IELTS Reading: The Fosbury Flop

This is a really really useful passage to read because of how it can help your WRITING. The passage itself is not difficult, but it is jam-packed full of excellent examples of Formal Academic Writing so if you have this reading at home, go through it carefully. - 'PEEL' paragraphs - Hedging https://ieltsetc.com/2020/12/hedging-in-academic-writing/ - Linking words https://ieltsetc.com/2019/07/ielts-complex-sentences/ - Noun forms - Conditionals https://ieltsetc.com/2020/03/ielts-conditionals/ - Critical Thinking Want to say thanks? https://www.buymeacoffee.com/fionawattam

11 Tammi 202130min

This is an extremely difficult Academic Reading Passage 3. It took me 30 minutes to find the answers even with the answer sheet in front of me. What can we learn from a text like this? Background knowledge and vocabulary will aid understanding Strategies such as locating the researchers' names will speed up your responses Every little helps - 2 of my recent daily tasks from the Writing Challenge will help you break down the dense text 1) affect vs effect https://ieltsetc.com/2020/12/affect-vs-effect/ 2) factor vs reason https://members.ieltsetc.com/factor-vs-reason/ Add these synonyms to your list: managers need to know = it is beneficial for hotel managers to understand to increase employee retention = to encourage staff to remain employees feel obligated to stay = staff feel they shouldn't move little is done = undeveloped practices employee development = improve their skills if cooperation is encouraged = if managers encourage employees to work together research has shown = evidence exists to support this hypothesis staff have a tendency to = employees have a predisposition to to dislike their workplace = to view their work environment negatively they conducted a study = they carried out research to fit with company goals = to align with organisational goals Want to support my podcast? Please click on the link below: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/fionawattam Many thanks Fiona

29 Joulu 202028min

No time to do my Advent Challenge? This podcast (watch the video version on www.YouTube.com/fionawattam) talks you through the past 12 days, so you'll get up and running really quickly! It's never too late to start - just go to my website: https://ieltsetc.com/ielts-advent-adventure/ and open the windows which will take you through to all the links. Come and post your sentences on Facebook, where I will check them every day: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ieltsAtoZ If you'd like to say thanks and contribute to the costs of running the free challenge, you are very welcome to do so here on my 'Buy Me A Coffee' page: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/fionawattam In return, I will send you a copy of my A-Z of IELTS Advent when it's ready in the New Year. Many thanks in advance - your donations help me pay for the cost of the website, graphics, advent page and podcast, so you'll be helping me to help others. Best wishes Fiona

12 Joulu 202040min

Is this Listening more difficult than usual? I got a special request from Elango in my Members Academy, and yes I think it is a tricky one! I had to read the tapescript very carefully to figure out the answer to Question 27, and it even required a bit of background knowledge (possibly true of Question 28 too!). Apart from that, this is a really good one to practise listening for: - Signals and Signposts: https://ieltsetc.com/2019/09/ielts-listening-how-to-recognise-signals-and-signposts/ - Synonyms (fascinating = interesting; amazed = surprised; type = genre) - Grammar (not many = few) - Language of hedging (comics can serve a really useful purpose = comics have the potential for being useful) - Pronunciation of key words (ballet) Catch up on the Free Writing Task 2 Challenge here: https://ieltsetc.com/2020/03/ielts-writing-workouts/

25 Marras 202029min

I had a special request from Isabella on Instagram today 👋🇧🇷. She asked me to look at a really difficult text (yes, this one's 9/10!). It's an Academic Passage 3 and it follows the Reading Type 2 structure (discursive) which goes like this - Title: asks a question (Why? The answer is not what everyone thinks). 1. Old theory: Everyone thinks fairy tales have endured because the STORIES give us WARNINGS about life e.g. Little Red Riding Hood. 2. New theory: Everyone is wrong. There's another reason. 3. Test to prove the old theory is wrong: Is the STORY important? 'NO'. Is the WARNING important? Answer: 'NO'. 4. Results of the test: The reason why fairy tales have endured is just that people enjoy scary stories. 5. Althernative theory (instantly proved wrong): The stories remain relevant because they're about women as victims. 6. Conclusion: Everyone likes scary stories because they build up our resistance to negative emotions, so the first theory is probably right. You can find similar 'discursive' structures here: What destroyed the civilisation of Easter Island? Is there anybody out there? The search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. Autumn Leaves Canadian writer Jay Ingram investigates the mystery of why leaves turn red in the fall. My updated guide to Time Management in the Reading Test gives you 8 techniques to help you improve your Reading Speed for the #ielts test.

24 Loka 202030min

Do you have a bike-sharing scheme where you live? In London there are the so-called 'Boris bikes' (named after Boris Johnson, who launched them in 2010 after being inspired by the success of a similar scheme in Paris, which is mentioned in this reading). This is a Section 2 Academic Text with 3 types of questions: Matching Statements, Choosing from a List and Gapfill. So whenever there's a lot to do, the text is slightly easier. This is a chronological text (in order of time) and is suitable for General Training practice too. It has some fantastic language that you can use in your writing e.g. urban bike-sharing scheme an answer to the threats of air pollution and consumerism. The police were opposed to the initiatives The council rejected ('turned down') the plan. 'The bicycle belongs to the past' That mentality has totally changed. By 1999, people had become more environmentally conscious. The system, however, was prone to vandalism and theft. The Parisian bike-sharing programme now boasts more than 20000 bicycles. Amsterdam is regarded as one of the two most cycle-friendly captials in the world. Today everybody longs for cities that are not dominated by cars. Get all my 10-minute lessons on my website www.ieltsetc.com. Join the Members Academy www.members.ieltsetc.com/academy/. See you next weekend, All the best Fiona

18 Loka 202030min

This is a difficult Section 4, but if you listen to my podcast regularly, you will be very familiar with this common IELTS topic! It's about marine archaeology, the use of technology to find ancient shipwrecks and building under the sea, and the lessons researchers can learn about how ancient civilisations lived. In this episode I refer to similar IELTS Reading/Listening texts, so you can see how important it is to learn the vocabulary that is relevant to so many IELTS texts. Find the Modals of Deduction Grammar here [e.g. Atlit-Yam MAY HAVE BEEN DESTROYED by a tsunami, climate change MAY HAVE CAUSED glaciers to melt. Find the Reading about the Lapita [Beyond the Blue Horizon] here. Get all my lessons in one place in the Members Academy.

10 Loka 202030min

Both texts are gapfill summaries. The first one gives you practice with summary Flow Charts (IELTS 28-Day Planner Day 12) and the second covers the common topic of how to deal with absence in the workplace (good practice if you never usually read this kind of document). Get more General Training Reading tips on my website. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook for daily practice. #ielts #ieltstest #ieltscourse

3 Loka 202020min