In the IELTS Reading Test you have to answer 40 questions in 60 minutes - almost 1 question

every minute. There are 3 separate pieces of writing of about 900 words each. There

is not enough time to read the texts closely so you need to develop the ability to find

information quickly.

This is a skill you'll use all the time in your studies.

Let's trace how you might find English language TV programs. Because they are on Australia

Network, you start at their homepage. You look around the page for the word 'English'.

There's Learning English - click on that. Now you have a number of choices - you can

either read the summaries as they flick past, or you can go to each program's site. Let's

go to Passport to English. What's it about? Here's the heading - About Passport to English,

so this is the paragraph to read. Notice that you only glance at the rest of the page when

you are looking for specific information in this way.

Moving your eyes quickly over a page like this is called scanning. The ability to do

this with a page of text is part of what's assessed in the Reading Test. Let's look at

a typical reading passage:

It's best to start by reading the title and sub-title of the text and look for any pictures

or italicised words. This will tell you what the text is about.

Childhood Obesity is the title and On Being Overweight and Obese is the subtitle.

What do you already know about the topic?

If you've been keeping up-to-date with current affairs you would have heard that some children

are putting on weight at an alarming rate and this is affecting their health. Parents

and health authorities are worried.

At this point you know what to expect - you have previewed the text.

So it's a good idea to keep up with the news because current issues are often topics for

the Reading Test.

The next thing you need to do is quickly look through the questions for the passage.

There are different kinds, but first we'll look at a multiple choice question.

According to information in the text, childhood obesity can cause:

A. early death in children based on a recent study.

B. breathing problems and diabetes later in life.

C. an impaired immune system The question says 'According to information

in the text'. This means you must scan the text to find out the correct answer. You can't

rely on your general knowledge.

The key words in the question are 'childhood obesity' and 'can cause'. The word 'cause'

alerts you that the text will be discussing effects of childhood obesity.

'Can cause' means likely to happen, so you need to look for any effects mentioned in

the text as a possible result of childhood obesity

You need to look out for phrases that match what the question is asking such as 'results

in', 'shows that', 'causes' or 'leads to'.

Let's look at the question again:

According to information in the text, childhood obesity can cause:

A. early death in children based on a recent study.

B. breathing problems and diabetes later in life.

C. an impaired immune system

Let's look at the first option - A. early death in children based on a recent study.

The key words are 'early death', 'children' and 'recent study'.

Now you need to scan the text for these words or words with the same meaning.

Quickly scanning the first paragraph, you can see no relevant information - it's not

talking about effects.

The next paragraph is relevant - 'recent study', 'show that' and 'death'. Let's read the sentence.

"The findings from a recent study published in the Journal of International Studies on

Childhood Obesity show that the chances of premature death in adulthood are greatly increased

because of obesity during childhood."

Death in adulthood, not in children. So we can rule out A as the answer.

Let's check C - can obesity cause an impaired immune system?

There's nothing written about the immune system here - but there is a list of diseases and

the phrase you're looking for - 'results in'.

"Research has shown there is a strong link between childhood obesity and obesity in adulthood

that results in debilitating or life-threatening conditions. These include cardiovascular disease,

respiratory illnesses such as asthma or even type-2 diabetes."

So it says diabetes is an effect. What about breathing problems? 'Respiratory illnesses'

- they're breathing problems.

So 'B' is the correct answer. Questions in the Reading Test can be about

cause and effect relationships, so you must be able to quickly recognise the words that

are markers for this information and how the sentences are structured. Let's look closely

at the correct answer and the relevant sentence from the passage.

The answer is: Childhood obesity can cause breathing problems and diabetes later in life.

The words 'can cause' mark this as a cause/effect relationship. The cause is childhood obesity.

You can also see childhood obesity in the first sentence from the passage. Even though

it says 'childhood obesity and obesity in adulthood', it still includes childhood obesity

as a cause.

The important synonym for 'can cause' is 'results in'. Another phrase with this meaning that

could have been used here is 'leads to'.

So we have the cause - childhood obesity and the cause marker - 'leads to' or 'results

in'. Where's the effect? In the answer the effect is 'breathing problems and diabetes'.

Again you need to look for synonyms. There's a list of effects - cardiovascular disease,

respiratory illnesses such as asthma and type-2 diabetes.

Diabetes is a clear match and, as we said earlier, respiratory illnesses includes breathing

problems.

It doesn't matter that the text includes other effects as long as the two in the answer are

included.

Let's look at another type of question.

There is a short answer question that requires you to answer using no more than 3 words.

Let's try one.

Based on recent findings, what can greatly increase as a result of obesity in early childhood?

The 2 or 3 word answer is in the text. The key words that would help you locate it are

'recent findings', 'greatly increase', 'as a result of' and 'early childhood'.

We've already skimmed the text, so we know that we won't find this answer in the first

paragraph.

So we check the last paragraph again - there - findings from a recent study. The sentence

reads:

"The findings from a recent study published in the Journal of International Studies on

Childhood Obesity show that the chances of premature death in adulthood are greatly increased

because of obesity during childhood."

The question is:

Based on recent findings, what can greatly increase as a result of obesity in early childhood?

The answer is premature death.

Remember that you can't answer with any more than 3 words, so you can't write for instance

'chances of premature death', even though this is true.

For the Reading Section of the IELTS Test you need to practise skills and question types.

There will not be enough time to read all the passages carefully, so you need to develop

the skill of scanning for key phrases.

But when you go to our website, take the time to read carefully and you should find yourself

better prepared for the challenge of the IELTS Test. The address is: australianetwork.com/studyenglish.

Good luck with your studies.

See you next time.