India Turns To Israel # Practice Reading

India turns to Israel for armed drones as Pakistan, China build fleets

India has accelerated(increase in rate, amount, or extent) plans to buy drones(A drone, in a technological context, is an unmanned aircraft) from Israel that can be armed, defence  (the action of defending from or resisting attack) sources said, allowing the military (relating to or characteristic of soldiers or armed forces) to carry out strikes (a refusal to work organized by a body of employees as a form of protest, typically in an attempt to gain a concession or concessions from their employer) overseas (in or to a foreign country, especially one across the sea) with less risk to personnel (people employed in an organization or engaged in an organized undertaking such as military service).

The news comes weeks after long-time rival Pakistan first reported using a home-made drone in combat (fighting between armed forces) when it attacked (take aggressive military action against (a place or enemy forces) with weapons or armed force) militants (vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in ‘militant reformers) on its soil, raising (lift or move to a higher position or level) the prospect (the possibility or likelihood of some future event occurring) of a new front in the nuclear-armed neighbours’ (a person living next door to or very near to the speaker or person referred to) standoff (a deadlock between two equally matched opponents in a dispute or conflict) over Kashmir that has twice spilled into war.

The plan to acquire (buy or obtain (an asset or object) for oneself) Israeli Herons was first conceived ( to be of the opinion that; think) three years ago, but in January the wrote to the government ( the group of people with the authority to govern a country or state; a particular ministry in office) asking for speedy delivery (the act of transferring to another), the sources said, as Pakistan and China develop their own drone warfare (engagement in or the activities involved in war or conflict) capabilities (the power or ability to do something).

India has already deployed (move (troops) into position for military action) Israeli unmanned (not having or needing a crew or staff) aerial vehicles (UAVs) along the rugged ((of ground or terrain) having a broken, rocky, and uneven surface) mountains of J&K for surveillance (close observation, especially of a suspected spy or criminal.), as well as on the disputed (argue) border with China where the two armies have faced off against each other.

Source- Google News

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Get A 6+ Band

When preparing for IELTS, all of us want at least a band more than 6. But then some get it and some don’t. But then what stops you to get a 6+ band!! Well, there could be many, but let’s talk about the five most common mistakes students make in their writing task that stops them at 5 or a 5.5.

  1. Missing clear overview- The overview is a short paragraph that tells the reader 2 or 3 of the most significant things about the chart, graph, table etc. It should contain no data and instead describe the main features in general terms. Students instead of writing an overview, straight away start writing the answer. If you notice the marking scheme of IELTS clearly, you will find out that to get a band 7 or more, a clear overview is very important.
  2. Mention Everything- In the questions of writing task, you are asked to summarize the information. Most students start writing about every thing that is mentioned in the graph, which lands them no where. This normally leads to a very disorganized essay and often means that you run out of time, or even worse, run over time and fail to complete Task 2. So, prioritize your answer and make sure it is organized.
  3. Complicate The Questions- When answering the question, students think that since it is an IELTS exam, it needs to be tough. However, the IELTS test makers know that you have seen the graph for the first time, and you have only 20 minutes to explain the graph. So, they only expect you to tell clearly about the major trends and answer properly.
  4. Unorganized Ideas – The most logical way to organize a Task 1 essay is:Paragraph 1- IntroductionParagraph 2- Overview of main features

    Paragraph 3- Details of main features 1

    Paragraph 4- Details of main features 2 .Often students, forget this and rather write quite haphazardly. If you write properly and according to a set pattern, you are more likely to get high marks.

  5. Incorrect Data Description – Often while explaining the data, students understand it wrongly. For instance if the prices increased from 12000 to 15000, they have increased by 3000, but students rather, write that the increase was of 5000 or something else. This causes you to lose marks.

So, go on, avoid mistakes and score high.

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Mistakes Made

In IELTS, we often are so busy finding the right things to do, that most of us forget that even if you don’t do wrong things, you will automatically do the right things. So, let us have a look at some of the mistakes made during the problem solution essays.

  1. Most of us think that more ideas we have, more marks we will get in IELTS. However, one does not gets marks on how many ideas one writes about, but how well you elaborate the idea.The examiner does not want a list of all the problems and solutions you can think of and please don’t do this in the exam. So, just pick out two ideas and expand on them.
  2. The next mistake made is when instead of writing about the problem and solution asked in the question, one writes about something else. For instance, if the question is about effects of global warming on urban areas and you end up writing about the issues of global warming, you have rather, made a big mistake.You should be like a sniper when answering the question and only give very specific ideas, rather than ideas that generally talk about the overall issue.L
  3. Linking issue. This mistake is made when one person writes some problems and then the solutions are provided for some other problem. Make sure that you provide the solution of the problems you have talked about.
  4. Being general. What happens with some candidates is that they think of really good problems but when providing solution, they give general solutions. Instead, you should be thinking of specific examples and explanations. We will look at how to avoid this below.

It is good to know how to do things right, but it is equally important to know the mistakes that can be made. This can surely save your day.

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Paraphrasing The Question

The first paragraph of the IELTS writing task 1, requires you to paraphrase the question simply. But, then there is a difference between simply putting down the question as it has been given to you and moulding it to make it unique. Paraphrasing is simply re-writing a phrase or sentence so that it has the same meaning, but with different words.

There are different ways by which you can paraphrase the written question.

  1. Use Synonyms- Synonyms are the words that have same meaning as the given word. For instance, human is the synonym of people. This method simply replaces words with the same meaning in order to produce a new sentence. Example-

My car has broken down.

My vehicle is not working anymore.

Here, I have replaced the words with their synonyms. This is the most common method that is used by students to paraphrase. But while doing so, make sure that you use words with the same meanings and not similar meanings.Similar meanings are not good enough and will lose you marks. For example- Teenagers and young people are similar words but they are still quite different. Teenagers are people of age 13-18, while young people are the ones between 18-30.

2.Change The Word Order – Changing the word order means either adding or subtracting words or change the form of the word. But while doing so, make sure that the grammar of the sentence is not affected badly. Remember that you are being judged on your ability to produce error free sentences in the IELTS test as well as use a range of grammar structures.

Apart from these you can either change active to passive voice or vice versa.

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