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Reading

matching ielts reading test

matching ielts reading test

With this type of question you have to pair up pieces of information to form a perfect match. For example, you might have to:
The biggest problem is the fact that you need to look at the whole text. The answers could be anywhere in the text and they do not come in order, so it takes time.

Key Points:
1. Questions usually DO NOT follow the order of the text. You may have to scan backwards and forwards as you solve questions.
2. Scanning skills are particularly important with this type of question.
3. When you are asked to match names or key terms these will sometimes only appear once in the text, but sometimes they will appear several times. The names/terms that occur several times will be harder to match as you may have to look at several different parts of the text to ensure you have matched to the right answer.

Approach:
1. Spend a couple of minutes looking at the questions and try to get a sense of the names/terms you are being asked to match to information.
2. Skim the text within 3 to 5 minutes. Pay a lot of attention to where the names/terms are 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 in the long run.
3. Read the instructions carefully, so that 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 and note that the keyword could occur in other parts of the text. If you are uncertain about an answer you may need to check all instances of the name/keyword in the text.
7. Repeat this strategy with other questions.

PRACTICE TASK
The Penny Black
In 1840, the United Kingdom introduced the penny black, the first adhesive postage stamp issued anywhere in the world.
For many years the postal service in the U.K. had been a very expensive service for ordinary people to use. The costs were prohibitive, a single letter sometimes costing a working person’s full day’s wage. The postal system also had many strange anomalies, such as certain categories of mail going free (and being therefore paid for by the charges on others), newspapers going for nothing, most mail being paid for by the addressee rather than by the sender, and so on.
There were moves for postal reform for many years, until eventually these moves started gathering some force through the attention of many, amongst whom Rowland Hill is the best known, and Robert Wallace, MP for Greenock, was instrumental. The story is long and involved, but eventually, The Penny Postage Bill was passed by Parliament on 17 August 1839. Some basic elements of the plan were the lowering of postage rates for basic letters to one penny, the removal of certain idiosyncrasies, that prepayment would become normal, and the availability of printed envelopes, letter sheets, and labels to show prepayment. The “labels” were the penny black and two pence blue.
A bookseller and printer from Dundee, James Chalmers, holds a strong claim to be the actual inventor of the adhesive postage stamp. He is said to have been interested in postal reform from about 1822, and to have printed samples of his idea for printed gummed labels in August 1834. It seems that, although Hill also presented the idea of adhesive stamps, he was probably keener on the use of standard prepaid letter folders, such as were issued in 1840 using a design by William Mulready.
The new stamps went on sale on 1st May 1840, and were valid for postage from 6th May 1840 (although some were used during the 1st-5th May period). The Mulreadies were issued at the same time. Public reaction to these new items was quite the opposite to Rowland Hill’s expectations. The labels were well-received and admired; the Mulready design was lambasted and ridiculed. Initial supplies of the stamps were rushed through the printing and distribution process, but supplies soon caught up with requirements.
The stamps were printed in sheets of 240, engraved on steel plates, on gummed paper with a single small crown watermark on each stamp. Eleven different printing plates were used, and it is possible in almost every case to work out which plate any individual stamp was printed from by little characteristics. Things like the positioning of the corner letters within their squares, the presence of the “O flaw”, which rays of the stars in the upper corners are broken at what points, and so on, can point to a correct plate identification, but more specialised literature is required in order to do this. Some plates are scarcer than others, plate 11 being the scarcest.
Every penny black stamp has letters in the lower two corners. These simply identify what sheet position the stamp occupied. When the printing plates were produced the lower squares were blank, and the letters were punched in by hand. The left square letter shows which horizontal row the stamp was in – the first row being A, the second B, and so on down to the twentieth row with T. The right square letter indicates the vertical column, again with A for the first column, B, C, and so on across to L for the last (twelfth) column. It should be noted therefore that each letter combination is just as common or as scarce as any other.
There were 68,158,080 penny blacks issued (yes, 68 million!), and even with only a 2% survival rate, there are likely to be about 1.3 million still in existence. The survival rate may well be considerably higher than 2%, as it should be remembered that in 1840 the use of envelopes was unusual, most letters being written, folded, and sealed with sealing wax; this meant that whenever a letter was filed in a lawyer’s office, bank, etc., the whole thing would be kept – letter and outer cover including the adhesive stamp
Aspects of condition; physical condition – any fault such as a thin, tear, crease, or stain will lower the value, and the number, size, and regularity of the margins make a big difference to value. The stamps were not perforated, and had to be separated using scissors or a knife. As there was only about 1mm between one stamp and another, it was very easy to stray just a little and cut into the printed design of the stamp. A stamp with two full margins and perhaps a couple of other part margins is about average. Collectors will pay higher

Questions 1 – 4
Look at the following people (and organisations) and the list of statements below.
Match each person or organisation with the correct statement.
People
1 Rowland Hill
2 James Chalmers
3 William Mulready
4 Parliament
List of Statements
A Introduced new legislation to lower cost of sending letters
B Designed a prepaid letter folder
C Designed the printing plates
D Preferred prepaid letter folders
E Interested in postal reforms since the 1830s
F Probably invented adhesive postage stamps

Questions 5 – 9
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G, below.
5 After reforms, most mail was
6 Every penny black was
7 Putting a letter in an envelope was
8 Each steel printing plate was
9 Keeping the borders of each stamp was
A unusual in 1840.
B able to print sheets of 240 stamps.
C paid for by the sender.
D very difficult to achieve.
E very expensive to send.
F designed with two letters in the bottom corners.
G quickly accepted.

ANSWERS
1. D 2. F 3. B 4. A 5. C 6. F 7. A 8. B (out of order) 9. D

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