READING PASSAGE 1
IELTS Reading Passage - E learning
Read the IELTS reading passage below and respond to the questions (1-13). Cross-
check your responses with the E learning reading answers with
explanations provided subsequently.
E training
A. Corporate e-learning can greatly benefit from the fact that e-learning is the word that
unites the domains of online learning, web-based training, and technology-delivered
instruction. For instance, IBM claims that the implementation of their online manager
training program, Basic Blue, saved the corporation somewhere between $200
million and $300 million in 1999. The majority of the savings come from eliminating
the need for employees and instructors to travel to a single classroom. Employees
can learn from any Internet-connected PC, wherever in the world, with an online
course. Ernst and Young increased consistency and scalability while cutting training
expenditures by 35%.
B. E-learning has become a top priority for many organizations due to its many
advantages, including convenience, uniform delivery, self-paced learning, and a
range of available information, in addition to its generally advantageous economic
effects. Many people assume that e-learning provides flexible, "any time, any place"
learning. The assertion that "any place" is true is a fantastic development and is
valid in theory. Rich learning resources are now accessible to many more people
than they were in the paper or broadcast distance learning era. E-training has
enormous potential for teaching certain knowledge and abilities. It can be
particularly useful for assisting staff members in their preparation for IT certification
courses. Additionally, it appears that e-learning can effectively address issues like
management training, safety training, and sexual harassment education5, all of
which have a defined set of objectives. Finally, training professionals advise using a
"blended" strategy that alternates between online and in-person training as needed.
E-learning is not a magic bullet. However, it has benefits if they help reduce costs
and windowless classrooms full of snoring kids.
C. The technology has received a lot of attention in the debate on how to deploy e-
learning, but as Driscoll and others have pointed out, there are many other human
variables to consider as well. Any competent manager is aware of the importance of
training staff members to ensure a successful firm. Despite this, traditional
classroom training carries the danger of being pricy, cumbersome, and frequently
unsuccessful. The fact that the classroom requires individuals to leave their
employment is possibly its biggest drawback. Each minute an employee spends in a
classroom learning is a minute they are not working on the shop floor. Now, it
appears as though there is a technique to get over these limitations of conventional
training. With the goal of allowing each student to learn at their own pace, e-training
offers more effective teaching methods by incorporating audio, video, animation,
text, and interactive materials. Along with improved performance outcomes,
students also immediately benefit from increased task retention, higher motivation,
and a reduction in test anxiety for many students. According to a California State
University Northridge research, e-learners outperformed traditional learners by 20%.
Nelson found a substantial difference in performance between 406 university
students who took traditional and online education courses, with the latter group
outperforming the former.
D. However, no one ever claimed that E-training technology would be affordable. On
average, e-training service providers charge between $10,000 and $60,000 to create
one hour of online education. The cost varies according to the difficulty of the
training subject and the media employed. As opposed to flash animations or
streaming video, HTML sites are a little less expensive to create. Cost is only the
beginning when it comes to course content. The technological foundation is also a
part of a whole e-learning solution (the computers, applications and network
connections that are used to deliver the courses). A learning management system
(LMS) is a type of technology platform that can be installed on-site or outsourced.
You're left with a hefty fee after factoring in the costs of the network bandwidth
investments required to provide multimedia courses. The first year's costs for the
LMS infrastructure and a dozen or more online courses can reach $500,000 or more.
Custom e-training is now only a possibility for large enterprises due to these kinds of
expenditures. The e-training idea pays for itself for businesses with a big enough
workforce. Large corporations are making significant investments in online training in
light of this fact. More than half of Rockwell Collins' 400+ courses are now given
directly to customers in an e-learning format, cutting company yearly training
expenditures by 40%. There are plenty such success tales.
E. The classroom isn't anticipated to be completely replaced by e-learning. One of the
problems with delivering multimedia over the Internet is still bandwidth restrictions.
E-training isn't appropriate for every form of instruction or subject, as well. For
instance, establishing teams or transferring cultural values is relatively ineffective. It
would be challenging to explain your company's distinctive corporate culture to new
hires over a computer monitor. For these goals, group training sessions are more
suitable. Because of the time spent creating and instructing online courses, there is
also a perceived loss of research time. Between 500 and 1,000 person-hours, or
Wallin-hours, according to Professor Wallin, were needed to maintain the course's
relevance and usefulness. (Despite the sophistication of the courseware system,
distance learning instructors frequently need technical expertise.) That is equivalent
to one-fourth to one-half of a person-year. A final requirement for teaching materials
is equipment and computer literacy. Any e-Learning system requires some
fundamental tools and a working knowledge of computers in order to complete the
activities specified by the system. A learner cannot complete an e-Learning program
successfully if they lack these abilities or access to these resources.
F. While there is little debate about the obvious benefits of e-learning, thorough
research is required to demonstrate that students are actually learning and applying
the skills they are being taught online and that e-learning is the most effective
method for achieving the desired results in a corporate setting. A go-between form of
blended learning, which describes the blending of several learning contexts, is
becoming more and more common nowadays. It mixes conventional in-person
teaching techniques with more contemporary computer-mediated activities. The
technique creates a more integrated approach for teachers and learners, according
to the strategy's proponents. In the past, technology-based learning tools supported
in-person training. Technology will take on a bigger role through a mixed learning
approach.
E learning IELTS Reading Questions
Question 1-6
The reading passage has seven paragraphs A-F
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-F from the list below. Write the correct
number, i-xi in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
a summary of the advantages of using e-training
IBM's successful training decision
A fresh course of action and instructional methodology
accomplishment of students and cutting-edge instructional resources
restrictions compared to regular classes while using e-training
Internet-based multimedia can be a solution.
Technology can be incredibly expensive.
Globally, distant learners did better than typical university students.
Other benefits besides those related to finances
People can learn utilizing computers with the help of training programs.
1. Paragraph A
2. Paragraph B
3. Paragraph C
4. Paragraph D
5. Paragraph E
6. Paragraph F
Question 7-10
The reading passage has seven paragraphs A-F.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-F, in boxes 7-9 on your answer sheet.
7. IBM's Basic Blue project was a huge success.
8. Due to its flexibility, e-learning is a top goal for many organizations.
9. The best learning environment may be a hybrid of traditional and online learning.
10. An illustration of a quick electronic delivery of a company's goods to customers.
Question 11-13
Choose Three correct letters, among A-E
Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.
A technical infrastructure is hard to come by.
B Due to bandwidth restrictions, online multimedia presentation is limited.
C It is ineffective to instill a distinctive corporate value in new hires.
D Employees must schedule a significant amount of time to be away from their jobs for
training.
E To keep the course at the appropriate level, more preparation time is required.
11. …B….
12. …CE….
13. …E….
READING PASSAGE 1
New ways of teaching history
{A} In technology and the media-driven world, it’s becoming increasingly difficult
to get our students’ attention and keep them absorbed in classroom discussions. This
generation, in particular, has brought a unique set of challenges to the educational
table. Whereas youth are easily enraptured by high-definition television, computers,
Pods, video games, and cell phones, they are less than enthralled by what to them are
obsolete textbooks and boring classroom lectures. The question of how to teach history
in a digital age is often contentious. On the one side, the old guard thinks the
professional standards history is in mortal danger from flash-in-the-pan challenges by
the digital that is all show and no substance. On the other side, the self-styled
“disruptors” offer overblown rhetoric about how digital technology has changed
everything while the moribund profession obstructs all progress in the name of
outdated ideals. At least, that’s a parody (maybe not much of one) of how the debate
proceeds. Both supporters and opponents of the digital share more disciplinary common
ground than either admits.
{B} When provided with merely a textbook as a supplemental learning tool, test
results have revealed that most students fail to pinpoint the significance of historical
events and individuals. Fewer still are able to cite and substantiate primary historical
sources. What does this say about the way our educators are presenting information?
The quotation comes from a report of a 1917 test of 668 Texas students. Less than 10
per cent of school-age children attended high school in 1917; today, enrollments are
nearly universal. The whole world has turned on its head during the last century but one
thing has stayed the same: Young people remain woefully ignorant about history
reflected from their history tests. Guess what? Historians are ignorant too, especially
when we equate historical knowledge with the “Jeopardy” Daily Double. In a test, those
specializing in American history did just fine. But those with specialities in
medieval, European and African history failed miserably when confronted by items
about Fort Ticonderoga, the Olive Branch Petition, or the Quebec Act–all taken from a
typical textbook. According to the testers, the results from the recent National
Assessment in History, like scores from earlier tests, show that young people are
“abysmally ignorant” of their own history. Invoking the tragedy of last September,
historian Diane Ravitch hitched her worries about our future to the idea that our
nation’s strength is endangered by youth who do poorly on such tests. But if she were
correct, we would have gone down the tubes in 1917!
{C} There is a huge difference between saying “Kids don’t know the history we
want them to know” and saying “Kids don’t know history at all.” Historical knowledge
burrows itself into our cultural pores even if young people can’t marshal it when faced
with a multiple-choice test. If we weren’t such hypocrites (or maybe if we were better
historians) we’d have to admit that today’s students follow in our own footsteps. For too
long we’ve fantasized that by rewriting textbooks we could change how history is
learned. The problem, however, is not the content of textbooks but the very idea of
them. No human mind could retain the information crammed into these books in 1917,
and it can do no better now. If we have learned anything from history that can be
applied to every time period, it is that the only constant changes. The teaching of
history, or any subject for that matter, is no exception. The question is no longer
whether to bring new technologies into everyday education; now, the question is which
technologies are most suitable for the range of topics covered in junior high and high
school history classrooms. Fortunately, technology has provided us with opportunities to
present our Civil War lesson plans or our American Revolution lesson plans in a variety
of new ways.
{D} Teachers can easily target and engage the learners of this generation by
effectively combining the study of history with innovative multimedia. PowerPoint and
presentations, in particular, can expand the scope of traditional classroom discussion by
helping teachers to explain abstract concepts while accommodating students’ unique
learning styles. PowerPoint study units that have been pre-made for history classrooms
include all manner of photos, prints, maps, audio clips, video clips and primary sources
which help to make learning interactive and stimulating. Presenting lessons in these
enticing formats helps technology-driven students retain the historical information
they’ll need to know for standard exams.
{E} Whether you’re covering Revolutionary War lesson plans or World War II
lesson plans, PowerPoint study units are available in formats to suit the needs of your
classroom. Multimedia teaching instruments like PowerPoint software are getting
positive results the world over, framing conventional lectures with captivating written,
auditory and visual content that helps students recall names, dates and causal
relationships within a historical context.
{F} History continues to show us that new times bring new realities. Education is
no exception to the rule. The question is not whether to bring technology into the
educational environment. Rather, the question is which technologies are suitable for
U.S. and world history subjects, from Civil War lesson plans to World War II lesson plans.
Whether you’re covering your American Revolution lesson plans or your Cold War lesson
plans, PowerPoint presentations are available in pre-packaged formats to suit your
classroom’s needs.
{G} Meanwhile, some academic historians hold a different view on the use of
technology in teaching history. One reason they hold is that not all facts can be
recorded by film or videos and literature is relatively feasible in this case. Another
challenge they have to be faced with is the painful process of learning a new technology
like the making of PowerPoint and the editing of audio and video clips which is also
reasonable especially to some elderly historians.
Questions 1-7
Reading this passage has eight paragraphs, A-G
Choosing the correct heading for paragraphs A-G from the list of heading below
Write the appropriate number, i -x, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
(i) unavoidable changing facts to be considered when picking up technology means
(ii). A debatable place where the new technologies stand in for history teaching
(iii) Hard to attract students in traditional ways of teaching history
(iv) Display of the use of emerging multimedia as teaching tools
(V) Both students and professionals as candidates did not produce decent results
(vi) A good concrete example illustrated to show how multimedia animates the history
class
(vii) The comparisons of the new technologies applied in history class
(viii) Enormous breakthroughs in new technologies
(ix) Resistance of using new technologies from certain historian
(X) Decisions needed on which technique to be used for history teaching instead of
improvement in the textbooks
ii
1 Paragraph A
v
2 Paragraph B
x
3 Paragraph C
iv
4 Paragraph D
vi
5 Paragraph E
i
6 Paragraph F
ix
7 Paragraph G
Questions 8-10
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3? In
boxes 35-37on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the writer
if the statement does not agree with
NO
the writer
NOT if there is no information about this in
GIVEN the passage
NO
8 Modern people are better at memorizing historical information compared
with their ancestors.
YES
9 New technologies applied in history teaching are more vivid for students
to memorize the details of historical events.
NOT GIVEN
10 Conventional ways like literature are gradually out of fashion as time
goes by.
Questions 11-13
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using no more
than three words from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in
boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.
Contemporary students can be aimed at without many difficulties by integrating
multimedia
studying history with novels 11 Conventional classroom discussion is specially
abstracts con
extended by two ways to assist the teachers to interpret 12 and at the same
time retain students’ distinct learning modes. PowerPoint study units prepared
interactive and
beforehand comprising a wide variety of elements make 13 learning feasible.
Combined classes like this can also be helpful in taking required tests.
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28-40 which are based on Reading
Passage 3 below.
E-training
A
E-learning is the unifying term to describe the fields of online learning, web-based
training, and technology-delivered instruction, which can be a great benefit to corporate
e-learning. IBM, for instance, claims that the institution of its e-training program, Basic
Blue, whose purpose is to train new managers, saved the company in the range of $200
million in 1999. Cutting the travel expenses required to bring employees and instructors
to a central classroom account for the lion’s share of the savings. With an online course,
employees can learn from any Internet-connected PC, anywhere in the world. Ernst and
Young reduced training costs by 35 percent while improving consistency and scalability.
B
In addition to generally positive economic benefits, other advantages such as
convenience, standardized delivery, self-paced learning, and a variety of available
content, have made e-learning a high priority for many corporations. E-learning is
widely believed to offer flexible “any time, any place” learning. The claim for “any
place” is valid in principle and is a great development. Many people can engage with
rich learning materials that simply were not possible in a paper of broadcast distance
learning era. For teaching specific information and skills, e-training holds great promise.
It can be especially effective at helping employees prepare for IT certification programs.
E-learning also seems to effectively address topics such as sexual harassment
education’, safety training and management training – all areas where a clear set of
objectives can be identified. Ultimately, training experts recommend a “blended”
approach that combines both online and in-person training as the instruction requires.
E-learning is not an end-all solution. But if it helps decrease costs and windowless
classrooms filled with snoring students, it definitely has its advantages.
C
Much of the discussion about implementing e-learning has focused on the technology,
but as Driscoll and others have reminded us, e-learning is not just about the technology,
but also many human factors. As any capable manager knows, teaching employees new
skills is critical to a smoothly run business. Having said that, however, the traditional
route of classroom instruction runs the risk of being expensive, slow and, oftentimes,
ineffective. Perhaps the classroom’s greatest disadvantage is the fact that it takes
employees out of their jobs. Every minute an employee is sitting in a classroom training
session is a minute they’re not out on the floor working. It now looks as if there is a way
to circumvent these traditional training drawbacks. E-training promises more effective
teaching techniques by integrating audio, video, animation, text and interactive
materials with the intent of teaching each student at his or her own pace. In addition to
higher performance results, there are other immediate benefits to students such as
increased time on task, higher levels of motivation, and reduced test anxiety for many
learners.
D
On the other hand, nobody said E-training technology would be cheap. E-training
service providers, on the average, charge from $10,000 to $60,000 to develop one hour
of online instruction. This price varies depending on the complexity of the training topic
and the media used. HTML pages are a little cheaper to develop while streaming-video
presentations or flash animations cost more. Course content is just the starting place for
the cost. A complete e-learning solution also includes the technology platform (the
computers, applications and network connections that are used to deliver the courses).
This technology platform, known as a learning management system (LMS), can either
be installed onsite or outsourced. Add to that cost the necessary investments in
network bandwidth to deliver multimedia courses, and you’re left holding one heck of a
bill. For the LMS infrastructure and a dozen or so online courses, costs can top $500,000
in the first year. These kinds of costs mean that custom e-training is, for the time being,
an option only for large organizations. For those companies that have a large enough
staff, the e-training concept pays for itself. Aware of this fact, large companies are
investing heavily in online training. Today, over half of the 400-plus courses that
Rockwell Collins offers are delivered instantly to its clients in an e-learning format, a
change that has reduced its annual training costs by 40%. Many other success stories
exist.
E
E-learning isn’t expected to replace the classroom entirely. For one thing, bandwidth
limitations are still an issue in presenting multimedia over the Internet. Furthermore, e-
training isn’t suited to every mode of instruction or topic. For instance, it’s rather
ineffective imparting cultural values or building teams. If your company has a unique
corporate culture is would be difficult to convey that to first-time employees through a
computer monitor. Group training sessions are more ideal for these purposes. In
addition, there is a perceived loss of research time because of the work involved in
developing and teaching online classes. Professor Wallin estimated that it required
between 500 and 1,000 person-hours, that is, Wallin-hours, to keep the course at the
appropriate level of currency and usefulness. (Distance learning instructors often need
technical skills, no matter how advanced the courseware system.) That amounts to
between a quarter and half of a person-year. Finally, teaching materials require
computer literacy and access to equipment. Any e-Learning system involves basic
equipment and a minimum level of computer knowledge in order to perform the tasks
required by the system. A student that does not possess these skills, or have access to
these tools, cannot succeed in an e-Learning program.
F
While few people debate the obvious advantages of e-learning, systematic research is
needed to confirm that learners are actually acquiring and using the skills that are
being taught online, and that e-learning is the best way to achieve the outcomes in a
corporate environment. Nowadays, a go-between style of Blended learning, which
refers to a mixing of different learning environments, is gaining popularity. It combines
traditional face-to-face classroom methods with more modern computer-mediated
activities. According to its proponents, the strategy creates a more integrated approach
for both instructors and learners. Formerly, technology-based materials played a
supporting role in face-to-face instruction. Through a blended learning approach,
technology will be more important.
Questions 28-33
The reading passage has six paragraphs, A-F
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-F from the list below.
Write the correct number, i-xi, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i overview of the benefits for application of E-training
ii IBM’s successful choice of training
iii Future directions and a new style of teaching
iv learners’ achievement and advanced teaching materials
v limitations when E-training compares with traditional class
vi multimedia over the Internet can be a solution
vii technology can be a huge financial burden
viii the distance learners outperformed the traditional university learners worldwide
ix other advantages besides economic consideration
x Training offered to help people learn using computers
1 Paragraph A
2 Paragraph B
3 Paragraph C
4 Paragraph D
5 Paragraph E
6 Paragraph F
Questions 7-10
The reading Passage has six paragraphs A-F
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-F, in boxes 35-37 on your answer sheet.
7 Projected Basic Blue in IBM achieved great success.
8 E-learning wins as a priority for many corporations as its flexibility.
9 The combination of traditional and e-training environments may prevail.
10 Example of fast electronic delivery for a company’s products to its customers.
Questions 38-40
Choose THREE correct letters, among A-E
Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.
A Technical facilities are hardly obtained.
B Presenting multimedia over the Internet is restricted due to the bandwidth limit.
C It is ineffective imparting a unique corporate value to fresh employees.
D Employees need to block a long time leaving their position attending training.
E More preparation time is needed to keep the course at a suitable level.
