Reading
The one skill underneath every question type, and why matching words is the fastest way to lose marks. With a practice exercise.
Paraphrasing in IELTS reading is not a question type. It is the mechanism behind all of them. Every question is a rewritten version of something in the passage, and the test is checking whether you can recognise the same idea in different words.
This is why matching words does not work. If a question repeats a phrase from the text exactly, that is usually the distractor. The answer is almost always somewhere the wording has changed.
How it is done
Once you recognise the pattern, you stop looking for words and start looking for meaning.
The simplest kind. Yet the reality is nowhere near as appealing becomes the truth, however, is far less attractive. Every content word has changed.
Our cities are becoming increasingly polluted becomes pollution is increasing in our cities. Same root, different part of speech, different sentence shape.
Active becomes passive, a clause becomes a phrase, two sentences become one. The words may survive while the grammar does not.
Not unusual means usual. It is highly unlikely means probably will not. This one catches more candidates than the other three together.
Question writers know candidates scan for identical words, so the same phrase often appears in a sentence that does not answer the question.
Every question type. True False Not Given, matching headings, completion, short answer. There is no part of the reading test where this is not being tested.
Method
Six habits that turn this from a weakness into an advantage.
Before you look at the passage, think how else the question could have been said. You are then scanning for two or three possibilities rather than one.
Names, numbers, dates and technical terms are rarely paraphrased. Those are your anchors; everything around them will have been rewritten.
If a phrase from the question appears word for word in the passage, read that sentence carefully before accepting it. It is often deliberately placed.
A paraphrase has to match completely. Occasionally is not sometimes-ish; it is a specific quantity, and ignoring it turns a right answer into a wrong one.
Not unlike, far from certain, hardly ever, it is a misconception that. Read these twice; the meaning is the opposite of the surface.
Increase, rise, grow, climb, surge. Reduce, fall, decline, drop, ease. This is the vocabulary work that actually moves a reading band.
Practice
Read the passage, then find the answer to each question. Every one has been reworded.
There is a dark corporate conspiracy at work in the petroleum industry. On television and in the media we are constantly bombarded with images of green trees, promised a fuel that is ninety-seven per cent cleaner than ever before, and told we are heading towards a healthier future.
Yet the reality is nowhere near as appealing. Our cities are becoming increasingly polluted as the number of cars continues to rise and petrol emissions show no sign of easing. Much like car manufacturers, who market their products under the image of freedom and independence, we are being sold a fantasy which simply does not hold true.
1Who is responsible for the shadowy scheme of selling dreams rather than the truth?
The petroleum industry. Almost every word changed: dark became shadowy, conspiracy became scheme, sold a fantasy became selling dreams, and does not hold true became rather than the truth.
2Who sells their product as a symbol of independence?
Car manufacturers. This one is easier, because the word independence appears in both the question and the passage. Even so, symbol has been changed to image of, so you still cannot match the whole phrase.
3Pollution in cities is described as
Rising. The passage says becoming increasingly polluted, a different word family from the noun pollution and the verb rising.
4What does the passage say about petrol emissions?
They are not decreasing. Show no sign of easing is a negative construction meaning not falling. This is the kind of phrasing that produces wrong answers from candidates who understood every word.
5The overall message of the advertising is described as
Untrue. A fantasy which simply does not hold true. Note there is no single word in the passage meaning untrue, so word matching cannot find this one.
That is almost always a paraphrasing problem rather than a vocabulary problem, and it is the single most transferable skill in the reading test.
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Five reworded questions on a short text is the gentle version. A real passage does this forty times in sixty minutes.
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It means expressing the same idea in different words. Every IELTS reading question is a paraphrase of something in the passage, which is why searching for identical words rarely finds the answer.
Two sentences with the same meaning built from different vocabulary, a different word family or a different grammatical structure. Parallel expression is another name for paraphrase.
Often not. Question writers place exact matches in sentences that do not answer the question, because they know candidates scan for identical wording.
Build synonym sets around the ideas IELTS uses most, such as increase, decrease, cause and effect, and read your wrong answers to see which rewording defeated you.
Yes, and differently. In reading you recognise it; in writing you produce it, particularly when rewording the question in your introduction rather than copying it.
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Technique gets you so far. Beyond about Band 6.5 the limit is usually the range of language you recognise, and that takes longer to build than any strategy.
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