affixes  are group of letters which can be added to a word to create a new word with a different meaning or word class.  Prefixes  are added at the beginning of a word. Task 1:  Look at this list of  general meaning s  of prefixes. a. again         b. against            c. before          d. between         e. extreme        f. self                g. too little            ...

An  affix  is a group of letters which can be added to the beginning or end of a word to make a new word. Letters added to the beginning of a work, like  un-, in-  and  dis-,  are called  prefixes.  Letters added to the end of a word, like  – ness, -ful  and  – less , are called  suffixes . Adding affixes to form new words is common in academic English. The most common prefix used to form verbs in academic English is  re-,  and the most common suffix is  –ise . The most common suffix used to form nouns in academic English is  co-,  and the most common suffix is  –tion . Affixes can be helpful in working out the meaning of words you don’t know. Task 1:  Here is a list of common affixes with example words. The meanings have been jumbled up. Match the affixes to their general meanings.

The following reading passage gives advice about IELTS reading and it also gives practice and guidance in tackling IELTS Reading questions. The passage is divided into four paragraphs, A to D The main topic of a paragraph is often introduced in the first sentence. Task 1 :  Look for the word or phrase which introduces the main topic in the first sentence of paragraphs B-D. A.     Skimming is a well-tried way to see if a book is relevant or not. Of course, it has limitations. You can skim to find out whether or not you are dealing with such material as information, argument or description, but not to extract deeper meaning. For that there is no substitute for careful reading that allows you time to think and question. B.     Experimenting a little with reading speed can help you to read more efficiently. For example, you are more likely to remember the first half of a sentence if you read quickly enough to reach the second half. If you read t...