IELTS.CLOUD

Admin — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 09:04:59 +0000

Who do you spend the most time with?

The post appeared first on IELTS.CLOUD.

Reading Doc#9

Admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 04:12:17 +0000

Tackling Obesity in the Western World

A. Obesity is a huge problem in many Western countries and one which now attracts considerable medical interest as researchers take up the challenge to find a ‘cure’ for the common condition of being seriously overweight. However, rather than take responsibility for their weight, obese people have often sought solace in the excuse that they have a slow metabolism, a genetic hiccup which sentences more than half the Australian population (63% of men and 47% of women) to a life of battling with their weight. The argument goes like this: it doesn’t matter how little they eat, they gain weight because their bodies break down food and turn it into energy more slowly than those with a so-called normal metabolic rate.

B. ‘This is nonsense,’ says Dr Susan Jebb from the Dunn Nutrition Unit at Cambridge in England. Despite the persistence of this metabolism myth, science has known for several years that the exact opposite is in fact true. Fat people have faster metabolisms than thin people. ‘What is very clear,’ says Dr Jebb, ‘is that overweight people actually burn off more energy. They have more cells, bigger hearts, bigger lungs and they all need more energy just to keep going.’

C. It took only one night, spent in a sealed room at the Dunn Unit to disabuse one of their patients of the beliefs of a lifetime: her metabolism was fast, not slow. By sealing the room and measuring the exact amount of oxygen she used, researchers were able to show her that her metabolism was not the culprit. It wasn’t the answer she expected and probably not the one she wanted but she took the news philosophically.

D. Although the metabolism myth has been completely disproved, science has far from discounted our genes as responsible for making us whatever weight we are, fat or thin. One of the world’s leading obesity researchers, geneticist Professor Stephen O’Rahilly, goes so far as to say we are on the threshold of a complete change in the way we view not only morbid obesity, but also everyday overweight. Prof. O’Rahilly’s groundbreaking work in Cambridge has proven that obesity can be caused by our genes. ‘These people are not weak- willed, slothful or lazy,’ says Prof. O’Rahilly, ‘They have a medical condition due to a genetic defect and that causes them to be obese.’

E. In Australia, the University of Sydney’s Professor Ian Caterson says while major genetic defects may be rare, many people probably have minor genetic variations that combine to dictate weight and are responsible for things such as how much we eat, the amount of exercise we do and the amount of energy we need. When you add up all these little variations, the result is that some people are genetically predisposed to putting on weight. He says while the fast/slow metabolism debate may have been settled, that doesn’t mean some other subtle change in the metabolism gene won’t be found in overweight people. He is confident that science will, eventually, be able to ‘cure’ some forms of obesity but the only effective way for the vast majority of overweight and obese people to lose weight is a change of diet and an increase in exercise.

F. Despite the $500 million a year Australians spend trying to lose weight and the $830 million it costs the community in health care, obesity is at epidemic proportions here, as it is in all Western nations. Until recently, research and treatment for obesity had concentrated on behaviour modification, drugs to decrease appetite and surgery. How the drugs worked was often not understood and many caused severe side effects and even death in some patients. Surgery for obesity has also claimed many lives.

G. It has long been known that a part of the brain called the hypothalamus is responsible for regulating hunger, among other things. But it wasn’t until 1994 that Professor Jeffery Friedman from Rockerfeller University in the US sent science in a new direction by studying an obese mouse. Prof. Friedman found that unlike its thin brothers, the fat mouse did not produce a hitherto unknown hormone called leptin. Manufactured by the fat cells, leptin acts as a messenger, sending signals to the hypothalamus to turn off the appetite. Previously, the fat cells were thought to be responsible simply for storing fat. Prof. Friedman gave the fat mouse leptin and it lost 30% of its body weight in two weeks.

H. On the other side of the Atlantic, Prof. O’Rahilly read about this research with great excitement. For many months two blood samples had lain in the bottom of his freezer, taken from two extremely obese young cousins. He hired a doctor to develop a test for leptin in human blood, which eventually resulted in the discovery that neither of the children’s blood contained the hormone. When one cousin was given leptin, she lost a stone in weight and Prof. O’Rahilly made medical history. Here was the first proof that a genetic defect could cause obesity in humans. But leptin deficiency turned out to be an extremely rare condition and there is a lot more research to be done before the ‘magic’ cure for obesity is ever found.

Questions

The post Reading Doc#9 appeared first on IELTS.CLOUD.

Reading Doc#8

Admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 04:12:17 +0000

Is there more to video games than people realize?

Many people who spend a lot of time playing video games insist that they have helped them in areas like confidence-building, presentation skills and debating. Yet this way of thinking about video games can be found almost nowhere within the mainstream media, which still tend to treat games as an odd mix of the slightly menacing and the alien. This lack of awareness has become increasingly inappropriate, as video games and the culture that surrounds them have become very big business indeed.

Recently, the British government released the Byron report into the effects of electronic media on children. Its conclusions set out a clear, rational basis for exploring the regulation of video games. The ensuing debate, however, has descended into the same old squabbling between partisan factions: the preachers of mental and moral decline, and the innovative game designers. In between are the gamers, busily buying and playing while nonsense is talked over their heads.

Susan Greenfield, renowned neuroscientist, outlines her concerns in a new book. Every individual’s mind is the product of a brain that has been personalized by the sum total of their experiences; with an increasing quantity of our experiences from very early childhood taking place ‘on screen’ rather than in the world, there is potentially a profound shift in the way children’s minds work. She suggests that the fast-paced, second-hand experiences created by video games and the Internet may inculcate a worldview that is less empathetic, more risk-taking and less contemplative than what we tend to think of as healthy.

Greenfield’s prose is full of mixed metaphors and self-contradictions and is perhaps the worst enemy of her attempts to persuade. This is unfortunate, because however much technophiles may snort, she is articulating widely held fears that have a basis in fact. Unlike even their immediate antecedents, the latest electronic media are at once domestic and work-related, their mobility blurring the boundaries between these spaces, and video games are at their forefront. A generational divide has opened that is in many ways more profound than the equivalent shifts associated with radio or television, more alienating for those unfamiliar with new’ technologies, more absorbing for those who are. So how do our lawmakers regulate something that is too fluid to be fully comprehended or controlled?

Adam Martin, a lead programmer for an online games developer, says:’ Computer games teach and people don’t even notice they’re being taught.’ But isn’t the kind of learning that goes on in games rather narrow? ‘A large part of the addictiveness of games does come from the fact that as you play you are mastering a set of challenges. But humanity’s larger understanding of the world comes primarily through communication and experimentation, through answering the question “What if?’ Games excel at teaching this too.’

Steven Johnson’s thesis is not that electronic games constitute a great, popular art, but that the mean level of mass culture has been demanding steadily more intellectual engagement from consumers. Games, he points out, generate satisfaction via the complexity of their virtual worlds, not by their robotic predictability. Testing the nature and limits of the laws of such imaginary worlds has more in common with scientific methods than with a pointless addiction, while the complexity of the problems children encounter within games exceeds that of anything they might find at school.

Greenfield argues that there are ways of thinking that playing video games simply cannot teach. She has a point. We should never forget, for instance, the unique ability of books to engage and expand the human imagination, and to give us the means of more fully expressing our situations in the world. Intriguingly, the video games industry is now growing in ways that have more in common with an old-fashioned world of companionable pastimes than with a cyber future of lonely, isolated obsessives. Games in which friends and relations gather round a console to compete at activities are growing in popularity. The agenda is increasingly being set by the concerns of mainstream consumers – what they consider acceptable for their children, what they want to play at parties and across generations.

These trends embody a familiar but important truth: games are human products, and lie within our control. This doesn’t mean we yet control or understand them fully, but it should remind us that there is nothing inevitable or incomprehensible about them. No matter how deeply it may be felt, instinctive fear is an inappropriate response to technology of any kind.

So far, the dire predictions many traditionalists have made about the ‘death’ of old-fashioned narratives and imaginative thought at the hands of video games cannot be upheld. Television and cinema may be suffering, economically, at the hands of interactive media. But literacy standards have failed to decline. Young people still enjoy sport, going out and listening to music And most research – including a recent $1.5m study funded by the US government – suggests that even pre-teens are not in the habit of blurring game worlds and real worlds.

The sheer pace and scale of the changes we face, however, leave little room for complacency. Richard Battle, a British writer and game researcher, says Times change: accept it; embrace it.’ Just as, today, we have no living memories of a time before radio, we will soon live in a world in which no one living experienced growing up without computers. It is for this reason that we must try to examine what we stand to lose and gain, before it is too late.

Questions

The post Reading Doc#8 appeared first on IELTS.CLOUD.

Reading Doc#7

Admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 04:12:17 +0000

High-Tech Crime-Fighting Toots

A. Crime-fighting technology is getting more sophisticated and rightly so. The police need to be equipped for the 21st century. In Britain, we’ve already got the world’s biggest DNA database. By next year the state will have access to the genetic data of 4.25m people: one British-based person in 14. Hundreds of thousands of those on the database will never have been charged with a crime.

B. Britain is also reported to have more than £4 million CCTV (closed circuit television) cameras. There is a continuing debate about the effectiveness of CCTV. Some evidence suggests that it is helpful in reducing shoplifting and car crime. It has also been used to successfully identify terrorists and murderers. However, many claim that better lighting is just as effective to prevent crime and that cameras could displace crime. An internal police report said that only one crime was solved for every 1,000 cameras in London in 2007. In short, there is conflicting evidence about the effectiveness of cameras, so it is likely that the debate will continue.

C. Professor Mike Press, who has spent the past decade studying how design can contribute to crime reduction, said that, in order for CCTV to have any effect, it must be used in a targeted way. For example, a scheme in Manchester records every licence plate at the entrance of a shopping complex and alerts police when one is found to belong to an untaxed or stolen car. This is an effective example of monitoring, he said. Most schemes that simply record city centres continually – often not being watched – do not produce results. CCTV can also have the opposite effect of that intended, by giving citizens a false sense of security and encouraging them to be careless with property and personal safety. Professor Press said: ‘All the evidence suggests that CCTV alone makes no positive impact on crime reduction and prevention at all. The weight of evidence would suggest the investment is more or less a waste of money unless you have lots of other things in place.’ He believes that much of the increase is driven by the marketing efforts of security companies who promote the crime-reducing benefits of their products. He described it as a ‘lazy approach to crime prevention’ and said that authorities should instead be focusing on how to alter the environment to reduce crime.

D. But in reality, this is not what is happening. Instead, police are considering using more technology. Police forces have recently begun experimenting with cameras in their helmets. The footage wilt be stored on police computers, along with the footage from thousands of CCTV cameras and millions of pictures from numberplate recognition cameras used increasingly to check up on motorists.

E. And now another type of technology is being introduced. It’s called the Microdrone and it’s a toy-sized remote-control craft that hovers above streets or crowds to film what’s going on beneath. The Microdrone has already been used to monitor rock festivals, but its supplier has also been in discussions to supply it to the Metropolitan Police, and Soca, the Serious Organised Crime Agency. The drones are small enough to be unnoticed by people on the ground when they are flying at 350ft. They contain high-resolution video surveillance equipment and an infrared night vision capability, so even in darkness they give their operators a bird’s-eye view of locations while remaining virtually undetectable.

F. The worrying thing is, who will get access to this technology? Merseyside police are already employing two of the devices as part of a pilot scheme to watch football crowds and city parks looking for antisocial behaviour. It is not just about crime detection: West Midlands fire brigade is about to lease a drone, for example, to get a better view of fire and flood scenes and aid rescue attempts; the Environment Agency is considering their use for monitoring of illegal fly tipping and oil spills. The company that makes the drone says it has no plans to License the equipment to individuals or private companies, which hopefully will prevent private security firms from getting their hands on them. But what about local authorities? In theory, this technology could be used against motorists. And where will the surveillance society end? Already there are plans to introduce ‘smart water’ containing a unique DNA code identifier that when sprayed on a suspect will cling to their clothes and skin and allow officers to identify them later. As long as high-tech tools are being used in the fight against crime and terrorism, fine. But if it’s another weapon to be used to invade our privacy then we don’t want it.

Glossary:
drone: a remote-controlled pilotless aircraft
350ft: about 107 meters
bird’s eye view: a view from above
fly-tipping: illegally dumping waste (British English)

Questions

The post Reading Doc#7 appeared first on IELTS.CLOUD.

Reading Doc#6

Admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 04:12:17 +0000

NTROPY

How a 20-year-old idea eventually became a moneyspinner

A. The story of how games designer Paul Wickens achieved success with his bestselling game Ntropy is an object lesson to those who want to strike out on their own. Firstly, there’s no need to rush. ‘I had the idea for what ended up as Ntropy – which, by the way, is a play on the word entropy, meaning chaos or disorganisation – about 20 years ago‘, says Mr Wickens. ‘I was building structures with matchsticks while waiting for some friends in a bar. Later I made a scaled-up version of a box of matches, which we used to play with at college for hours on end’.

B. After leaving college, Mr Wickens, though interested in starting his own company and having designed another couple of games by then, took the safety-first route. ‘I got a job in IT as a programmer’, he recalls. ‘Later I moved into sales support in specific applications, mostly centred round e-commerce. For the most part I forgot about my games’. So what reawakened his interest? ‘It was about two years ago’, says Mr Wickens, ‘and there was a downturn in the IT industry. Several of my friends and even colleagues lost their jobs and a couple of them started their own companies. And yes, I suppose I did re-evaluate in the way you do when you think: “What would I do if I were made redundant?”’

C. What most people don’t do is try to crack the £2 billion-a-year UK toy and games market. ‘I chose Ntropy’, he explains, ‘because it involves all the family. I wrote to several of the big games companies with a brief outline of my game and received the polite “Thanks, but no thanks” reply’. It is at this point, says Mr Wickens, that he began to think seriously about going it alone as an independent. ‘OK, I knew nothing about the UK toy market but I had a lot more general business experience than I did when I left college’.

D. The next step was to make a full replica of the game, mostly in his workshop – a converted garage at home. ‘Then I had to test it. My father helped here because he works at an outdoor centre. He gave it to people who had no idea who I was. I figured I had to get third parties to assess it and listen to what they had to say’. The result was a return to the workshop for ‘a fairly drastic redesign and some rule changes’.

E. Nevertheless, the designer was convinced by now that Ntropy had commercial potential. The next question was: ‘Am I prepared to spend what it takes for the next stage of development?’ On the money side, Mr Wickens says it represented his savings over 20 years and remortgaging his house. He set up a company, Tadpole Games – friends helped with the design and Logo for the firm and the game box – and he registered with the UK Patent Office at a cost of £4,000.

F. The next stage was to design the plastic base on which the stick structure could be built. Mr Wickens says: ‘A friend came up with the design and a firm I found used this very futuristic process called Selective Laser Sintering to produce the first mould. I kept the different parts of the project separate to protect it’.

G. Each Ntropy game consists of 64 identical sticks. ‘I could only have done this with the help of the Internet’, he says. ‘I spent weekend after weekend looking for a sustainable source of timber. In the end I found a firm in southern Thailand which used wood from rubber trees and could do it for about 20p a stick. It was also through the Net that I learned about letters of credit and shipping cargo on boats’.

H. After an anxious six-week wait, the container arrived. ‘I think it was a shock to my neighbours’, says Mr Wickens. ‘There were 700 boxes with 300,000 sticks. I checked some samples and they were the right size. I was overjoyed’. Too soon. ‘Over the next few days I went through the other boxes and found around half of them weren’t the exact size I needed. It’s the first really big lesson I’ve learned. Never do a deal like this without going and checking it out first’.

I. Mr Wickens formally launched Ntropy to the trade at the London by Fair. Then a stroke of luck, essential to all budding entrepreneurs, came his way. As he tells it: ‘I gave the game to a friend who was meeting some mates in the pub. They played and really enjoyed it. My friend rang the next day to tell me and added: “Oh, by the way, they work at Hamleys.”’ Hamleys is London’s top toy shop. ‘Then their boss rang me to say, despite one or two concerns, “We like it, so let’s give it a go.”’ The rest, as they say, is history. Ntropy took off and the first batch of 2,500 moved fast.

J. And the future? ‘I’ve just taken on someone to develop the commercial side of Tadpole’, says Mr Wickens. ‘If that works out, he will take a stake in the business. I want Ntropy to be a global product but I don’t necessarily see myself as an out-and-out businessman. I already have another couple of games I’d like to develop’.

Questions

The post Reading Doc#6 appeared first on IELTS.CLOUD.

Reading doc#5

Admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 04:12:17 +0000

A. Popular interest in Mars, the ‘Red Planet’, is long-established, but has enjoyed two dramatic flowerings, one in the 1890s and the other a century later.

B. Any speculation about life on Mars, then or now, is part of a long discussion on ‘the plurality of worlds’. Pluralists believe that there are other worlds apart from ours which contain life — an idea that had its origins in classical Greece. In the 19th century, the new science of astrophysics suggested that large numbers of stars in the sky were similar to the sun in their composition — perhaps they too were circled by planetary systems. Nearer to home Mars, our neighbour in the solar system, seemed to offer the evidence the pluralists had lacked until then.

C. The characteristics of Mars’ orbit are such that its distance from Earth varies considerably — from 34.5 to 234.5 million miles. From an astronomer’s standpoint it was particularly well-placed for observation in 1877, 1892 and 1909. Observations in each of these years intensified discussion about possible life on Mars.

D. If life, intelligent or otherwise, were to be found on Mars then life on Earth would not be unique. The scientific, theological and cultural outcomes of such a discovery could be stupendous. In 1859, Fr. Angelo Secchi, director of the Vatican observatory and a confirmed pluralist, observed markings on the surface of Mars which he described as canali, ‘channels’. The fateful word had been launched on its career, although there was little immediate development from Secchi’s work.

E. In 1877 another Italian, Giovanni Schiaparelli, one of Europe’s most distinguished astronomers, also observed the canali, but he added the refinement that they appeared to be constituents of a system. Other astronomers observed features that might he continents or seas; Schiaparelli confirmed these findings and gave them finely sonorous classical names such as Hellas, Mare Etythraeum, Promethei Sinus.

F. Although Schiaparelli was cautious in his public statements, recent research suggests that he was a pluralist. Certainly his choice of familiar place names for the planet, and his publicising of the calla network, encouraged pluralist speculation. Inevitably, cumuli was soon being translated into English as ‘canals’ rather than ‘channels’. In 1882 Schiaparelli further fuelled speculation by discovering twin canals; a configuration which he named ‘gemination’; he described no fewer than sixty canals and twenty geminations.

G. Some of Schiaparellrs findings were confirmed by the astronomers Perrotin and Thollon at Nice Observatory in 1886. In 1888, however, Perrotin confused matters by announcing that the Martian continent of ‘Libya’ observed by Schiaparelli in 1886 ‘no longer exists today’. The confusion grew; two prestigious observatories in the US found in one case no canals, in another a few of them but no geminations, and no changes to Libya.

H. While the observers exchanged reports and papers, the popularisers got to work. They were generally restrained at first. The British commentator Richard Proctor thought that the canals might be rivers; he was among the first to suggest that a Martian canal would have to be ‘fifteen or twenty miles broad’ to be seen from Earth. The leading French pluralist, Camille Flammarion, published his definitive La Planete Mars in 1892: ‘the canals may be due … to the rectification of old rivers by the inhabitants for the purpose of the general distribution of water …’. Other commentators supposed the ‘canals’ might be an optical illusion, a line first advanced by the English artist Nathaniel Green, teacher of painting to Queen Victoria and an amateur astronomer.

I. The canals debate might have levelled off at this point had it not been for the incursion of its most prominent controversialist — and convinced pluralist — Percival Lowell. Lowell, an eminent Bostonian, entered the astronomical argument after a career in business and diplomacy, mainly in the Orient. He may not have brought an entirely objective mind to the task. Even before he started observing he had announced that the canals were probably ‘the work of some sort of intelligent beings’.

J. The newly-arrived popular press was very willing to report Lowell’s findings and views; canal mania grew apace. By 1910 Lowell had reported over 400 canals with.an average length of 1,500 miles. He wrote plausibly about the Martian atmosphere and the means by which the canals distributed water from Mars polar caps to irrigate the planet before evaporation returned moisture to the poles. This water cycle appealed to popular evolutionism which perceived Mars as an old, dying world trying to avert its fate by rational and large-scale engineering — this was, after all, an age of great canals: Panama, Dortmund-Ems, Manchester, Corinth.

Source: History Today, July, 1998

Questions

The post Reading doc#5 appeared first on IELTS.CLOUD.

Reading Doc#4

Admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 04:12:17 +0000

You are what you speak

Does your mother tongue really affect the way you see the world?

Does the language you speak influence the way you think? Does it help define your world view? Anyone who has tried to master a foreign tongue has at least thought about the possibility.

At first glance the idea seems perfectly plausible. Conveying even simple messages requires that you make completely different observations depending on your language. Imagine being asked to count some pens on a table. As an English speaker, you only have to count them and give the number. But a Russian may need to consider the gender and a Japanese speaker has to take into account their shape (long and cylindrical) as well, and use the number word designated for items of that shape.

On the other hand, surely pens are just pens, no matter what your language compels you to specify about them? Little linguistic peculiarities, though amusing, don’t change the objective world we are describing. So how can they alter the way we think?

Scientists and philosophers have been grappling with this thorny question for centuries. There have always been those who argue that our picture of the Universe depends on our native tongue. Since the 1960s, however, with the ascent of thinkers like Noam Chomsky, and a host of cognitive scientists, the consensus has been that linguistic differences don’t really matter, that language is a universal human trait, and that our ability to talk to one another owes more to our shared genetics than to our varying cultures. But now the pendulum is beginning to swing the other way as psychologists re-examine the question.

A new generation of scientists is not convinced that language is innate and hard-wired into our brain and they say that small, even apparently insignificant differences between languages do affect the way speakers perceive the world. ‘The brain is shaped by experience,’ says Dan Slobin of the University of California at Berkeley. ‘Some people argue that language just changes what you attend to,’ says Lera Boroditsky of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ‘But what you attend to changes what you encode and remember.’ In short, it changes how you think.

To start with the simplest and perhaps subtlest example, preparing to say something in a particular language demands that you pay attention to certain things and ignore others. In Korean, for instance, simply to say ‘hello’ you need to know if you’re older or younger than the person you’re addressing. Spanish speakers have to decide whether they are on intimate enough terms to call someone by the informal tu rather than the formal Usted. In Japanese, simply deciding which form of the word ‘I’ to use demands complex calculations involving things such as your gender, their gender and your relative status. Slobin argues that this process can have a huge impact on what we deem important and, ultimately, how we think about the world.

Whether your language places an emphasis on an object’s shape, substance or function also seems to affect your relationship with the world, according to John Lucy, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands. He has compared American English with Yucatec Maya, spoken in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Among the many differences between the two languages is the way objects are classified. In English, shape is implicit in many nouns. We think in terms of discrete objects, and it is only when we want to quantify amorphous things like sugar that we employ units such as ‘cube’ or ‘cup’. But in Yucatec, objects tend to be defined by separate words that describe shape. So, for example, ‘long banana’ describes the fruit, while ‘flat banana’ means the ‘banana leaf’ and ‘seated banana’ is the ‘banana tree’.

To find out if this classification system has any far-reaching effects on how people think, Lucy asked English- and Yucatec-speaking volunteers to do a likeness task. In one experiment, he gave them three combs and asked which two were most alike. One was plastic with a handle, another wooden with a handle, the third plastic without a handle. English speakers thought the combs with handles were more alike, but Yucatec speakers felt the two plastic combs were. In another test, Lucy used a plastic box, a cardboard box and a piece of cardboard. The Americans thought the two boxes belonged together, whereas the Mayans chose the two cardboard items. In other words, Americans focused on form, while the Mayans focused on substance.

Despite some criticism of his findings, Lucy points to his studies indicating that, at about the age of eight, differences begin to emerge that reflect language. ‘Everyone comes with the same possibilities,’ he says, ‘but there’s a tendency to make the world fi t into our linguistic categories.’ Boroditsky agrees, arguing that even artificial classification systems, such as gender, can be important.

Nevertheless, the general consensus is that while the experiments done by Lucy, Boroditsky and others may be intriguing, they are not compelling enough to shift the orthodox view that language does not have a strong bearing on thought or perception. The classic example used by Chomskians to back this up is colour. Over the years many researchers have tried to discover whether linguistic differences in categorising colours lead to differences in perceiving them. Colours, after all, fall on a continuous spectrum, so we shouldn’t be surprised if one person’s ‘red’ is another person’s ‘orange’. Yet most studies suggest that people agree on where the boundaries are, regardless of the colour terms used in their own language.

By Alison Motluk.
New Scientist, 30 November 2002

Questions

The post Reading Doc#4 appeared first on IELTS.CLOUD.

Linking Words

Admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 08:41:31 +0000

Linking Words

You should ensure that you organise your ideas clearly by using a variety of linking words and phrases. This will help improve your Cohesion and Coherence scores.

Adding information

conjunctions: and, as well as
adverbials: also, anyway, besides, furthermore, in addition, likewise, moreover, similarly

We use these expressions to give additional information:

Fish supplies as with substances that might protect against heart disease. Moreover, in many cultures fish is known as a ‘brain food’.

Sequencing

adverbials: first, next, after that, then; firstly, secondly, finally

Firstly, secondly and finally are used to order points in an argument:

Firstly, in terms of heart disease, it has been shown that consuming even small quantities of fish can lower your risk of heart disease by 17%. Secondly, consuming fish is known to have a beneficial effect on brain development. Finally, …

First, next, after that and then describe the order of activities in a process:

First the fruit is picked by hand. Then it is transported to the factory.

Cause, reason, result

conjunctions: because, so
adverbials: therefore, consequently, so, thus, as a result
prepositions: because of, due to, on account of, owing to

Because introduces the reason for something, and so introduces the result:

I eat fish three times a week because it protects against heart disease. (reason)
Fish protects against heart disease so I eat it three times a week. (result)

Therefore, consequently, so, thus, and as a result introduce the result of a situation or action:

As a result, people are ‘unsure whether to increase or decrease the amount of fish they eat.

We use because of, due to, on account of and owing to to introduce the reason for something:

The match was cancelled because of the snow. (not ~~because of it was snowing~~)
The buses were all running late owing to the bad weather.

We can use due to, on account of and owing to + the fact that with a clause:

The match was cancelled due to the fact that it was snowing.

Contrasting

conjunctions: but, although, though
adverbials: alternatively, however, in contrast, nevertheless, on the contrary, on the other hand, yet
prepositions: in spite of, despite

We use but between two contrasting ideas:

Fish has long been a staple .food in many cultures, but there has been sonic controversy recently about the benefits and risks of consumption.

Although can come at the beginning or in the middle of two contrasting ideas. We use a comma between the two clauses:

Although the work was supported by grants from the Fisheries Scholarship Fund, this did not affect the research findings.
The work was supported by grants from the Fisheries Scholarship Fund, although this did not affect the research findings.

We use in spite of and despite + noun/-ing at the beginning or in the middle of two contrasting ideas:

In spite of the considerable amount of literature on the risks and benefits of fish consumption, there are still important gaps in this information. (not ~~in spite of there is a considerable amount~~)
I eat fish regularly for health reasons despite not liking it much. (not ~~despite I didn’t like it~~)

We can use despite and in spite of + the fact that with a clause:

I eat fish regularly for health reasons despite the fact that I don’t like it much.

Giving examples

adverbials: that is to say, in other words, that is (i.e.), for example

We use these expressions to link two clauses that give the same information in a different way or to give examples:

There has been some controversy recently about the benefits and risks of fish consumption. for example, we know that fish supplies us with polyunsaturated fatty acids, substances that might protect against heart disease.

Practice Grammar

The post Linking Words appeared first on IELTS.CLOUD.

Grammar Exercise#1

Admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 08:35:33 +0000

Complete the answer to the Writing task below by choosing the correct linking words from the box and adding the relevant figures from the table.

The table below gives information about the daily cost of water per person in five different countries. (Figures are based on the minimum daily requirement per person of 11.5 litre.)

Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information below.

*while*	*for instance*	*both*	*respectively*
*however*	*overall*	*whereas*	*also*
*first of all*	*despite*

Welcome to your Grammar#1

The table compares the amount people have to pay for their minimum daily water in five countries. It shows the percentage of the average daily wage this represents in each place.

, we can see that Tanzania and Uganda have the highest daily water costs

the UK and US have the lowest. This means,

, that Tanzanians pay

cents,

Americans pay a mere

cents for the same amount of water. These differences are even greater when we consider the percentage of the average daily wage this cost represents. In

Tanzania and Uganda, the cost is significant, representing

and

%BLANK%.

In the UK and US, , the cost is only a tiny fraction of the daily wage at

, the table shows that there are huge differences between the cost of water in the developing countries and the industrialised west.

The post Grammar Exercise#1 appeared first on IELTS.CLOUD.

IELTS Speaking Topics

Admin — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 09:45:54 +0000

IELTS Speaking Topics - Round 1

Where are you from
How far is your hometown from this place? Is your home town an interesting place?
Where do you live? Is that an interesting place to live?
Where do you live – A house or an apartment? Do you have any special room in there?
What is your favorite room of the house?
Are you planning to move to a new house in the future?
Why we wear watch? How much is it important in your work culture to wear a watch?
What makes you feel bored? What do you do when you feel bored?
What kinds of facilities are available near your house?
Why is it important to do physical activity like sports, exercise, running etc.?
Do you think you will adopt some physical activity in future?
Do you think youngsters are not well aware about the importance of physical activity?
What do you do to concentrate on sleep before going to bed?
Do you think taking a nap in the afternoon is beneficial? Do you take it?
Do you work or study ?
How was your first day in office?
Why did you choose to work there?
Do you like your job?
What are your work responsibilities?
Have you made friends with your colleagues?
Did you eat any foreign food as a child?
Have you eaten foreign foods apart from your local dishes?
How popular are foreign foods in your country?
Do you use maps? Do you prefer paper maps or e-maps? And Why ?
Do you often remember directions?
What kind of music you like?
What would you prefer – writing with hand or type writing? And why?
Do you like writing? What do you usually write?
Did you like writing when you were a child?
Do you remember your favorite teacher from primary school?
Do you grow plants? Have you ever grown plants?
What is the best holiday you remember?
Do you like to go on holidays? Do you plan your holidays?
Is it essential to plan before going on holidays?
What do you plan before leaving for vacations?
What are you studying?
Why did you choose this particular course?
What job would you like when you have completed all your studies?
What are the differences between a private university and a public university? Which one do you prefer?

IELTS Speaking Topics - Round 2 & Round 3

Language

Which languages do you speak?
Do you think it’s important for children to learn a foreign language?
When did you start learning a foreign language?
Do you enjoy learning languages?
What activity do you find most useful for learning English?
What do you find most difficult about learning English?
Are there any other languages you would like to learn in the future?

Historic Place/History/Your favorite historical period

Talk about an event you remember from history.
How do people in your country feel about protecting historic buildings?
Do you think an area can benefit from having an interesting historic place locally? In what way?
What do you think will happen to historic places or buildings in the future? Why?
How were you taught history when you were at school?
Are there other ways people can learn about history, apart from at school? How?
Do you think history will still be a school subject in the future? Why?

Eating habits

Tell me about the types of food that people eat in your country.
How are the eating habits now in your country different from eating habits in the past?
How healthy is your country’s food?
Why do you think different cultures have different table manners?
How may eating habits change in coming decades?
What one aspect of a foreign tradition you like about their eating habits? Why?

Work

Do you think job satisfaction is more important than salary when choosing a job?
What skills do you think are needed to get a good job these days?
Do you think women should be able to do all the same jobs that men do?
How has technology changed the way we work?
What is the difference between white collar and blue collar jobs?
What jobs do you think are most valuable to society?
A job you would like to do in future?

Holiday

What is your ideal holiday like?
Talk about an outing that didn’t cost you too much
Why do you think people go on holiday?
How important is it for families to go on holiday together?
Why do some people go on holiday alone?
What kind of holidays will be popular in the future?
Is it better to take a holiday in your own country or in a foreign country? Why?
What problems can people have on holiday in a foreign country?

Describe a decision that you made with the help of someone else.

What is the decision?
Why did you take it?
Whom help did you take?
Why was the decision so important for you?
Why do some people find it hard to make decisions?
How important is it to get advice from other people when making decisions?
Why is it sometimes difficult to accept advice?
What are some of the most important decisions young people have to make?
Do you agree that parents should make important decisions for their children?
Is it better to make a decision thinking about what you want or thinking about what other people want?
Describe a time when you took a decision and then changed your mind. Why it happened? Do you regret it?

Role models

Which types of people become role models in your society?
Do you agree that famous people have more responsibilities than ordinary people?
What happens when young people lack good role models?
What standards of behavior should teachers set?
Do you agree that you should never meet your heroes?
What benefits a famous person gets that ordinary people cannot?
Talk about an influential personality

Describe a famous person you would like to meet

Who is he/she?
Why do you want to meet him/her?
Why he is famous
What would you do if you meet him/her?
Do you think that famous people are generally happier than ordinary people?
What qualities does a person need to have in order to be famous?
Is it easier or more difficult to achieve fame today than in your grandparents’ time?
Describe the ways that famous people use to influence public.
Do you think more is expected from famous people than ordinary citizens?
What type of people become famous in your country? Do you want to be famous?
Talk about a popular person you know

Leadership and politics

Do you think people are born to be leaders?
Can leadership skills be taught?
Why are elected politicians often so unpopular?
What should a leader do to remain popular?
Do you think unelected heads of state are a good idea?
In your opinion what qualities a political leader should have?

Influences on the young

What type of people influence the young in your country?
Why is it important to have role models?
Do you think the education system in your country influences young people’s behaviour?
What types of people (parents, teachers, friends etc) are best to influence young people’s behaviour?
What do you think young people will be most influenced by it the future?
Who do you believe have more influence on young children – parents or teachers? Why?

Influence of television

How popular is watching television in your country?
Tell me about the types of programmes that are generally on television in your country.
Why do people like watching television?
Which one do you think is better – state or private television? Why?
What effects can watching television have on children?
How the TV programmes differ now than that of 10 years ago?
Your favorite TV program

Films/ Cinema

Do you think the cinema has increased or decreased in popularity in recent years?
In your opinion, will this trend continue into the future?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of making films of real-life events?
How important do you think it is for a filmmaker to remain true to the original story?
Should films and television be censored or should we be free to choose what we see?
How do you think censorship laws will change in the next 20 years?

A comic actor in your country

Which actor? Why?
What types of programmes do you find funny on TV?
What types of programmes are most popular in your country? Why do you think this is the case?
What kind of things make you laugh? Why?
Do you like to make people laugh? How?
Do you think it is important to have a sense of humour?

Media & News

How do most people get their news in your country?
How do you think people will get their news in the future?
Do you believe everything you read in the newspapers?
How has TV changed people’s life?
What do you think of children watching TV?
How has social media changed the way we get and share the news?

The internet and social media

What types of websites are popular among your generation?
Is using the internet a social or solitary activity?
How has the internet changed social behaviour?
Do most people have a computer at home in your country? What do most people use it for?
Do you think all information on the internet is true?
How can people find reliable information on the internet?
How has the internet changed the way we live?
How has the internet changed the way we work?
How has the internet changed the way we communicate with others?
Do you think the internet is safe for children to use unsupervised?
Should companies check job applicants’ online profiles?
What will be the next big development online?

A website you regularly use

What the website is
How you found the address of this website
What the website contains
How long have you been using it
Explain why it is useful to you.
How often you use it
How much time you spend on it
How long have you been using the Internet?
How the Internet has changed our lifestyle?
What would be the possible uses of Internet in the future?
Advantages of internet
Do people in your country use the internet a lot?
What type of internet services do you use at your office?

Online Shopping

Do you do any shopping on the internet? How frequently?
Future of online shopping
Have you ever had any difficulties while shopping online?
Which is better- traditional shopping or online shopping?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of online shopping?

Technology

Describe the advantages and disadvantages of modern technology.
In what ways has technology changed your society?
How has technology changed the way we communicate?
How has technology changed the nature of long-distance relationships?
What are the limitations of technology when it comes to interpersonal relationships?
How could technology be considered a hindrance for us? Can we overcome it?

Universities/Education

What makes a good student?
What role should the teacher have in the classroom?
Do you think computers will one day replace teachers in the classroom?
How has teaching changed in your country in the last few decades?
What is the difference between the way children learn and the way adults learn?
How can a teacher make lessons for children more interesting?
Is higher education too expensive in your country?
Should all students pay for their university education? Why?
What advantages do universities bring to the society? Is it same in your country?
Which is more important, research or teaching? Why?
How should students spend their summer vacations? How do/did you spend it?
What are the advantages of private universities than public universities?

Life experience

Do you agree that we learn best from our mistakes?
What’s the best way to gain experience in life?
Can we gain life experience from books and movies?
Which is more important, experience or potential?
What experience do you wish you had gained?
Why do some people fail to learn from their experience?

Retirement and old age

At what age should people retire from work?
What problems can people face after their retirement?
How important are retirees to your country’s economy?
When should you start saving for retirement?
Why do some companies encourage early retirement?
Do you think the state should take responsibility of retirees who worked in private companies rather than government organisation?

Gift

Describe a gift that you have recently received?
What was the occasion?
Why did you like it?
How important is giving gifts in your culture?
How often do you present gifts to people?
How would you go about choosing a gift?
What kind of gifts do you generally like to buy for others?
What is the purpose of gift giving?
How has gift giving changed since your grandparents’ time?
How important is gift giving in a relationship?
What is more important when it comes to giving a gift, cost or effort?
Do you think that people have become more materialistic when it comes to giving gifts, as compared to your grandparents’ time?
How has modern technology changed the nature of gift giving?

Nature/Environmental problems

Why is it important to protect the natural environment?
Why should people be concerned about the environment?
What environmental problems are common in your country?
What can the government in your country do to deal with those problems?
What technological innovations should the world develop to protect the environment?
Do you think the youth these days care about the environment? Why?
Environmental problems are too big to be dealt at the individual level? Do you agree? Why/ Why not?
How can people protect the environment?
Do you think money should be spent on protecting animals?
Do you think more should be done to protect natural beauty spots in your country?
What can a government do to encourage people not to harm the environment?

Clothes you like to wear on special occasions

What is it?
On what occasion do you wear this?
Do other people wear the same dress on special occasions?
Explain why you like to wear this dress.
Do you enjoy buying clothes?
What kinds of clothes you like to wear?
What factors do you think affect the clothes we choose to wear?
Is it possible to look good without spending too much on clothes?
Can clothing tell you much about a person?
Why do some companies ask their staff to wear uniforms?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of having uniforms at work?
When do people wear traditional clothing in your country?
How have clothes fashions change in your country over the last few decades?
What is the difference between clothes that young people and old people like to wear?

Sports

What types of sports are popular in your country? Why?
What are the benefits of playing a sport?
Do you often play a sport? Why/ why not?
Do you think the types of sport that are popular will change in the future?
How can sports bring people from different countries closer together?
Why are some international sports more popular than others?

Childhood Memory

Is it important to have pleasant childhood memories?
Do you think that people are permanently affected by negative childhood memories?
What do you think it means to ‘live in the past’?
Nowadays many parents try to make their children happy by buying them many toys. How do you feel about this?
Is it important for a child to have a lot of toys in order to be happy?
What is more important for a child’s happiness, many toys or many friends?

Photographs

A nice photo of you that you remember
Who clicked it?
Where was it clicked?
Why is it important to you?
Do you prefer to be clicked by others or take selfies?
Do you think that digital photography will replace traditional hard copy photographs?
Do you think professional skills are necessary for good photography? What are those skills?
Is it necessary to take a course to become a good photographer
Is it easy to take good photographs?
What are the pros and cons of digital photography?
Should people share their photographs online?
When can an image be worth a thousand words?
Is a photograph a reliable form of identification?
How has modern technology changed the way we take photographs?
How has sharing photographs changed since your grandparents’ time?
How well do photographs capture special moments?
Do you think that people nowadays spend too much time taking photographs?
Why do you think people photograph themselves?

Inventions and copyright

Which invention has transformed your country most?
Would you like to be an inventor? Why/ why not?
How long should someone be able to profit from an idea?
Do you think intellectual property laws are too strict?
What is your opinion about the copyright of intellectual property and idea?
Can you cite one example when you noticed a copyright violation? What was it?

Leisure Activities

What type of leisure activities are popular in your country.
Why it is important for people to have leisure activities?
Why are some leisure activities more popular than others?

Environmental problem

What are the greatest environmental problems facing your country at present?
What has been done so far to solve these problems?
How successful would you say these measures have been?
Do you think things are likely to get better or worse in the future?
How do you think you can contribute to solve these problems?
Should countries try to solve the climate change problems together or individually? Why?

Ceremony

How important are ceremonies in our lives?
Do you see the role of public and private ceremonies changing in the future?
Have attitudes to marriage changed in recent years?
According to you, in what ways do men and women feel differently about marriage?
What sort of national events make headlines in your country?
Do the media in your country pay more attention to global or national events?

Someone you know who talks a lot

Who’s that person?
How did you meet him?
What does he generally talk about?
Do you enjoy having a conversation with that person?
Do you like to talk more or listen more?
Why do you think communication is important?
What is important when communicating in front of an audience?
What do you prefer – formal or informal communication?
What do you prefer – face to face communication, telephonic communication or online chatting?
Differences between spoken and written communication
Advantages and disadvantages of modern communication channel for teenagers.
To what extent do you think the media influences how people communicate with each other?
Do you think there are differences in the way men and women communicate?
Do you think that people become better communicators as they get older?
Do you agree that education has a strong and positive effect on people’s ability to communicate effectively?
What impact has the growth of technology had on the way people communicate and how do you think this will develop in the future?

A trip you did using public transportation (Travel and transport)

Where you went?
What was the mode of transportation?
Why you chose that mode ?
Advantages and disadvantages of public transport?
Why people use their own vehicle?
Will having one’s own vehicle influence one’s status?
How easy is it to travel around your country/ What is the state of transport in your city ?
Which method of travel do you consider safest? Why?
Has travel become safer in recent years than that was in the past?
What are the pros and cons of low-cost air travel?
How do you think people will travel in the future?
Should the government in a country focus more on rail transports or road transports? Why?
How do most people travel long distances in your country?
Have the types of transport people use changed much over the last few decades?
What kind of improvements have there been in transport in your country in recent years?
Do you think transport is likely to continue to improve in the future?
Do you think most people should use public transports? Why/ why not?
Why some countries impose higher taxes on car ownership? How is the scenario in your country?

Advertisements

What kind of advertisements run on your local TV channels?
Do you get influenced by adverts and buy products?
Do you remember any advertisement from your childhood?
Should celebrities endorse products? Will it have positive or negative impact?
What makes an advertisement effective?
What is the purpose of advertising?
How have advertisements changed since you were a child?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of advertising?
Do you think that advertisements should be strictly regulated?
How important is it for advertisers to tell the whole truth in advertisements?

A song that means a lot to you (Music)

Which song
Sung by
Do you listen that song on some special occasion?
Why do you like it?
A place where people like to listen to music
Where it is located
How you heard about the place
What kind of music you can hear
What kind of people usually go there.
Do children learn music in your country?
What are the benefits to learn musical instruments?
Do old people like new generation songs?
What kind of songs young people in your country listen to?
Who is your favorite singer/musician why?
Who is the most popular musician in your country?
Have you ever tried to learn any musical instrument? Would like to learn one in future?
Can anyone learn music or one requires to have some special qualities/abilities?
What kind of abilities are required to learn music/singing?
Do you listen to music often?
Do you listen to music when you are studying or driving?
What kind of music do you prefer? Why?
Do you download music from website or buying a CD? Why?
Do you think your taste in music will change in future? Why?
What kind of music do people in your country prefer?
Do people in the present listen to the same music that people used to listen in the past?

Reading Books

Do you generally read a lot of books or do you prefer watching TV? Why?
What kinds of books are considered good reads in your opinion?
Do you think that people read nowadays as they did in the past?
Do you regard famous writers as good role models?
If a movie is based on a book, would you prefer to read the book or to watch the film? Why?
How our reading habit changes as we grow up? Why does it happen?

Art

Describe the general purpose of art. Why do people enjoy art?
Do you think that art is as important as academic subjects when it comes to educating children?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of art education?
Why do you think some people enjoy looking at paintings and sculptures and others do not?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of being an artist?
Do you think that some people are naturally better artists than others?

A sport you have seen on TV and would like to try

Name of the sport
Where you saw it?
Why would you like to try it?
Which sport is popular in your country?
Which sport do young people in your country enjoy?
Which sport do old people in your country enjoy?
Do you think amateurs should participate in local sports activities?
What are the benefits of playing sports?
Do you play any sport?
Do you support any particular team?
What impact does money have in sport?
What do you think is the relation between business and sport?
Sport celebrities endorse products?
Why are some sports fans so passionate?
Is there any violence at sporting events in your country?
Should athletes be better role models?
What benefits do international sporting events bring?
Is it important for a country to win lots of medals?
The money professional sportsmen earn is significantly higher than that the earning of other professionals. Is it justified?

Robots

Can Robots replace humans?
Have you ever seen any robots, Where?
Give an example of a common robot in use

Describe a time when you got into trouble, either at school or at home

What it was
How you got into it
How you handled it
Were you punished for it
Explain how you felt about it.

Water

Do you drink tab water or bottled water?
Is it affordable? Why?
Do you think people should drink the good bottle of water? Why?
Have you been thirsty and there was nothing available to drink?

Dictionary

Do you often use a dictionary?
Do you prefer to use an electronic dictionary or a dictionary made out of paper?
If someone gave you a dictionary as a gift, how would you feel?
Do you think it would be interesting to write a dictionary?

A childhood friend

When did you first meet?
What that person is special to you?
Has the nature of friendship changed because of modern communication channels?
Why do people generally don’t have friends from their childhood?
Something you would like to for your friend
Something you friend has done for you
Something you would like to do that your friend has done

A city or country where you would like to live or work in the future

Which city
Where is it located
Why do you like it
What the place look like
How you know about this place
What work you will do if you live there

Describe a place/country in other countries where you would like to work for a short time

Where would you like to work?
What kind of job would it be?
When would you like to go?
Why do you want to work there?

Family

Is family important in your country?
How has the size of the family changed in the last few decades in your country?
How do you think the family will change in the future?
What role do grandparents play in the family in your country?
Who do you think should be responsible for the care of the elderly, the family or the government?
Why is the number of joint families decreasing in modern time?

A way you use to concentrate in your work or studies

What technique you use to concentrate on studies or work?
When do you use it?
Does it help you?
Do you always use this technique?
Do you think technology has affected the concentration of children?
Why is it necessary for sportsmen to concentrate?
Is it important for people to concentrate on their work nowadays?
Some people think that machines do better job than humans and machines should replace humans. What do you think?

Sleep

How long do you think is good to sleep for you? And why?
Do you think older should get more or less sleep than the younger ones?

Saving money

A method you used to save money
How can children learn from their parents about money saving?
Do you think saving money is important?

An event that you have attended recently

What was it?
With whom you attended that?
Was it enjoyable for you? And how?

An event in your life that you recently celebrated

What was the occasion?
When and where it took place?
Any particular theme?
Who were the people invited?
Do you think a lot of people should be invited to a function?
Describe an occasion when visitors came to your home
Describe a recent event that made you happy. Why? Any special memories?
What is the difference in terms of culture between your country and other countries?
What is the benefit of events like international summits or beauty pageant to the host country?

A subject you studied/liked at school

What was the subject?
How long did you study it for?
How was it taught?
Why did you like it?
Was that subject a popular choice in your school?
What other subjects did kids in your school preferred to study?
What do you think should be added to school curriculum which might be helpful in real life?
Which subject you think might be added to future school curriculum?
How has technology changed the way students are taught in school?
How important is sports and related infrastructure while choosing a school?
When should kids get to decide which subject to choose in school?

A technology you like using (except computers)

Which technology product you use a lot? And why?
In what ways people can learn to use technology?
Companies are using more and more technologies. How is it impacting people?

Describe a story you remember from your childhood

Do you think technological changes have affected story telling
Do you think anyone can be a good storyteller ?
Your first mobile phone
Who bought the phone for you
Why did you buy it
What did you do with it

Talk about a skill that takes long time to learn.

What is the skill?
Have you tried learning the skill?
Why do you think it takes more time?
The challenges you faced while learning the skill.
Describe something interesting that your friend has done
What is it?
Who did it?
Why did you find it interesting?
How would have you reacted if you were in the same situation.

Your Dream House

What it would look like?
Where it would be located?
What facilities this would have?
Why you want to live there.

Some More Topics

A time you taught someone something
An activity you do with older people
An interesting animal in your country
A good service you received from a company
A magazine you like
A building you like
Someone you met recently and would like to meet again
An animal you like
A street market
A place you prefer to go out with friends
A public place which you visited that needs improvements
Luxuries and happiness
A toy you liked when you were a child
An unusual meal you had
Learning maths in primary school
An item you own that needs to be replaced
A plan you made but changed later
A favorite place in your town or city
A competition you would like to participate in
A season you enjoy
A quiet place you know
Something you lost
A time you worked in a team
A situation when you had to be polite
A skill you learned outside your school or college
A river or lake in your country

The post IELTS Speaking Topics appeared first on IELTS.CLOUD.