IELTS Band 6.

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Lesson 7 – Reading
Students will be able to

● use text structure to follow ideas

● practice summary completion tasks

A. Getting started
Work in pairs and answer the questions. Check the words in bold with a dictionary if
necessary.
1. What does the media in your country say about
educational standards?
2. How did teachers discipline children at the
school/schools you have attended?
3. Look at the photo of this teacher. Do you think she is
strict? Why?/Why not?

B. Using text structure to follow ideas

I. a. Read the title and the introduction paragraph. What is the passage about?
b. Each paragraph contains one central idea. Read the first sentence of each paragraph and
match the paragraphs (A–D) to its main idea (1–4).
1. the differences in discipline that they observed
2. a description of how they carried out the experiment
3. the different attitudes to creative thinking that they observed
4. the reasons for carrying out the experiment

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 A Chinese approach to learning
A recent experiment carried out by the BBC to bring Chinese teachers to the UK is a little
unusual. China is a country with a different culture and set of expectations of behaviour in class.
It was perhaps only inevitable that the teachers would be shocked by the behaviour they found.
The young people themselves admitted to behaving worse than they usually would. Coming from
an educational culture where shame and social pressure are the main method of controlling the
class, Chinese educators were never going to introduce their methods without protest. Why
would anybody expect anything different?
A The reasons behind the experiment were obvious. Chinese students regularly come near
the top in internationals comparison tests of students around the planet. They triumph in
Maths, Reading and Science, while in the UK, young people have been getting lower
marks in recent years. Many in Britain have been wondering if it is time to adopt
Chinese methods of education here.
B In the experiment five teachers were brought from China and put in a UK school. They
taught a group of 50 students maths, reading, science and modern languages. The
students in the study group, and another control group who received regular lessons,
were tested at the end of the period and an analysis of the results was carried out. In
addition, both teachers and students who participated in the experiment were given
interviews with one of the researchers on how they felt about what happened.
C The biggest difference between the two cultures was the lack of discipline in British
schools. One Chinese teacher pointed out, ‘In China we don’t need classroom
management skills because everyone is disciplined by nature, by families, by society.’
Interestingly, students admitted that they found themselves behaving worse during the
experiment than they normally would for their British teachers. Many pointed to the fact
that the unfamiliarity of the teacher made them feel less comfortable than they normally
would. The ‘survive or die’ approach to education was so unfamiliar that many students
reacted negatively to it.
D Another key issue was that of the role of creativity in a classroom where discipline is
king. While it was obvious that the British students would benefit from settling down
and paying more attention to their lessons, it was also clear that the UK education system
does, sometimes, encourage students to think outside of the box, be risk-takers, ask

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 questions and challenge ideas. The Chinese teachers were uncomfortable with any
attempt to ask questions, as it would stop the flow of the lesson they had planned in
which there was no opportunity for free-thinking.

II. a. Read the summary below. Based on exercise I.b., does it summarise the whole passage
or part of the passage?
The BBC introduced an experiment to bring Chinese teachers to a British school because of the
1. ……………… of Chinese students in exams. The test results of students with the Chinese
teachers were compared to the results of a 2. ……………… , and they were asked about their 3.
……………… at the end of the experiment. Chinese teachers thought their students were better
4. ……………… than the British children. However, the British children 5. ……………… that
they were particularly naughty because they felt uncomfortable. In addition, the class rules meant
that the children felt unable to use their 6. ……………… well.
b. Look at the first gap in the summary. Based on exercise I.b., which paragraph in the
passage do you think will contain this answer?

c. Read the paragraph containing the answer carefully. Is the first answer the word effort
or success? Find synonyms of the surrounding words in the paragraph to confirm your
answer.

d. Complete the task using the words below. Remember to:

1. use the text structure and the main idea of each paragraph to locate the information in the
passage.
2. choose the correct word from the list below. Look for synonyms of these words in the passage.
agreed behaved control group denied educated
experiences imagination study group instructors time
Summary completion
There are two types of summary completion tasks.
Type 1: Choose the word(s) from the passage for each answer.
Type 2: Complete the summary using the list of phrases, A-…, below.
Write the correct letter, A-…, in boxes on your answer sheet.

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 Step 1: Analyse the summary (approx. 2 minutes)
● First, read the title of the summary (if available).

● For each blank, read the entire sentence carefully and identify the type of word that needs
to be filled in (noun, verb, adjective, etc.).
● Predict the information needed based on the grammatical structure and the meaning and
context of the entire sentence.
● Find and underline keywords. Keywords can be a name, a place, time, number,
terminology, etc. that can be seen easily.
Step 2: Locate the information (approx. 1 minute)
● Use the title and the underlined keywords from Step 1 to locate where you need to read.

● Note: In addition to the easily recognizable keywords, pay attention to how the prompt
paraphrases other words in the question.
Step 3: Navigate identified section/paragraph (approx. 1 minute and 30 seconds for 1
question)
● Identify and read carefully the sentences in the passage that contain information matching
the information in the blanks of the summary.
● If you do not understand, you may need to read the sentences before and after to find the
word/phrase that is the answer for each blank. Usually, the information in the passage will
be paraphrased in various ways. You need to comprehend and cross-reference the
information in the passage with the information in the question to find the exact word
needed to fill in.
● The chosen word/phrase needs to make the sentence with the blank synonymous with the
sentence in the passage.
Step 4: Check the answer (approx. 30 seconds for 1 question)
● Carefully compare the question and the sentence containing the information to see if they
have the same meaning.
● Consider: (1) Does the chosen answer agree grammatically? (2) Is the answer indeed a
word/phrase taken from the passage (if the question requires using language from the
passage)? (3) Does the answer comply with the word limit allowed by the prompt?
● Check spelling carefully.

C. Test practice

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I. Read about the conclusion of the experiment. Complete the summary using the list A–I
below.
All of this suggests that an obsession with testing does not exist in the UK, which would
be untrue. The purpose of the experiment was to see if British students would benefit from the
Chinese approach. However, the message that the test result is the only thing that matters may
not be getting through to students. One young person commented that ‘Their teaching methods
did get results but we didn’t always feel we were learning much. They get results because we are
in school for so long.’
It is not just the contrast between Chinese and British education systems. In India, a far
more radical approach is being taken. At the cutting edge of educational research is the idea that
a little chaos in the classroom is not necessarily a bad thing. Professor Sugata Mitra has
introduced the ‘Classroom in the Cloud’ based on his ‘Hole in the Wall’ experiments, which
have shown that students can teach themselves and each other through self- instruction. In fact,
his research suggests that the presence of someone in charge is neither essential nor desirable.
This minimally invasive education is a practical example of the argument that ‘the mind is not a
pot to be filled, but a fire to be started’, but is yet to be tested.
From the experiment we can draw two conclusions. Firstly, no one has the monopoly on
what is right and wrong with teaching and learning (not even the Finns, currently the world’s
leaders in education). Secondly, each country has an educational approach which is unique and
reflects the values and expectations of its society, after decades, if not centuries, of experiment
and practice. If nothing else, this experiment proves that point to be true.

The author believes the British have an excessive 1. ……………… in student results. Students
felt that the positive results of Chinese educators was thanks to their teaching 2. ………………
more than anything else. In India, some educational experts have seen a disorderly classroom as
a 3. ……………… . In one project, researchers have tried removing 4. ……………… from
classrooms with some success. The author concludes that education systems tend to be the result
of the 5. ……………… around them.
A unnecessary B technology C styles D hours
E interest F environment G teachers H benefit
I classmates

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II. Read the passage and complete the following tasks.
The Dark Side of Emotional Intelligence
Since the 1995 publication of Daniel Goleman’s bestseller, Emotional Intelligence, the
idea has been used by government leaders and educators as the solution to a wide range of
problems. If we can encourage emotional intelligence among school children, leaders and
doctors, we’ll have more caring educational institutions, workplaces and better healthcare. As a
result, emotional intelligence is now taught widely in secondary schools, business schools and
medical schools.
Since the book’s publication, social scientists have begun to document emotional
intelligence with more reliable research methodologies and a more complex picture is emerging.
Research led by University of Cambridge Professor Jochen Menges suggested that, when a
leader gave an inspiring speech filled with emotion, the audience was less likely to challenge the
message and remembered less of the content. Interestingly, though, audience members were so
moved by the speech that they believed that they had remembered more of it.
It is clear that leaders who master emotions can rob us of our capabilities to reason. In a
study led by psychologist Stephane Cote of the University of Toronto, university employees
filled out a survey about their manipulative tendencies, and took a test measuring their emotional
intelligence. Then, Cote’s team studied how they interacted on the job. The employees who
engaged in the most harmful behaviours were masters of manipulation with high emotional
intelligence, using their emotional skills to demean and embarrass their peers for personal gain.
Of course, people aren’t always using emotional intelligence for evil ends and emotional
intelligence is certainly a skill that can be taught to others. In a study of emotions at the Body
Shop, a research team led by Stanford professor Joanne Martin discovered that founder Anita
Roddick used emotions to inspire her employees to fundraise for charity. As Roddick explained,
‘Whenever we wanted to persuade our staff to support a particular project we always tried to
break their hearts.’ Roddick was often held up as an example of an emotionally intelligent leader.
However, emotional intelligence may have hidden costs. Recently, psychologists from
the University of Central Florida comprehensively analysed every study that has ever examined
the link between emotional intelligence and job performance. They found that in jobs that
required extensive attention to emotions, higher emotional intelligence translated into better
work. However, in jobs such as mechanics, scientists and accountants the results were reversed.

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Although more research is needed, one promising explanation is that these employees were
paying attention to emotions when they should have been focusing on their tasks. If your job is to
analyse data or repair cars, it can be quite distracting to read the facial expressions, vocal tones
and body language of the people around you. In suggesting that emotional intelligence is
necessary in the workplace, perhaps we’ve been misguided.
Instead of assuming that emotional intelligence is always useful, we need to think more
carefully about where and when it matters. In a recent study at a healthcare company, employees
were asked to complete a test about managing and regulating emotions, and then managers were
asked to evaluate how much time employees spent helping their colleagues and customers. The
relationship between emotional intelligence and helping simply didn’t exist: helping is driven
more by our motivations and values. However, emotional intelligence was significant when
examining a different behaviour: challenging existing situations and speaking up with ideas and
suggestions for improvement.
Emotionally intelligent employees spoke up more often and more effectively. When
colleagues were treated unjustly, they felt they had to speak up, but were able to keep their anger
in check and reason with others. When they took risks, for example when advocating for gender
equality, emotional intelligence helped them keep their fear under control. When they brought
ideas for innovation to senior leaders, their ability to express enthusiasm helped them avoid
threatening leaders.
There is now growing recognition that emotional intelligence – like any skill – can be
used for good or evil. So if we’re going to teach emotional intelligence in schools and develop it
at work, we need to consider the values that go along with it and where it’s actually useful.

Questions 1–6
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer in the reading passage? Write
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks
1 Politicians have tried to use emotional intelligence as a tool for social change.
2 Schools and hospitals have seen an improvement in standards since 1995.
3 Menges’ study showed that people had better recall of facts if a speaker stirred strong feelings.

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4 Emotionally intelligent people make colleagues feel silly more often than others.
5 People experience more job satisfaction after emotional awareness training.
6 Anita Roddick used emotional appeals for good causes.

Questions 7–13
Complete the summary using the list of words A–L below.
In the University of Florida study, emotional intelligence had a more 7. ……………. effect on
people who worked in jobs such as accountancy and motor repairs than others. They found that
emotionally intelligent people made faces and gestures their main 8. ……………., which
weakened other skills. They concluded that emotional intelligence can matter in some 9.
……………. . For example, 10. ……………. were asked questions about workers’ behaviour
after a series of tests of emotional intelligence. They observed 11. ……………. difference
between workers with high or low emotional intelligence when it came to helpfulness. They
found that workers with higher emotional intelligence felt more comfortable making 12.
……………. than others. Not only that, but their supervisors were more likely to listen because
the 13. ……………. of emotionally intelligent people made their ideas easier to accept.
A researchers B focus C enthusiasm D disrespect
E negative F speeches G situations H no
I significant J managers K complaints L decision

III. Read the passage and complete the following tasks.

Working conditions in Australia during the 19th and early 20th century
In the 19th century, work for Australia’s manual labourers was tough; They worked in
areas such as the building and construction trade, or the mechanical and maintenance industry,
and the working experiences were typified by uncomfortable and dangerous conditions, low pay
and long hours. Most manual labourers in the cities worked in factories. Quite often these had
little or no fresh air, were without basic facilities, were overcrowded, and often reached over 40
degrees Celsius in summer, while being cold and damp in winter. In addition, it was not
uncommon for injuries to result from faulty machinery and a lack of safety equipment or
protective clothing, which are compulsory at factory sites today.

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 Factory workers also had to work long hours. Rather than today's average working week
of 40 hours, most people worked ten-hour days for six days of the week. Some even had to work
overtime without being given any extra pay. Despite these difficult conditions, workers were too
afraid to complain out of fear of being dismissed from their job, as they knew that life could be
even more difficult if they were unemployed. Unlike today, where the unemployed are able to
access money from the government, there was no similar system available at that time. There
was also no payment for those who were injured at work, no sick leave, and no retirement pay.
Manual labourers in rural Australia did not fare much better. A vast number of manual
labourers in the rural sector were sheep shearers (workers who cut off the sheep's coat). Although
wool had been a major part of Australia's export industry since the 1870s, the shearers were
undervalued. They usually had to shear 100 sheep just to earn f 1 (Au S2), and if their work was
not to the satisfaction of their employer, then he might withhold their wages. The shearers also
had to endure dirty and rat infested conditions in the shearing sheds and at the accommodation
which was provided for them.
The work of most women involved attending to their household duties and looking after
children who were not of school age. Those who did enter the workforce belonged to Australia's
working class. They had to endure similar working conditions to the men, except they did so
with much less pay: women received a wage 50 percent lower than that of their male
counterparts. The women were often employed as servants in private homes. Some of them
enjoyed their jobs and were treated fairly by the families for whom they worked. A number of
them, however, had a heavy workload. Women were also employed in the service industry.
While shop assistants did not have to engage in any hard physical labour, their hours were
exceptionally long. On weekdays they had to work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and until 11 p.m. on
Saturday.
Working-class children were also expected to help out the family by gaining
employment. The majority of them left school at the age of twelve, but there were some children
as young as eight who were working in trades such as textile and boot production. Children
worked up to 60-hour weeks, and were paid around 2-3 pence (2 cents) an hour. This was
approximately half the wage a woman received. Factory owners were keen to make use of
children, as cheaper labour meant a greater profit.

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 At the turn of the 20th century, life and working conditions in Australia were still harsh,
dangerous and dirty compared with today's standards. However, in other parts of the world the
country had a reputation as the 'working man's paradise'. This reputation was based on the
adoption of the eight-hour day and other benefits which were unimaginable at that time in
Europe. Rights relating to working conditions, safety in the workplace, weekly working hours,
and wages all progressed around this time. They did not, however, all come at once, and they
were often only extended to workers within certain industries. Yet despite this, it represented the
beginning of a new era, where employees had rights and employers had a greater responsibility
towards their workers.
These gradual improvements were partly achieved through the efforts of workers who
had begun, as early as the 1830s, to form unions' which were beginning to take effect. The
workers were so confident that their unions had become strong enough to seek action for unfair
treatment and wages on their behalf, that throughout the 1890s they held a number of strikes.
These led to a gradual improvement in working conditions, and formed the basis of the rights
enjoyed by Australian workers today.

Questions 1–6
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer in the reading passage? Write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
1 At certain times of the year. factories could be extremely hot.
2 Employers normally paid the hospital bills of anyone injured at work.
3 Working conditions for domestic servants were sometimes quite good.
4 Shop assistants usually worked shorter hours than factory workers.
5 Children under the age of eight weren't allowed to work.
6 Australia was among the first countries to limit the length of the working day.

Questions 7 – 10
Complete the summary below.
Write ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer

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 Improvements in Australian working conditions
By the beginning of the 20th century. conditions for Australian workers had started to get
better. Their 7. …………………… were now recognised. and employers had to accept some
responsibility for their welfare. Compared to other countries, Australia was regarded as a(n) 8.
…………………… for workers. To some extent this progress was due to the creation of 9.
…………………… earlier in the 19th century. By the end of that century. workers felt
sufficiently confident to hold 10. …………………… which were effective in achieving change.

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