Short Story # Practice Reading

In a small town, there lived a little boy and a girl. The little boy and the girl were best friends. They always played together. One day, the two friends went to a new park and saw some big kids playing. They were playing football, running from one part of the park to other. The little boy admired(fond of and amazed at somebody’s skills) the big kids. “How wonderful(great) it would be if I could play football too”, thought, the little boy.
The little boy, then, told his best friend, girl, about his idea of playing football. The girl did not agreed(understanding with each other) with him. “Please don’t force yourself to do something difficult. You already have issues(problem) with your leg”, said the girl. “You are not encouraging(supporting) me at all,” said the boy angrily. “I will show you that I can play as well.” The little boy and the girl came to the big boys who were playing. The big kid told him, he better not play as he can end up hurting himself. But he did not listen and insisted(to demand that something happens or that somebody agrees to do something) that he wanted to play.
The big boys finally agreed but told him that if he got hurt then they will not be responsible(being able to blamed for something). The game began and a boy passed him the ball, but rather than passing it further, the little boy got rolled up(to turn over and over and move in a particular direction) in the ball, and fell down. But the boy was determined(to decide definitely to do something) and continued the game. By this time, he had fallen many times and his leg started bleeding. By this time, he could barely stand and when a ball hit him, it blew him off(destroyed completely).
He started crying and was badly bleeding. The big kids took him to hospital and told him, “There is a certain time for everything and never try to force yourself to do something that is beyond your means”.
REVISION
Okay, so what are the words you have learnt today?

  1. admired
  2. wonderful
  3. encouraging
  4. insisted
  5. responsible
  6. rolled up
  7. determined
  8. blew him off

Let us make sure you remember them for life.

ADMIRED
Is there someone whom who look up to? Someone whom you want to be like? For instance, there are many who want to be like Steve jobs, some are there who want to be like Taylor swift or Virat Kohli. That is, people admire Steve Jobs, Taylor Swift or Virat Kohli.
WONDERFUL
Has there been anything that you really liked or may be something that is very beautiful. For example, Taj Mahal or the Great Wall of China. So, what are they? They all are wonderful.
ENCOURAGING
Now, remember a time when you were very sad and someone came and told you that everything will be perfectly fine and you felt good. What did they did? That person actually encouraged you and such person is said to be encouraging. May be you were in dire need of money and someone just lent you money. Any ways, you were encouraged and the things /people around were encouraging.
INSISTED
Do you remember your childhood? Remember, those times when you wanted a toy and you made sure you get it. May be you cried, may be black mailed, but you made sure you have the toy. Right? You actually insisted your parents to give you that gift. Obviously now, you don’t cry, but there are times when you force someone or demand something, those are the times when you insist.
RESPONSIBLE
Okay, now responsible has many meanings. Right now, I am talking about the one used in the above passage. Responsible means that if something wrong happens to the thing you are made responsible for, you will be questioned. Do you remember, when you got poor marks in school and you were scolded? That was because you are responsible for them.
ROLLED UP
Have you noticed your bike or car when you drive? If not, then notice it, because that is a perfect example of rolling up.
DETERMINED
Have you ever told yourself or others, that you are going to do it. It could either be getting good marks in school or winning a championship. Something you worked for, something you worked for badly. Now, this is the thing you were determined for.
BLEW HIM OFF
Do you remember, the atom bomb, America threw on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Now, what did the atom bomb did? It blew off the two cities of japan.

Now, the story is not over here. Note down these words and try using them in whatever you speak or write in English. All the best.
IELTSBAND7

Stage You Loved # Speaking Section

A STAGE THAT YOU LOVED

Which stage was it?

Why was it glorious?

How you enjoyed it and say what lessons you learned?

SAMPLE ANSWER

Every one passes through different types of situations in their life. It is either weal or woe, but no matter what it is, the faith to continue counts. I remember one stage in my life which was really enjoyable and full of fun for me. It was after I completed my college and was trying to figure out things for myself in terms of what should I do with my life.

This was the time, I did content writing for a company, adding content to their websites. It was complete fun because I was doing something I was very passionate about i.e. writing and was getting paid for it. Even more the blog that I had started a year back, finally started getting 500 visitors every day adding more to my income. I made new friends, met like minded people and learnt a lot about the thing I loved the most. I remember, I even got a chance of writing a script for an advertisement and go on to shooting and see how set looks like.

The entire mood of that time was great. I was in love with the work I was doing and achieving things in it and even more it taught me valuable things for my life. I learnt that once you have your heart out at something, no one can stop you from achieving what you want. It was during this time that my convictions that you must do what you love became strong. I guess this was the time that marked a new beginning for me and has helped in shaping my life, the way it is now.

IELTSBAND7

Introduction To Writing

You can go and read those n number of sample answers, cross check them with yours and pick out some good words from there, fit it in yours and then move with it. But then how long is it going to help you, even more can it help you if you are a novice to English. What if the entire question boils down to this one fact that you don’t understand how to analyse a bar graph or a line graph. You don’t understand what the fuss about essays is and what the things you must consider while writing them are. Even more how can you write impressive letters?
Well, we have a solution. Right now, I am not talking to those who are pretty good in English, have studied all through their lives in English medium schools and listen to English songs and need just mere time to improve a bit and get the desired band in IELTS. I am referring to those who have dreams of going abroad, living life they have dreamt of, but somehow, may be because of circumstances or any other reasons, haven’t been able to give English the required time and this has led them to a rather weak spot.
I hope you are going through the reading course and improving on your reading skills. But then IELTS is not just about reading, isn’t it? It is about speaking, listening and writing as well.
And so, we are now beginning with a writing course. You shall not find sample answers or other tricks and traps you read everywhere. In this course, you shall be taught, how to frame sentences, how to join them and make a paragraph and then make a complete sense out of it. How to then link those paragraph and create what is called a master piece, a perfect example of write up.
So, if you are someone who knowns vernacular language but has issues in expressing ideas in English, we bring to you the writing course.
This course, like the reading course, will have three levels.
Level 1 – You will learn how to express ideas in English. You will be learning the English words for your ideas.
Level 2 – Here you will be taught how to frame sentences, how to make sense in English out of what you know.
Level 3 – When you reach this level, you will learn how to frame paragraphs and then link them to create a fantastic right up.
IELTSBAND7

Volcanoes # Practice Reading

You must have seen picture and movies of volcanoes erupting (when a volcano erupts or burning rocks, smoke etc. are erupted the burning rocks etc. are thrown out from the volcano), but do you know what a volcano actually is? To put it very simply, a volcano is a mountain that has a hole or vent(an opening that allows air, gas or liquid to pass out of or into a room, building, container etc.) that leads to reservoirs(a large amount ) of molten or liquid rock deep below the earth’s surface. As the pressure builds up inside the earth, eruptions occur. Gases and molted(heated to a very high temperature so that it becomes liquid) rock shoot up through the opening, and spill over, or fill the air with lava fragments(a small part of something that has broken off or comes from something larger).
Eruptions can cause sideways blasts, lava flows, hot ash flows, mudslides, avalanches, failing ash and floods. Volcano eruptions have been known to knock down entire forests. An erupting volcano can trigger(to make something happen suddenly)tsunamis too. Volcanic eruptions mould and shape the earth’s structure. They give rise to new land masses, and constantly create changes in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The word volcano comes from the roman god of fire, Vulcan. Vulcan was said to have had a forge(a place where objects are made by heating and shaping pieces of metal, especially one where a black smith works)- which is a place to melt and shape iron on the little island of volcano in the Mediterranean Sea, off Sicily. The island was the site of an active volcano in ancient times. Centuries ago, the people living in this area thought that the hot lava fragments and clouds of the dust erupting from a volcano came from Vulcan’s forge as he beat out thunderbolts for Jupiter, king of the gods, and weapons for mars, the god of war.


QUESTION TIME
Questions
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage?
In boxes 1- in your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there information on this.

  1. Volcano is a phenomenon of eruption which can occur in any mountain.
  2. Eruptions occur when the pressure inside the earth’s surface increases.
  3. When lava erupts, only gases erupt out of the vent in the rock.
  4. After a volcanic eruptions, usually new landmasses are created and changes in Earth’s atmosphere are seen.

SAMPLE ANSWER

  1. False
  2. True
  3. False
  4. True

IELTSBAND7

1 448 449 450 451 452 536