Pre-intermediate A2+ Get Ready for IELTS ■■■■■■■■■■I ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ W RITING = POWERED BY COBUILD Title Topic Exam focus Page Introduction 4 Hobbies and Sports and activities Analysing and describing a table for Task 1 8 interests Education School, college Analysing and describing a bar chart for 14 and university Task 1 Culture Music, art and Writing a Task 2 opinion essay 20 television Review 1 26 Family Relationships Structuring a Task 2 opinion essay 28 Tourism Holidays and travel Analysing and describing a line graph for 34 Task 1 Films Genres and formats Analysing and describing a pie chart for 40 Task 1 Review 2 46 Technology Computers, the Describing advantages and disadvantages 48 Internet and for a Task 2 essay mobile phones Happiness Money and Writing about opinions for a Task 2 essay 54 relationships The natural world The environment Describing a process for Task 1 60 and pollution Review 3 66 Places to live People and places Comparing and contrasting multiple charts 68 and graphs for Task 1 Health Healthcare and Writing a cause and effect essay forTask 2 74 lifestyles Transport Public and private Writing a problem and solution essay for 80 transport Task 2 Review 4 86 Practice test 88 Answer key 90 Glossary 114 Introduction Who Is this book for? Get Ready for IELTS Writing has been written for learners w ith a band score of 3 or 4 who want to achieve a higher score. Using this book will help you improve your pre-intermediate writing skills for the IELTS Academic Writing test. You can use Get Heady for IELTS Writing: • as a self-study course. We recommend that you work systematically through the 12 units in order to benefit from its progressive structure.
• as a supplementary writing skills course for IELTS preparation classes. The book provides enough material for approximately 50 hours of classroom activity. Get Ready for IELTS Writing • This book consists of 12 units. Each unit focuses on a different topic and these topics are ones that often appear in the IELTS exam.
• After every three units, there is a Review unit which helps you to revise the language and skills covered in the previous units. • At the end of the book the Practice test gives you the opportunity to take an lELTS-style test under test conditions. • There is also a full answer key at the back of the book so you can check your answers. Here you will find suggested answers for more open-ended questions and model answers for the exam practice questions in Part 3 of the unit.
• The glossary at the back of the book lists the useful words from each unit w ith their Cobuild dictionary definitions. Unit structure Each unit starts with the Aims of the unit. They outline the key language and skills covered. Part 1: Language development provides exercises on vocabulary related to the topic as well as key grammar related to the IELTS Task covered in the unit.
Clear structures are provided. Part 2: Skills development focuses on either a Task 1 or a Task 2 question and provides step-by- step exercises and guidance on the type of essay answer required and the key stages of the writing process. The particular requirements of each type of essay question and the different formats for presenting information (tables, bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, etc.) are clearly explained. Part 3: Exam practice provides one exam practice question for eitherTask 1 or Task 2 in a format that follows the actual exam.
You can use this to check whether or not you are ready for the test. Finally, a Progress check helps you to check whether you have covered the key points in the unit. Other features Exam information boxes in each unit provide key background information about the IELTS Writing exam. Exam tip boxes provide essential exam techniques and strategies.
Watch out! boxes highlight common errors often made in the exam. 4 Study tips • Each unit contains approximately three hours of study material. • Try to answer the questions w ithout looking at a dictionary to develop the skill of guessing the meaning of unknown words from context. This is important because dictionaries cannot be used during the actual exam.
• Use a pencil to complete the exercises, so that you can erase your first answers and do the exercises again for revision. • Try to revise what you have learnt in Parts 1 and 2 before doing the practice IELTS questions in Part 3. This will improve the quality of your answers, and using the new language will help you to remember it. • It's recommended that you try and complete all questions in the unit as the skills needed to do well at the IELTS test can only be improved through extensive practice.
• Read the answer key carefully as this provides information on w hat kind of answer is awarded high marks. • Part 3 contains exam practice w ith timed questions. This gives you the opportunity to practise writing to a time limit. If you find this difficult at first, you could focus first on writing a high- quality response of the correct length.
Then you could start to reduce the time allowed gradually until you are able to w rite an acceptable answer within the time limit. • You should become familiar enough with your own hand-writing so that you can accurately estimate the number of words you have written at a glance. Other titles Also available in the Collins Get Ready for IELTS series: Reading, Listening and Speaking. 5 The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Test IELTS is jointly managed by the British Council, Cambridge ESOL Examinations and IDP Education, Australia.
There are two versions of the test: • Academic • General Training Academic is for students wishing to study at undergraduate or postgraduate levels in an English-medium environment. General Training is for people who wish to migrate to an English-speaking country. This book is primarily for students taking the Academic version. The Test There are four modules: Listening 30 minutes, plus 10 minutes for transferring answers to the answer sheet NB: the audio is heard only once.
10 questions per section Section 1: two speakers discuss a social situation Section 2: one speaker talks about a non-academic topic Section 3: up to four speakers discuss an educational project Section 4: one speaker gives a talk of general academic interest Reading 60 minutes 3 texts, taken from authentic sources, on general, academic topics. They may contain diagrams, charts, etc. 40 questions: may include multiple choice, sentence completion, completing a diagram, graph or chart, choosing headings, yes/no, true/false questions, classification and matching exercises. Writing Task 1: 20 minutes: description of a table, chart, graph or diagram (150 words minimum) Task 2: 40 minutes: an essay in response to an argument or problem (250 words minimum) Speaking 11-14 minutes A three-part face-to-face oral interview with an examiner.
The interview is recorded. Part 1: introductions and general questions (4-5 mins) Part 2: individual long turn (3-4 mins) - the candidate is given a task, has one minute to prepare, then talks for 1-2 minutes, with some questions from the examiner. Part 3: two-way discussion (4-5 mins): the examiner asks further questions on the topic from Part 2, and gives the candidate the opportunity to discuss more abstract issues or ideas. Timetabling Listening, Reading and Writing must be taken on the same day, and in the order listed above.
Speaking can be taken up to 7 days before or after the other modules. Scoring Each section is given a band score. The average of the four scores produces the Overall Band Score. You do not pass or fail IELTS; you receive a score.
IELTS and the Common European Framework of Reference The CEFR shows the level of the learner and is used for many English as a Foreign Language examinations. The table below shows the approximate CEFR level and the equivalent IELTS Overall Band Score: CEFR description CEFR code IELTS Band Score Proficient user C2 9 (Advanced) C1 7-8 Independent user B2 5-6.5 (Intermediate - Upper Intermediate) B1 4-5 6 This table contains the general descriptors for the band scores 1-9: IELTS Band Scores 9 Expert user Has fully operational command of the language: appropriate, accurate and fluent with complete understanding, Very good user Has fully operational command of the language, with only occasional unsystematic inaccuracies and inappropriacies. Misunderstandings may occur in unfamiliar situations. Handles complex detailed argumentation well.
Good user Has operational command of the language, though with occasional inaccuracies, inappropriacies and misunderstandings in some situations. Generally handles complex language well and understands detailed reasoning. Competent user Has generally effective command of the language despite some inaccuracies, inappropriacies and misunderstandings. Can use and understand fairly complex language, particularly in familiar situations.
Modest user Has partial command of the language, coping with overall meaning in most situations, though is likely to make many mistakes. Should be able to handle basic communication in own field. Limited user Basic competence is limited to familiar situations. Has frequent problems in understanding and expression.
Is not able to use complex language. Extremely limited Conveys and understands only general meaning in very familiar situations. user Frequent breakdowns in communication occur. Intermittent user No real communication is possible except for the most basic information using isolated words or short formulae in familiar situations and to meet immediate needs.
Has great difficulty understanding spoken and written English. 1 Non user Essentially has no ability to use the language beyond possibly a few isolated words. 0 Did not attempt No assessable information provided. the test Marking The Listening and Reading papers have 40 items, each worth one mark if correctly answered.
Here are some examples of how marks are translated into band scores: Listening: 16 out of 40 correct answers: band score 5 23 out of 40 correct answers: band score 6 30 out of 40 correct answers: band score 7 Reading 15 out of 40 correct answers: band score 5 23 out of 40 correct answers: band score 6 30 out of 40 correct answers: band score 7 Writing and Speaking are marked according to performance descriptors. Writing: examiners award a band score for each of four areas with equal weighting: • Task achievement (Task 1) • Task response (Task 2) • Coherence and cohesion • Lexical resource and grammatical range and accuracy Speaking: examiners award a band score for each of four areas with equal weighting: • Fluency and coherence • Lexical resource • Grammatical range • Accuracy and pronunciation For full details of how the examination is scored and marked, go to: www.org 7 Hobbies and interests AIMS: Words describing hobbies and interests *The present simple • Quantifiers •Task 1 introductions • Analysing and describing a table forTask 1 Part 1: Language development 1 Look at the pictures of hobbies, then fill each gap below with the correct verb + noun. Gabrielle: I have lots of hobbies. with my father.
There is a club nearby, so we go there. It's really good fun, but it's much better being on the course if the weather is nice and sunny. My father is a better player than me. I usually take four or five shots to get the ball in the hole.
In the evenings I (2). I especially like dramas and reality shows. Yuan: I like sports quite a lot. three times a week! There is a pool near my house, so I usually go there before school.
I really love it! I also (4). My favourite singers are Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus. I use my headphones at home because my mother doesn't like the loud noise! 2 It is important to use the correct verbs with hobbies and interests. Put the hobbies under the correct verbs in the table.
(Some hobbies may be used with more than one verb.
