IELTS Reading:
Skills and Technique
There is not enough time to read every word of each article and answer all the questions. To do well in the IELTS reading exam follow the key steps below:
- Establish the question type (multi-choice, complete a summary)
- Establish answer type required (multi-choice, 3 words etc.)
- Skim the article
- Read questions and underline keywords
- Attempt to answer the questions
- Scan the article to answer the questions (Scan for the keywords from the questions, you may need to be scanning for synonyms)
Hi Mike, thank you for your learning material. It really comes in handy for me to handle these tests.
Btw, can you give me explanation for this question?
EVIDENCE: As the ancestral home of oranges, lemons and pomelos, China also has the greatest diversity of citrus pests.
QUESTION: China has more citrus pests than any other country in the world.
ANSWER: True
I wonder why isn’t it understood in a way that diversity here does not include the higher numbers of pests, it just has more types, not numbers. So I think the question is Not Given
Hope to see your reply. Thank you very muchh
You have a valid point. I think it is not a great IELTS question in terms of the phrasing.
The “support” for the answer being TRUE is:
In this context, “more citrus pests” can reasonably mean more types of citrus pests, especially because the passage is talking about diversity.
A useful IELTS rule here is: when a statement uses a general noun like pests, animals, plants, or diseases, it may refer to types/species, not just individual quantities. The surrounding context decides the meaning. Here, the key word diversity strongly points to types, so True is the best answer.
Hi Team,
The above provided links are not working.
Thanks, and sorry but it seems that site does not maintain these tests anymore. I am taking the links off my page.