雅思英語考試經(jīng)典資料匯編5：Introduction

4

Introduction

TheInternationalEnglishLanguageTestingSystem(IELTS)iswidelyrecognisedasa

reliablemeansofassessingthelanguageabilityofcandidateswhoneedtostudyorwork

whereEnglishisthelanguageofcommunication.ThesePracticeTestsaredesignedtogivefutureIELTScandidatesanideaofwhethertheirEnglishisattherequiredlevel.

IELTSisownedbythreepartners:theUniversityofCambridgeESOLExaminations,theBritishCouncilandIDP:EducationAustralia(throughitssubsidiarycompany,IELTS

AustraliaPtyLimited).

FurtherinformationonIELTScanbefoundintheIELTSHandbookandtheIELTSInformationforcandidatesleaflet,availablefreeofchargefromIELTScentres.ThesecanalsobedownloadedfromtheIELTSwebsite().

WHATISTHETESTFORMAT?

IELTSconsistsofsixmodules.AllcandidatestakethesameListeningandSpeakingmodules.ThereisachoiceofReadingandWritingmodulesaccordingtowhetheracandidateistakingtheAcademicorGeneralTrainingversionofthetest.

Academic

Forcandidatestakingthetestforentrytoundergraduateorpostgraduatestudiesor

forprofessionalreasons.

GeneralTraining

Forcandidatestakingthetestforentrytovocationalortrainingprogrammesnotat

degreelevel,foradmissiontosecondaryschoolsandforimmigrationpurposes.

Thetestmodulesaretakeninthefollowingorder:

Listening

4sections,40items

approximately30minutes

AcademicReading

3sections,40items60minutes

OR

GeneralTrainingReading

3sections,40items60minutes

Academic

60

Writing

2tasks

minutes

OR

GeneralTrainingWriting

2tasks

60minutes

Speaking

11to14minutes

TotalTestTime

2hours44minutes

5

Introduction

Listening

Thismoduleconsistsoffoursections,eachwithtenquestions.Thefirsttwosectionsare

concernedwithsocialneeds.Thefirstsectionisaconversationbetweentwospeakersandthesecondsectionisamonologue.Thefinaltwosectionsareconcernedwithsituationsrelated

toeducationalortrainingcontexts.Thethirdsectionisaconversationbetweenuptofourpeopleandthefourthsectionamonologue.

Avarietyofquestiontypesisused,including:multiplechoice,short-answerquestions,sentencecompletion,notes/form/table/summary/flow-chartcompletion,labellinga

diagram/plan/map,classification,matching.

Candidatesheartherecordingonceonlyandanswerthequestionsastheylisten.Ten

minutesareallowedattheendforcandidatestotransfertheiranswerstotheanswersheet.

AcademicReading

Thismoduleconsistsofthreesectionswith40questions.Therearethreereadingpassages,

whicharetakenfrommagazines.journals,booksandnewspapers.Thepassagesareontopicsofgeneralinterest.Atleastonepassagecontainsdetailedlogicalargument.

Avarietyofquestiontypesisused,including:multiplechoice,short-answerquestions,sentencecompletion,notes/summary/flow-chart/tablecompletion,labellingadiagram,

classification,matching,choosingsuitableparagraphheadingsfromalist,identificationof

writer'sviews/claims-yes,no,notgiven-oridentificationofinformationinthepassage-

true,false,notgiven.

GeneralTrainingReading

Thismoduleconsistsofthreesectionswith40questions.Thetextsaretakenfromnotices,advertisements,leaflets,newspapers,instructionmanuals,booksandmagazines.ThefirstsectioncontainstextsrelevanttobasiclinguisticsurvivalinEnglish,withtasksmainly

concernedwithprovidingfactualinformation.Thesecondsectionfocusesonthetrainingcontextandinvolvestextsofmorecomplexlanguage.Thethirdsectioninvolvesreadingmoreextendedtexts,withamorecomplexstructure,butwiththeemphasisondescriptiveandinstructiveratherthanargumentativetexts.

Avarietyofquestiontypesisused,including:multiplechoice,short-answerquestions,sentencecompletion,notes/summary/flow-chart/tablecompletion,labellingadiagram,

classification,matching,choosingsuitableparagraphheadingsfromalist,identificationof

writer'sviews/claims-yes,no,notgiven-identificationofinformationinthetext-true,

false,notgiven.

AcademicWriting

Thismoduleconsistsoftwotasks.Itissuggestedthatcandidatesspendabout20minutesonTask1,whichrequiresthemtowriteatleast150words,and40minutesonTask2,which

requiresthemtowriteatleast250words.TheassessmentofTask2carriesmoreweightinmarkingthanTask1.

Task1requirescandidatestolookatadiagramorsomedata(graph,tableorchart)andtopresenttheinformationintheirownwords.Theyareassessedontheirabilitytoorganise,presentandpossiblycomparedata,describethestagesofaprocess,describeanobjector

event,orexplainhowsomethingworks.

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Introduction

InTask2candidatesarepresentedwithapointofview,argumentorproblem.Theyare

assessedontheirabilitytopresentasolutiontotheproblem,presentandjustifyanopinion,compareandcontrastevidenceandopinions,andevaluateandchallengeideas,evidenceorarguments

Candidatesarealsoassessedontheirabilitytowriteinanappropriatestyle.

GeneralTrainingWriting

Thismoduleconsistsoftwotasks.Itissuggestedthatcandidatesspendabout20minutesonTask1,whichrequiresthemtowriteatleast150words,and40minutesonTask2,which

requiresthemtowriteatleast250words.TheassessmentofTask2carriesmoreweightinmarkingthanTask1.

InTask1candidatesareaskedtorespondtoagivenproblemwithaletterrequestinginformationorexplainingasituation.Theyareassessedontheirabilitytoengagein

personalcorrespondence,elicitandprovidegeneralfactualinformation,expressneeds,wants,likesanddislikes,expressopinions,complaints,etc.

InTask2candidatesarepresentedwithapointofview,argumentorproblem.Theyare

assessedontheirabilitytoprovidegeneralfactualinformation,outlineaproblemandpresenta

solution,presentandjustifyanopinion,andevaluateandchallengeideas,evidenceorarguments.

Candidatesarealsojudgedontheirabilitytowriteinanappropriatestyle.

Speaking

Thismoduletakesbetweenlland14minutesandisconductedbyatrainedexaminer.

Therearethreeparts:

Part1

Thecandidateandtheexaminerintroducethemselves.Candidatesthenanswergeneral

questionsaboutthemselves,theirhome/family,theirjob/studies,theirinterestsandawiderangeofsimilarfamiliartopicareas.Thispartlastsbetweenfourandfiveminutes.

Part2

Thecandidateisgivenataskcardwithpromptsandisaskedtotalkonaparticulartopic.

Thecandidatehasoneminutetoprepareandtheycanmakesomenotesiftheywish,beforespeakingforbetweenoneandtwominutes.Theexaminerthenasksoneortworounding-offquestions.

Part3

Theexaminerandthecandidateengageinadiscussionofmoreabstractissueswhichare

thematicallylinkedtothetopicpromptinPart2.Thediscussionlastsbetweenfourandfiveminutes.

TheSpeakingmoduleassesseswhethercandidatescancommunicateeffectivelyinEnglish.TheassessmenttakesintoaccountFluencyandCoherence,LexicalResource,GrammaticalRangeandAccuracy,andPronunciation.

7

Introduction

HOWISIELTSSCORED?

IELTSresultsarereportedonanine-bandscale.Inadditiontothescoreforoveralllanguageability,IELTSprovidesascoreintheformofaprofileforeachofthefourskills(Listening,Reading,WritingandSpeaking).Thesescoresarealsoreportedonanine-bandscale.All

scoresarerecordedontheTestReportFormalongwithdetailsofthecandidate's

nationality,firstlanguageanddateofbirth.EachOverallBandScorecorrespondstoa

descriptivestatementwhichgivesasummaryoftheEnglishlanguageabilityofacandidateclassifiedatthatlevel.Theninebandsandtheirdescriptivestatementsareasfollows:

9ExpertUser-Hasfullyoperationalcommandofthelanguage:appropriate,accurateandftuentwithcompleteunderstanding.

8VeryGoodUser-Hasfullyoperationalcommandofthelanguagewithonlyoccasional

unsystematicinaccuraciesandinappropriacies.Misunderstandingsmayoccurinunfamiliarsituations.Handlescomplexdetailedargumentationwell.

7GoodUser-Hasoperationalcommandofthelanguage,thoughwithoccasional

inaccuracies,inappropriaciesandmisunderstandingsinsomesituations.Generallyhandlescomplexlanguagewellandunderstandsdetailedreasoning.

6CompetentUser-Hasgenerallyeffectivecommandofthelanguagedespitesome

inaccuracies,inappropriaciesandmisunderstandings.Canuseandunderstandfairlycomplexlanguage,particularlyinfamiliarsituations.

5ModestUser-Haspartialcommandofthelanguage,copingwithoverallmeaninginmostsituations,thoughislikelytomakemanymistakes.Shouldbeabletohandlebasic

communicationinownfield.

4LimitedUser-Basiccompetenceislimitedtofamiliarsituations.Hasfrequentproblemsinunderstandingandexpression.Isnotabletousecomplexlanguage.

3ExtremelyLimitedUser-Conveysandunderstandsonlygeneralmeaninginveryfamiliarsituations.Frequentbreakdownsincommunicationoccur.

2IntermittentUser-Norealcommunicationispossibleexceptforthemostbasicinformationusingisolatedwordsorshortformulaeinfamiliarsituationsandtomeetimmediateneeds.

HasgreatdifficultyunderstandingspokenandwrittenEnglish.

1NonUser-Essentiallyhasnoabilitytousethelanguagebeyondpossiblyafewisolated

words.

0Didnotattemptthetest.-Noassessableinformationprovided.

MostuniversitiesandcollegesintheUnitedKingdom,Australia,NewZealandandCanadaacceptanIELTSOverallBandScoreof6.0or6.5forentrytoacademicprogrammes.IELTSscoresarerecognisedbyover500universitiesandcollegesintheUSA.

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Introduction

MARKINGTHEPRACTICETESTS

ListeningandReading

TheAnswerkeyisonpages152-161.

EachquestionintheListeningandReadingmodulesisworthonemark.

Questionswhichrequireletter/Romannumeralanswers

·Forquestionswheretheanswersarelettersornumbers,youshouldwriteonlythenumberofanswersrequired.Forexample,iftheanswerisasingleletterornumberyoushould

writeonlyoneanswer.Ifyouhavewrittenmorelettersornumeralsthanarerequired,theanswermustbemarkedwrong.

Questionswhichrequireanswersintheformofwordsornumbers

·Answersmaybewritteninupperorlowercase.

·Wordsinbracketsareoptional-theyarecorrect,butnotnecessary.

·Alternativeanswersareseparatedbyasingleslash(1).

·Ifyouareaskedtowriteananswerusingacertainnumberofwordsand/or(a)number(s),youwillbepenalisedifyouexceedthis.Forexampleifaquestionspecifiesananswer

usingNOMORETHANTHREEWORDSandthecorrectansweris'blackleathercoat',theanswerofcoatofblackleather'isincorrect.

·Inquestionswhereyouareexpectedtocompleteagap,youshouldtransferonlythenecessarymissingword(s)ontotheanswersheet.Forexample,tocomplete'inthe..

andthecorrectansweris'morning',theanswer'inthemorning'wouldbeincorrect.·Allanswersrequirecorrectspelling(includingwordsinbrackets).

·BothUSandUKspellingareacceptableandareincludedintheAnswerkey.·Allstandardalternativesfornumbers,datesandcurrenciesareacceptable.

·Allstandardabbreviationsareacceptable.

·YouwillfindadditionalnotesaboutindividualquestionsintheAnswerkey.

Writing

ItisnotpossibleforyoutogiveyourselfamarkfortheWritingtasks.ForTaskIinTests1

and3,andTask2inTests2and4,andforTaskIinGeneralTrainingTestAandTask2in

GeneralTrainingTestB,wehaveprovidedmodelanswers(writtenbyanexaminer)atthe

backofthebook.Itisimportanttonotethattheseshowjustonewayofcompletingthe

task,outofmanypossibleapproaches.ForTask2inTestsIand3,TaskIinTests2and4,

Task2inGeneralTrainingTestAandTasklinGeneralTrainingTestB,wehaveprovided

sampleanswers(writtenbycandidates),showingtheirscoreandtheexaminer'scomments.ThesemodelanswersandsampleanswerswillgiveyouaninsightintowhatisrequiredfortheWritingmodule.

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Introduction

HOWSHOULDYOUINTERPRETYOURSCORES?

IntheAnswerkeyattheendofeachsetofListeningandReadinganswersyouwillfindachartwhichwillhelpyouassesswhether,onthebasisofyourPracticeTestresults,youarereadytotaketheIELTStest.

Ininterpretingyourscore,thereareanumberofpointsyoushouldbearinmind.Your

performanceintherealIELTStestwillbereportedintwoways:therewillbeaBandScorefrom1to9foreachofthemodulesandanOverallBandScorefrom1to9,whichisthe

averageofyourscoresinthefourmodules.However,institutionsconsideringyour

applicationareadvisedtolookatboththeOverallBandandtheBandsforeachmodulein

ordertodeterminewhetheryouhavethelanguageskillsneededforaparticularcourseof

study.Forexample.ifyourcoursehasalotofreadingandwriting,butnolectures,listeningskillsmightbelessimportantandascoreof5inListeningmightbeacceptableiftheOverallBandScorewas7.However,foracoursewhichhaslotsoflecturesandspokeninstructions,ascoreof5inListeningmightbeunacceptableeventhoughtheOverallBandScorewas7.

OnceyouhavemarkedyourtestsyoushouldhavesomeideaofwhetheryourlisteningandreadingskillsaregoodenoughforyoutotrytheIELTStest.Ifyoudidwellenoughinonemodulebutnotinothers,youwillhavetodecideforyourselfwhetheryou