Test section – Reading

Developing Reading Skills

Activities
1. Surveying – matching and short-answer questions
2. Skimming – marking up the text
3. Scanning – finding key words and completing a table
4. Test practice

Aims
• To provide students with skills to approach the IELTS Reading Test
• To develop students’ awareness of the importance of applying these skills in order to
read and answer questions more effectively and efficiently
Learning outcomes
• Students will have practised how to survey a text for basic information.
• Students will have practised how to skim to locate topic sentences, understand the gist
of the text, and have a better idea of the organisation of the text.
• Students will have practised how to scan to quickly locate key words and question
answers.

Information about this section of IELTS

In the Reading test there are 40 questions, designed to test a wide range of reading skills.
These include reading for gist, reading for main ideas, reading for detail, skimming,
understanding logical arguments and recognising writers' opinions, attitudes and purpose. The
test takes 60 minutes.
The IELTS Academic Reading Test includes three long texts which range from the descriptive
and factual to the discursive and analytical. These are taken from books, journals, magazines
and newspapers. They have been selected for a non-specialist audience but are appropriate
for people entering university courses or seeking professional registration.
The IELTS General Training Reading Test has three sections. Section 1 may contain two or
three short texts or several shorter texts. Section 2 comprises two texts. In Section 3, there is
one long text. These texts include extract from books, magazines, newspapers, notices,
advertisements, company handbooks and guidelines. These are materials you are likely to
encounter on a daily basis in an English-speaking environment.

Time 45-60 minutes

Level B1+
Class Suitable for groups / large classes,
F2F / Online
Interaction Individual / pair work
Materials Worksheet (attached)

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Material: Worksheet (Exercises 1-4)
Time: 15-20 minutes
Procedure:
• introduce the focus of the lesson – reading skills for the IELTS Reading Test.
• ask students what problems they have (or think they might have) with this part of
the test. (time is usually a main issue)
• explain that with 3 texts or sections and 40 questions to answer in 60 minutes, it
is crucial to ‘read’ differently to be more efficient and effective.
• put students into pairs or small groups. Tell them to discuss the 3 scenarios on
the Worksheet (Exercise 1). Give them about 5 minutes and get class feedback.

Possible answers

a) title/author/the cover/the blurb on the back/price/how long or short it is

b) quickly look at parts of the article (headline, pictures, photos, sub-headings)
to see if it really is interesting
c) quickly look down list of email for the name or subject

• explain that these 3 ways of ‘reading’ (surveying, skimming and scanning) are
skills that are very important in the Reading Test.
• tell students to work alone and match the skill with its description (Exercise 2).

Answers
A3, B1, C2

• tell students that they will have 20 seconds to survey a text (Exercise 3).
• tell them to turn the page over when you say ‘go’.
• say ‘go’ and give students just 20 seconds and then tell them to turn the page
back over so they cannot see the text.
• students work alone to answer the 5 questions a-e (Exercise 4).
• put students into pairs to compare answers and get class feedback.

Answers
a yes b no c no d yes e ¾ page

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 • point out that if there are specialist or technical words than non-specialists are
not expected to know, they will be explained in a glossary at the end of the text.
• ask: what was the title? (A Remarkable Beetle) Or, what is the article about?
(beetles)

Material: Worksheet (Exercises 5-6)

Time: 15-20 minutes
Procedure:
• introduce the focus of the exercises – skimming for gist and organisation.
• it is worth explaining that in good academic writing, each paragraph has just one
main topic, and that this is expressed as a topic sentence. So, the topic
sentence tells the reader what the paragraph is about. It is often, but not always,
the first sentence. Locating and reading the topic sentence is essential to
understanding the gist and the organisation of the text. You may also wish to
point out that they should write clear topic sentences in their essay in Writing
Task 2.
• tell students that they will have 60 seconds to skim the (same) text by:
▪ locating, reading and underlining the topic sentence in each
paragraph
▪ reading the final sentence in each paragraph
• get class feedback. In this case, the topic sentences are the first sentences.
• put students into pairs. Tell them to look at the topics a-e (Exercise 6) and,
looking only at the topic sentences, decide which paragraph they would look for
information about these topics.
• give students about 3 minutes to complete this task and then get class
feedback.

Answers
a) different species of beetles C
b) how the beetles get into the field A
c) what happens at different parts of the year C
d) what the beetles do inside the cowpat B
e) information about climate and the beetles C

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 • you may wish to recap before going onto the scanning exercises.
• elicit what the students have done so far.
o In a short time, students have surveyed the text so they know the extent
of the text, the topic of the text (from the title) and what help is available
(the glossary). They have skimmed the text so now know how it is
organised: spreading the beetles in the field, what the beetles do inside
the cowpats, and different types of beetles.

Material: Worksheet (Exercises 7-10)

Time: 15-20 minutes
Procedure:
• introduce the focus of the exercises – scanning for key words.
• tell students to work in pairs. They look at the table and answer the questions
(Exercise 7).
• get class feedback.

Answers
information about 3 species of beetle
French, Spanish, South African, ball-rolling/ball roller

• ask students based on their skimming of the topic sentences, which paragraph
has information about different species. (C)
• elicit what scanning is. (Reading a text with the specific purpose of extracting
information such as numbers, facts, words etc.)
• tell students they have 45 seconds to scan paragraph C and to
underline/highlight all mentions of the key words (Exercise 8).
• students work in pairs to compare their results.
• students work in pairs and discuss what information is missing about the
Spanish species (Exercise 9). (#9 preferred climate / #10 start of active period /
#11 generations per year.
• they do the same for the South African ball-rolling species. (#12 preferred
climate / #13 complementary species)
• tell students that in order to complete the table, they must read the information
around, close-reading the critical key words (Spanish / South African ball-rolling)
to find the answers.

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 • give students 5 minutes to complete the table (Exercise 10).
• put students into pairs to compare answers.
• get class feedback and allow for discussion on how students used close-reading
skills to find their final answers (Exercise 11).

Answers

9 temperate
10 early spring
11 two to five / 2-5
12 sub-tropical
13 South African tunneling / tunneling1

A Remarkable Beetle
A Introducing dung1 beetles into a pasture is a simple process: approximately 1,500 beetles are
released, a handful at a time, into fresh cow pats2 in the cow pasture. The beetles immediately disappear
beneath the pats digging and tunnelling and, if they successfully adapt to their new environment, soon
become a permanent, self-sustaining part of the local ecology. In time they multiply and within three or
four years the benefits to the pasture are obvious.

B Dung beetles work from the inside of the pat so they are sheltered from predators such as birds and
foxes. Most species burrow into the soil and bury dung in tunnels directly underneath the pats, which are
hollowed out from within. Some large species originating from France excavate tunnels to a depth of
approximately 30 cm below the dung pat. These beetles make sausage-shaped brood chambers along the
tunnels. The shallowest tunnels belong to a much smaller Spanish species that buries dung in chambers
that hang like fruit from the branches of a pear tree. South African beetles dig narrow tunnels of
approximately 20 cm below the surface of the pat. Some surface-dwelling beetles, including a South
African species, cut perfectly-shaped balls from the pat, which are rolled away and attached to the bases
of plants.

C For maximum dung burial in spring, summer and autumn, farmers require a variety of species with
overlapping periods of activity. In the cooler environments of the state of Victoria, the large French
species (2.5 cms long), is matched with smaller (half this size), temperate-climate Spanish species. The
former are slow to recover from the winter cold and produce only one or two generations of offspring from
late spring until autumn. The latter, which multiply rapidly in early spring, produce two to five generations
annually.
The South African ball-rolling species, being a sub-tropical beetle, prefers the climate of northern and
coastal New South Wales where it commonly works with the South African tunneling species. In warmer
climates, many species are active for longer periods of the year.

Glossary
1. dung: the droppings or excreta of animals
2. cow pats: droppings of cows

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Reading Skills

Worksheet

Identifying Reading Skills

1 Work with a partner or in small groups. Discuss the following scenarios:

a) You are casually looking around in a bookshop (or online) looking for
something to read. What do you look at?

b) You are looking at a news website or newspaper and you see an article
that you think might be interesting. What do you do?

c) You are looking at your email inbox for an important email. What do you
look for?

2 Match each reading skill with its description.

Reading a text very quickly to get the general

A Surveying 1 understanding and to get an idea of the
organisation of the text.
Reading a text with the specific purpose of
B Skimming 2 extracting information such as numbers, facts,
words etc.
Looking at a text very quickly before reading to
C Scanning 3 get an idea of lay-out: title, pictures, graphs,
headings, glossary etc.

3 When your teacher says ‘go’, turn over the page and follow the instruction at the
top of the page.

4 Answer these questions.

a Does the text have a title?

b sub-headings?
c diagrams or pictures?
d a glossary?
e How long is the text? ½ page ¾ page 1 page

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Survey the text. You have 20 seconds.

A Remarkable Beetle
A Introducing dung1 beetles into a pasture is a simple process: approximately
1,500 beetles are released, a handful at a time, into fresh cow pats2 in the cow
pasture. The beetles immediately disappear beneath the pats digging and
tunnelling and, if they successfully adapt to their new environment, soon become a
permanent, self-sustaining part of the local ecology. In time they multiply and within
three or four years the benefits to the pasture are obvious.

B Dung beetles work from the inside of the pat so they are sheltered from
predators such as birds and foxes. Most species burrow into the soil and bury dung
in tunnels directly underneath the pats, which are hollowed out from within. Some
large species originating from France excavate tunnels to a depth of approximately
30 cm below the dung pat. These beetles make sausage-shaped brood chambers
along the tunnels. The shallowest tunnels belong to a much smaller Spanish
species that buries dung in chambers that hang like fruit from the branches of a
pear tree. South African beetles dig narrow tunnels of approximately 20 cm below
the surface of the pat. Some surface-dwelling beetles, including a South African
species, cut perfectly-shaped balls from the pat, which are rolled away and
attached to the bases of plants.

C For maximum dung burial in spring, summer and autumn, farmers require a
variety of species with overlapping periods of activity. In the cooler environments of
the state of Victoria, the large French species (2.5 cms long), is matched with
smaller (half this size), temperate-climate Spanish species. The former are slow to
recover from the winter cold and produce only one or two generations of offspring
from late spring until autumn. The latter, which multiply rapidly in early spring,
produce two to five generations annually.
The South African ball-rolling species, being a sub-tropical beetle, prefers the climate
of northern and coastal New South Wales where it commonly works with the South
African tunneling species. In warmer climates, many species are active for longer
periods of the year.
https://www.ielts.org/-/media/pdfs/115018_academic_reading_sample_task_-
_table_completion__2_.ashx

Glossary
1. dung: the droppings or excreta of animals
2. cow pats: droppings of cows

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5 Skim the text.
Read the first and last sentence of each paragraph.
Highlight or underline the topic sentence of each paragraph.

6 Work with a partner. Using the information in the topic sentences only, decide in
which paragraph (A, B or C) you would look in to find the following information.

A Introducing dung1 beetles into a pasture is a simple process:

approximately 1,500 beetles are released, a handful at a time, into fresh
cow pats2 in the cow pasture

B Dung beetles work from the inside of the pat . . .

C For maximum dung burial in spring, summer and autumn, farmers require
a variety of species with overlapping periods of activity.

Paragraph A, B or C?
a) different species of beetles

b) how the beetles get into the field

c) what happens at different parts of the year

d) what the beetles do inside the cowpat

e) information about climate and the beetles

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7 Work with a partner. Look at the table below and answer the questions.

What is the table showing?

What are the key words?

8 Scan the text and underline / highlight all mentions of the key words in
paragraph C.

9 Work with a partner. Discuss what information is missing about the Spanish
species and the South African ball-rolling species.

Preferred Complementary Start of active Number of

Species Size climate species period generations
per year

French 2.5 cm cool Spanish late spring 1-2

Spanish 1.25 cm 9 ............ 10 ............ 11 ............

South 12 ............ 13 ............

African
ball
roller

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10 Work alone and complete the table with the missing information.

Questions 9 – 13

Complete the table below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for

each answer. Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer

sheet.

Preferred Complementary Start of active Number of

Species Size climate species period generations
per year

French 2.5 cm cool Spanish late spring 1-2

Spanish 1.25 cm 9 ............ 10 ............ 11 ............

South 12 ............ 13 ............

African
ball
roller

11 Discuss the following questions with a partner / in your group.

Did you close-read all of the text to find answers to questions 9-13?
Which parts of the texts did you close-read?
Why was it important to read these parts closely?

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