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Reading

labelling flow charts processes ielts reading test

labelling flow charts processes ielts reading test

This question type involves stages and links that should be matched with the order in which these occur in the reading text. Read each stage and identify keywords and note the links between stages. With this question type, it can be useful to use your own knowledge to comprehend the different parts of the task and read the text to identify the parts given in the description to complete the stage of a process or to label parts of an object.

Key Points:
1. You must answer using words taken from the text.
2. You must not exceed the word limit.
3. Questions usually follow the order of the text.
4. The information in flow charts and diagrams is usually in note form rather than complete sentences, so you will not be constructing grammatically complete sentences.
5. This type of question can usually be completed quite quickly if you can quickly locate the paragraphs that contain the answers; you should do so, so as to have more time for the rest of the questions on the test.

Approach:
1. Spend 1-2 minutes to look at the diagram, especially any headings. Try to build an overall understanding about what the information you have is depicting. Look at the information given in the diagram to get an idea of what information you will be searching for when you do your skim read.
2. Skim the text within 3 minutes. Pay a lot of attention to the where information that is relevant to the diagram is located and even make marks on your page to help you later. Avoid, going to the questions to solve an answer while you are skimming as this will break your flow and lead to a poor skim which will cost you time and accuracy in the long run.
3. Read the instructions carefully so you know the maximum number of words/numbers you can write.
4. Read the first question and establish a keyword to search for in the text.
5. Locate the keyword/synonym in the text.
6. Look for the correct answer. It should be somewhere close to the keyword in the same sentence.
7. Repeat this strategy with other questions, starting from the place where you got the last answer
(as most answers occur sequentially).

PRACTICE TASK
Memory
We’ll begin our discussion of memory with a comprehensive and influential model of how human memory works. The model is called the modal model and was developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) to describe how information is encoded, stored, and retrieved from memory. The model is not the only one proposed and models have since become even more complex and specific, but this model will help you understand some of the important processes that are part of our memory, as well as introduce some of the major terms and concepts important for understanding how memory works.
The first part of the model involves sensory input from the environment in the form of stimuli that we encounter in our everyday lives. For example, suppose that you are having a conversation with a friend. Your senses automatically register everything in the environment in different ways. You can hear what your friend is saying to you, the cars passing by the street, and the chirps of the birds flying overhead. You can see your friend standing in front of you, the people passing by behind, and the building even further in the distance. You can smell the mulch in the planter, your friend’s cologne, and the sawdust from a construction site.
All of this information is registered in sensory stores, each compartmentalized by mode: visual, auditory and haptic, according to Atkinson and Shiffrin. These sensory stores hold the information for a very short period of time (e.g., a few seconds) and then the information is either sent to a short-term store or disappears to make room for new information as it comes in. This is necessary, because we are constantly bombarded with new information and if this was all stored in our memory for more than a few seconds, we would quickly run out of storage space. Information that gets processed in some way (e.g., we pay particular attention to it or we rehearse it) is forwarded from the sensory stores to the short-term store. This also has a limited capacity, but the capacity can be increased by storing information in different ways (e.g., organization strategies).
The short-term store can hold information for up to about a minute, but this time limit can also be increased by certain techniques (e.g., rehearsal). For example, suppose you call the operator for a phone number you want. The operator gives you the phone number, but you have nothing to write it on before you redial. What do you do? Well, one obvious strategy is to repeat the number to yourself over and over. You are rehearsing the number and keeping it in the short-term store until you need to dial it (called response output from the short-term store).
If you were to rehearse the number for a long time, it might get stored in a more permanent place in memory called the long-term store. According to Atkinson and Shiffrin, the long-term store is the place in our memory where information can be held for long periods of time (minutes up to many years). This does not mean that information can always be accessed from the long-term store.
There are many factors that contribute to our ability to retrieve memories. According to the model though, to retrieve information, it must be accessed from the long-term store and moved into the short-term store for a response output. This process can be aided or impeded, depending on the way in which we try to retrieve the memory. But because the retrieval process involves moving the information back to the short-term store, a response needs to be made within about a minute or else it will be lost from your memory.

Questions 1 – 12
Complete the flow chart below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

labelling flow charts processes ielts reading test

ANSWERS (1-3 in any order)
1. hear
2. see
3. smell
4. Visual
5. Auditory
6. Haptic (4-6 in any order)
7. a few seconds
8. short term store
9. response output
10. (about) a minute
11. long term store
12. long periods / many years / minutes to years (any one answer)

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