Kamis, 16 Mei 2013

Back to the Principal: Reviewing at the Passage

There are some kinds of questions that force you to look at the passage for several times. You need to do it as there are some options provided regarding the information that you should grab. So, there is no way out accept looking back at the passage again, and again. Have a look at the example question.

Questions 4-7
In “Building houses out of earth”, the writer mentions several reasons why some people prefer earth houses. Read the list of reasons below and choose FOUR that are referred to in the passage.

Write your answer in boxes 4-7 on your answer sheet.
A. Cost of construction
B. Resistance of earthquakes
C. Stability of earth
D. Heat storage capacity
E. Availability of materials
F. Construction technology
G. Appearance and character

You should read carefully then find which options are existed in the passage. Remember that there are only four correct answers. It means that you should omit three wrong answers from the above list.
Check it from the reading passage below.


From the passage above, you can apply ‘skimming strategy’ to grab the answer. If you can remember the main idea of each paragraph that you have read, it will be better. But if you have a quite low memory, then skim the paragraph by looking at the options provided one by one. Option A for example, you can get the same topic of discussion between statement A and paragraph 5. The similar thing happens in paragraph 4. This paragraph is in line with statement D. Therefore, option D is also one of the answers.

Then, skim again the passage after looking at the next options. You are going to find that this statement in option E matches the information given in paragraph 3. This paragraph mainly talks about the availability of the material as well. For the last answer, option G is the best one to fill the position as appearance and characteristic are discussed clearly in paragraph 4.  

Reference: IELTS to Success Preparation Tips and Practice Tests by Erick van Bemmel (Melbourne, 1997)

IELTS Kampung Inggris Pare