Category: IELTS preparation

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.

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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

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Practice makes a person perfect and in the text below we are today practicing filling the words. So, given below is a text that is used to answer the questions for fill ups.

[PARA 1]

Anything which occupies( fill) space and has mass is called matter. Air and water; hydrogen and oxygen; sugar and sand; silver and steel; copper and coal; iron and wood; ice and alcohol; milk and oil; rocks and minerals; are all different kinds of matter, because all of them occupy space and mass.

[PARA 2]

If we look around us, we can see a large number of things of different shapes, sizes and textures. Many of these things are used by us in our everyday life. For example, we eat food, drink water, breathe in air and wear clothes. We use able and chair for studying and bed for sleeping. We also see other human beings, various animals, plants and trees around us. The things like food, water, air, clothes, table chair, human beings, animals, plants, trees etc. are all examples of matter.

[PARA 3]

The only conditions for ‘something’ to be matter are that it should occupy space and have mass. Now, the things like friendship, love, affection, hatred, good manners, do not occupy space and do not have mass. So, from the point of view of chemistry, things like affection, hatred are not considered matter.

[PARA 4]

Matter can be classified in a number of ways. Ancient Indian philosophers said that all matter, living or non-living was made up of five basic elements: air, earth, fire, sky and water. Modern day scientists classify matter in two ways: on the basis of its physical properties and on the basis of its chemical properties. On the basis of physical properties, matter can be classified as solids, liquids and gases. On the basis of chemical properties, matter is classified as elements, compounds and mixtures.

Source- science for ninth class, S.Chand.

QUESTION TIME
Complete the notes below.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Something that possesses (1)___________ and (2)__________ is called matter. Matter is found in different (3) _____________, (4) _________ and (5) ____________. It gets classified in two ways. According to Indian philosophers matter was made up of five elements. However, the modern day scientists differ from tem and classify matter in (6)______ ways. On the basis of(7) _____________ and the basis of (8) ___________. Matter is of (9)________, (10)___________ and (11)___________ types on the basis of chemical properties and (12) _________, (13)______________ and (14)__________ on the basis of physical properties.

ANSWERS

1. mass
2. space
3. shapes
4. size
5. texture
6. two
7. chemical properties
8. physical properties
9. solid
10. liquid
11. gases
12. elements
13. compounds
14. mixtures

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Learning how to read in English is the first step one can take to achieve a high band in IELTS. This goes especially for the native speakers. Now, if on the first day of preparing for IELTS you go about and start reading an academic journal, chances are high that you will completely lose your brain and in worse case stop preparing for IELTS altogether.
This is not something that British council or IDP wants and I am sure that this is not something that you will like yourself. Giving up is not the first choice of anyone.

So, how can one improve their reading skills? The only way you can do it, is move step by step. Take a firm step and move forward only if you have already taken the previous step with your entire heart out.
With this article, we are now beginning a series of post that will help you to improve your reading skills day by day. The course is free and frankly speaking, if you read the posts every day, level by level, I can assure you a 7.5+ band in IELTS.
So, what is the course and how is it going to go about? Well, there is no rocket science or new inventions going about here. The posts that will be published under this section, will be the ones that have already been published. So, what is the point of it? Well, the posts will be thoroughly examined and will be divided into levels, helping you to not fall in the trap of fear of English.
This will be taken from story books, magazines, novels, scientific journals, reports i.e. the stuff that you will find questions from, in the reading section of your IELTS.

There are four levels to this course-
Level 1 – This level will have posts from secondary level English books, content that is usually published in the local English newspapers. The content size will be 150-200 words.
Level 2 – This level will have articles from magazines, international newspapers, content that a graduate tends to find in his/her book. The content size will be 250-500 words.
Level 3 – This level will have extracts from scientific magazines, books on topics such as sociology or phycology etc. The content size will be 500-1100 words.
And don’t you worry, there won’t be just posts, the difficult words will be explained saving you from the hassle of looking for dictionary every time, you wish to read.

Remember, a wall can be built only if you think about placing the brick in hand perfectly and not get lost in the size and the complexities of building the wall.
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