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IELTS WRITING 2 PRACTICE TEST 21 and BAND 8.0 SAMPLE ANSWER
Be Back To Square One – Idiom Of The Day For IELTS Speaking
The More You Read, The Better You Write
Debase – Word Of The Day For IELTS
IELTS SPEAKING PRACTICE TEST 33 & SAMPLE ANSWERS

IELTS WRITING 2 PRACTICE TEST 21 and BAND 8.0 SAMPLE ANSWER

Posted: 21 Oct 2016 08:05 AM PDT

IELTS WRITING 2 PRACTICE TEST 21

There are disagreement on the impact of increased business and culture contact between countries on a country's identity. What is your opinion?

BAND 8.0 SAMPLE ANSWER

One of the most apparent characteristics of the 21 st century is a tighter connection between countries, in terms of culture and economics. Many people express a worry that this trend may lead to the extinction of countries' identities. I hold a strong belief that this issue should be perceived and analyzed from multiple perspectives.

On the path to establish a closer connection with the outside world, a country does not necessarily eliminate its culture which should be considered as its precious asset. Not only allows one nation to distinguish itself from the rest of the world, an indigenous culture also plays many more essential roles such as attracting foreign visitors, developing tourism industry and yielding high revenue. The reason partly lies in the fact that for many tourists, a country's cultural and historic background is one of the most important criteria in choosing a destination for visiting. For instance, thousands of people wants to pay Japan or Thailand a visit just because of the unique Japanese tea culture or gorgeous Thai temples architect…In response to this, many countries have put great effort in protecting and preserving their cultural identities, in order to keep themselves in the list of most popular destinations. It is not fallible to say that the increase in tourism motivates these countries in aiding the conservation of their features.

While tourism provides an encouragement for cultural conservation, some other elements of a culture, such as customs, tradition or taboos might die out over time. In some countries, the native people have become more accustomed to exotic cultures. It reflects the combined effects of the integration of foreign cultures, both through media and direct business interaction. For example, over time, the Western culture has permeated into many Asian countries and the locals are willing to break many of their time- honored traditions and adapt the new ones.

As discussed above, increased interaction between countries in the domains of business and culture can either strengthen or undermine the identities of countries involved. In fact, there is hardly any definite answer to this question.

Be Back To Square One – Idiom Of The Day For IELTS Speaking

Posted: 21 Oct 2016 03:06 AM PDT

Be Back To Square One – Idiom Of The Day For IELTS Speaking.

Definition:

have to work on a plan from the beginning again because a previous attempt failed and the progress made was wasted ( A chess board has 64 squares on it )

Example:

“Software engineers now have to be back to square one because of the failure of the design of the Redray software.“

” Negotiations have broken down, and it’s back to square one.“

“We lost our appeal of the lower court decision, so back to square one.“

Exercise:

Choose the suitable idiom to complete the sentence below.
” The investigation was __________________ when Mrs. Earle proved she wasn’t anywhere nearthe crime..”
A. run out of patience
B. going out like a light
C. back to square one
D. sitting on the fence
Describe the failure you have had. Try to use this idiom in your speech. You should say:
– When it happened
– What the failure was
– How did you feel when you failed
And explain how you overcame it

The More You Read, The Better You Write

Posted: 21 Oct 2016 12:05 AM PDT

A lot of IELTS candidates find Writing Task 2 is a huge challenge. Unless you're so lucky that the topic falls right into your concern, it is somehow challenging for an economics student to write an essay about climate change. From my personal experience, the best tip I've learned so far that can help you improve your writing and also gain some knowledge is to read more.

When you first hear "read more", you probably think of those National Geographic magazines that are full of concepts and principles you have never heard before; or those serious political issues in other countries that are so complicated and confusing to you, don't worry, it's definitely not what I mean here (unless you find it's interesting the go ahead). What I'm encouraging you is to be more selective, starting with something really general and something which interests you; general in terms of topics (daily-life issues, healthy lifestyles, environmental issues) and in terms of analysis (compare and contrast, reasons-consequences, suggestions). You can read daily magazines and education websites, whereby the writing style is natural and interesting yet still provides general knowledge. Another good source of reference is the band 8 onwards essays that you can find easily on the Internet. The topics are more specific and the academic level is much higher.

After you have a good resource of information, the next thing you can gain from reading is the ideas for IELTS topics. You don't have to memorize those terminologies or those highly academic vocabularies, what you should keep for yourself is the ideas. As you read, you may draw a simple mind map so you can go over easily later. For example, when I read about online-shopping. They discussed about its benefits and drawbacks, followed by examples and even their personal experiences. My mind map looks like this:

Practicing this not only helps you improve your summarizing skills, but also you gain lots of ideas to use for IELTS. Moreover, when you get used to this habit, it is way easier when it comes to the exam day, you have your ideas in your mind. All you have to do next is to put them together nicely, which I am going to cover in the next paragraph.

Coherence and cohesion is also one of the essential elements that builds up a good essay. By reading you can learn about how authors organize their ideas, how they use varied sentence structures, how they combine so naturally the spoken and academic languages. You will also see how the authors select examples, reasons and consequences to support their main idea. You may then highlight what you find interested in and practice using them in your own essay for several times. "Practice makes perfect".

In conclusion, reading is indeed a good habit for IELTS candidates. First select a good source of general ideas, make a simple map as you read and finally focus on the connection between them. Try to maintain this habit even you've achieved IELTS, because I believe, the more you read, the more you learn, the better you write.

Below is the list of useful websites which cover international/world news in every aspect of life

https://www.theguardian.com/

The Guardian is a British national daily newspaper covering US, UK, international news, breaking news and various aspects such as Travel, Family, Sport, Arts, TV and Radio, Puzzles, etc

http://www.bbc.com/

BBC News is the world’s largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage.

http://www.cnn.com

This site was launched on August 30, 1995. The site attracted growing interest over its first decade and is now one of the most popular news websites in the world. It also has a specialized sites in teaching English: http://cnnlearnenglish.com/

http://www.economist.com/

It has long been respected as “one of the most competent and subtle Western periodicals on public affairs.

I hope you'll find this helpful. Should you have any question, please leave it in the comment below.

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Debase – Word Of The Day For IELTS

Posted: 20 Oct 2016 11:48 PM PDT

Debase – Word Of The Day For IELTS Speaking And Writing

Debase: (Verb) /dɪˈbeɪs/

Definition:

to make someone or something lose its value or people’s respect

Synonyms:

Cheapen, Demoralize, Demean

Collocations:

Debase a currency/ coinage

Example:

For IELTS Speaking:.
“To deny the truth on grounds of faith alone debases both science and religion.”
“Even the love of Troilus and Cressida is debased by the Trojan atmosphere, and misplaced values.”

For IELTS Writing:
“By adding base metals, the leaders debased the currency, hurting its value, and fueling inflation.”

Exercise:

Match the word below to complete these sentences.

elemental, emanate, decadent, enervate,debasing, equations

Casinos sound such arbitrary and ………….. places; nobody would want their economy’s fate to be determined in one.
When you reduce some-thing to its most …………….. state, its nuclear core, you can generalise from there.
This whole extravaganza is demeaning, ……………. and deeply damaging to what should be serious political discourse, the protesters complain.
Whimperings, body movements, tail-wags, even little yelps are all heard to ……………… from sleeping canines.
Feeling at once ………………. and threatened, the enterprise collectively hunkers into a defensive, self-protective posture.
Mathematicians scribble ……………………. on blackboards and program supercomputers to make the billions of calculations needed to break a tough code.

Answer keys:

decadent
elemental
debasing
emanate
enervate
equations

Check out Vocabulary for IELTS Speaking & Writing on IELTS Material website to improve your vocabulary for IELTS and get a high score in IELTS.

IELTS SPEAKING PRACTICE TEST 33 & SAMPLE ANSWERS

Posted: 19 Oct 2016 01:16 PM PDT

IELTS SPEAKING PRACTICE TEST 33 AND SAMPLE ANSWER FOR 3 PARTS

Part 1: Interviewing

What is your name/full name

My full name is Ngo Vu Hai Minh, you can call me by my English name Thea

Can I see your ID?

Of course, here you are.

Do you work or study?

Currently, I am studying at Banking University where I major in International Business Economics.

What subjects are you studying/ What is your favorite subject?

Well as you know, I am majoring in economics, therefore most of the time we study subjects related to trade, commerce, Theory of economics and so on. However, talking about my favorite subject, I suppose I have to name Tax Principle, which gives me lots of interesting view on the way our market circulates.

Where are you from

Well as you can probably guess, I come from Ho Chi Minh city. I have lived here all my life although currently I am studying in another city, Ha Noi.

Can you describe your hometown?

If I have to describe Ho Chi Minh City, I suppose I would say that is it absolutely enormous, maybe the largest city in Vietnam. In fact, my home town is so big that even the locals sometime have difficulty finding their way around. Another significant characteristic about Ho Chi Minh City is that it is a melting pot for different culture and cuisine mixture. I would say that it is easy for you to experience the cultural diversity in Ho Chi Minh City.

Part 2: Cue Card

Talk about a person who can use or speak a second language.

Please say

– Who this person is?
– What language can he/she use?
– How often does he/she use it?

Sample Answer

Well, I think I can start off by pointing out something about who this person is. Actually, I know quite a lot people who are bilingual, however I'd like to share about my best friend who is fluent in Japanese. Her name is Nguyen and she is currently working in a Japanese corporate. The thing that makes her unique to me is that despite acquiring Japanese on her own, she managed to become excellent at it with gorgeous intonation like a native speaker. The first reason encouraging her to learn this language is indeed quite simple. When she was in university, she fell in love with a Japanese person and gradually became addicted to this country's culture and language. Therefore, she exerted herself and put a lot of effort in Japanese with the first target of being able to communicate with her boyfriend in his mother tongue. Time went by and her passion for this language grew so strong that she committed herself to conquer it, no matter how hard it is when it comes to the matter of self – study. However at the end of the day, she achieved it with flying colors and lots of opportunities come to her after graduation from university. It is my friend who gives me a precious lesson in life: Do the thing you are truly passionate about and you will rock it.

Part 3: Discussion

What are the benefits of learning a new language?

Language has long been considered as one of the main tools for people to exchange information and culture. When a person is fluent in one foreign language, almost every barriers to that country's culture and business would be taken down. He would have lots of chances in networking, studying or doing business with foreign people without having to use the third language. This is also crucial in giving foreign people a sense of pride in their own country and hence create many more opportunities for him.

Is it better to start learning a foreign language as a child or an adult? Why do you think so?

From my personal perspective, it is way easier for a child to pick up a new language than adults due to some reasons. The first point I'd like to give is that children have a perfect instinct for imitation, which is crucial in learning a new language, especially with the new intonation and pronunciation. Adults, on the other hand, are quite slow in eliminating their routines and adopting new rules in speaking. Another factor that needs taking into account is that children are on the way of developing mental states, therefore, this is usually considered as the ideal phase for learning everything, not just language. On the contrary, there are too many things that occupy adults say work, family, financial matters and so on, thus, it's is not easy for them to just concentrate on learning and learning.

How can teachers help in learning a new language?

In every aspects of life, no one can deny the essential role of teachers or mentors, and learning a new language is not the exception. Teachers are the ones who guide learners the right method to take up new language and therefore prevent the waste of time and resources. They also appear as a fantastic source of reference besides books and Internet. However, the thing that really makes teachers truly valuable is the power of inspiration and encouragement that they spread to their students during the course of learning.

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Friday, October 21, 2016