IELTS Reading Practice Test 4: Mastering Comprehension and Analytical Skills

IELTS Reading Practice Test - Set 4: The IELTS Reading section is crucial for evaluating one's English proficiency, moving as this section assesses the comprehension and analytical abilities of the candidate. This article emphasizes the significant role of IELTS Reading practice tests through the IELTS reading practice set designed from the previous year’s IELTS Reading section questions. In this article, we discuss in depth the IELTS Reading Practice Test 4 along with the IELTS Reading Practice Test 4 answers. This article contains answers to the IELTS academic reading practice test 4 that includes reading questions from topics such as Coastal Archaeology of Britain, Activities for Children and Mechanisms of Linguistic Change all of those which are a part of previous year’s IELTS practice tests released by the examination conducting authorities.

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This Story also Contains

1. Top 5 Tips for IELTS Reading
2. Coastal Archaeology of Britain
3. COASTAL ARCHAEOLOGY OF BRITAIN QUESTIONS
4. COASTAL ARCHAEOLOGY OF BRITAIN ANSWERS
5. Activities for Children
6. ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN ANSWERS
7. Mechanisms of Linguistic Change
8. MECHANISMS OF LINGUISTIC CHANGE QUESTIONS
9. MECHANISMS OF LINGUISTIC CHANGE ANSWERS

Understanding the IELTS exam structure is essential for test-takers. The Reading section, with its diverse question formats and challenging passages, requires continuous IELTS reading practice preparation. The candidate's ability to pay attention to detail, grasp the main idea, and comprehend the style and tone of the writing is evaluated in the reading phase. A committed IELTS Reading practice is required for applicants to succeed on the IELTS exam.

To help the candidates in their IELTS preparation, this article contains a set of 3 past year's IELTS questions and their comprehensive solutions. This section of the IELTS exam could be quite challenging for applicants without effective IELTS reading practice, so this article gives them an idea of what to expect on exam day.

Top 5 Tips for IELTS Reading

When it comes to the reading section of the IELTS examination, the candidates are observed to overlook this section when compared to the other sections. But on the contrary, the reading section proves to be more challenging because of the presence of complex passages filled with intricate vocabulary. To any candidate with very less reading capabilities, this section may seem very challenging. In order to perform better in the reading section, the candidates are required to have a set of skills that include skimming and scanning, understanding the different possible types of questions, good time management skills to complete all three passages, identifying keywords and having good paraphrasing awareness, good contextual understanding and practicing active reading.

Here in this article, you can find IELTS Reading Samples for the IELTS Academic section and its corresponding answers. The questions are compiled from previous year’s IELTS question papers and the answers are written by IELTS experts

Coastal Archaeology of Britain

A. The recognition of the wealth and diversity of England’s coastal archaeology has been one of the most important developments of recent years. Some elements of this enormous resource have long been known. The so-called ‘submerged forests’ off the coasts of England, sometimes with clear evidence of human activity, had attracted the interest of antiquarians since at least the eighteenth century, but serious and systematic attention has been given to the archaeological potential of the coast only since the early 1980s.

B. It is possible to trace a variety of causes for this concentration of effort and interest. In the 1980s and 1990s scientific research into climate change and its environmental impact spilled over into a much broader public debate as awareness of these issues grew; the prospect of rising sea levels over the next century, and their impact on current coastal environments, has been a particular focus for concern. At the same time, archaeologists were beginning to recognize that the destruction caused by natural processes of coastal erosion and by human activity was having an increasing impact on the archaeological resources of the coast.

C. The dominant process affecting the physical form of England in the post-glacial period has been rising in the altitude of sea level relative to the land, as the glaciers melted and the landmass readjusted. The encroachment of the sea, the loss of huge areas of land now under the North Sea and the English Channel, and especially the loss of the land bridge between England and France, which finally made Britain an island, must have been immensely significant factors in the lives of our prehistoric ancestors. Yet the way in which prehistoric communities adjusted to these environmental changes has seldom been a major theme in discussions of the period. One factor contributing to this has been that, although the rise in relative sea level is comparatively well documented, we know little about the constant reconfiguration of the coastline. This was affected by many processes, mostly quiet, which have not yet been adequately researched. The detailed reconstruction of coastline histories and the changing environments available for human use will be an important theme for future research.

D. So great has been the rise in sea level and the consequent regression of the coast that much of the archaeological evidence is now exposed in the coastal zone. Whether being eroded or exposed as a buried land surface is derived from what was originally terrestrial occupation. Its current location in the coastal zone is the product of later unrelated processes, and it can tell us little about past adaptations to the sea. Estimates of its significance will need to be made in the context of other related evidence from dry land sites. Nevertheless, its physical environment means that preservation is often excellent, for example in the case of the Neolithic structure excavated at the Stumble in Essex.

E. In some cases these buried land surfaces do contain evidence of human exploitation of what was a coastal environment, and elsewhere along the modern coast, there is similar evidence. Where the evidence does relate to past human exploitation of the resources and the opportunities offered by the sea and the coast, it is both diverse and as yet little understood. We are not yet in a position to make even preliminary estimates of answers to such fundamental questions as the extent to which the sea and the coast affected human life in the past, what percentage of the population at any time lived within reach of the sea, or whether human settlements in coastal environments showed a distinct character from those inland.

F. The most striking evidence for the use of the sea is in the form of boats, yet we still have much to learn about their production and use. Most of the known wrecks around our coast are not unexpectedly of post-medieval date and offer an unparalleled opportunity for research which has yet been little used. The prehistoric sewn-plank boats such as those from the Humber estuary and Dover all seem to belong to the second millennium BC; after this, there is a gap in the record of a millennium, which cannot yet be explained before boats reappear, but it built using a very different technology. Boatbuilding must have been an extremely important activity around much of our coast, yet we know almost nothing about it. Boats were some of the most complex artefacts produced by pre-modern societies, and further research on their production and use make an important contribution to our understanding of past attitudes to technology and technological change.

G. Boats need landing places, yet here again, our knowledge is very patchy. In many cases the natural shores and beaches would have sufficed, leaving little or no archaeological trace, but especially in later periods, many ports and harbours, as well as smaller facilities such as quays, wharves, and jetties, were built. Despite a growth of interest in the waterfront archaeology of some of our more important Roman and mediaeval towns, very little attention has been paid to the multitude of smaller landing places. Redevelopment of harbour sites and other development and natural pressures along the coast are subject these important locations to unprecedented threats, yet a few surveys of such sites have been undertaken.

H. One of the most important revelations of recent research has been the extent of industrial activity along the coast. Fishing and salt production are among the better-documented activities, but even here our knowledge is patchy. Many forms of fishing will leave little archaeological trace, and one of the surprises of the recent survey has been the extent of past investment in facilities for procuring fish and shellfish. Elaborate wooden fish weirs, often of considerable extent and responsive to aerial photography in shallow water, have been identified in areas such as Essex and the Severn estuary. The production of salt, especially in the late Iron Age and early Roman periods, has been recognized for some time, especially in the Thames estuary and around the Solent and Poole Harbor, but the reasons for the decline of that industry and the nature of later coastal salt working are much less well understood. Other industries were also located along the coast, either because the raw materials outcropped there or for ease of working and transport: mineral resources such as sand, gravel, stone, coal, ironstone, and alum were all exploited. These industries are poorly documented, but their remains are sometimes extensive and striking.

I. Some appreciation of the variety and importance of the archaeological remains preserved in the coastal zone, albeit only in preliminary form, can thus be gained from recent work, but the complexity of the problem of managing that resource is also being realised. The problem arises not only from the scale and variety of the archaeological remains but also from two other sources: the very varied natural and human threats to the resource, and the complex web of organisations with authority over, or interests in, the coastal zone. Human threats include the redevelopment of historic towns and old dockland areas, and the increased importance of the coast for the leisure and tourism industries, resulting in pressure for the increased provision of facilities such as marinas. The larger size of ferries has also caused an increase in the damage caused by their wash to fragile deposits in the intertidal zone. The most significant natural threat is the predicted rise in sea level over the next century especially in the south and east of England. Its impact on archaeology is not easy to predict, and though it is likely to be highly localised, it will be at a scale much larger than that of most archaeological sites. Thus protecting one site may simply result in transposing the threat to a point further along the coast. The management of the archaeological remains will have to be considered on a much longer time scale and a much wider geographical scale than is common in the case of dry land sites, and this will pose a serious challenge for archaeologists.

Extracted from - IELTS Reading Practice Sets. Copyright © 2023 by IDP education, British Council and Cambridge Assessment English

COASTAL ARCHAEOLOGY OF BRITAIN QUESTIONS

Questions 1-3

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write your answers in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.

1. What has caused public interest in coastal archaeology in recent years?

A Golds and jewelleries in the ships that have submerged

B The rising awareness of climate change

C Forests under the sea

D Technological advance in the field of sea research

2. What does the passage say about the evidence of boats?

A We have a good knowledge of how boats were made and what boats were for prehistorically

B Most of the boats discovered were found in harbours

C The use of boats had not been recorded for a thousand years

D The way to build boats has remained unchanged throughout human history

3. What can be discovered from the air?

A Salt mines

B Shellfish

C Ironstones

D Fisheries

Questions 4-10

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 4-10 on your answer sheet, write

4 England lost much of its land after the ice-age due to the rising sea level.

5 The coastline of England has changed periodically.

6 Coastal archaeological evidence may be well-protected by sea water.

7 The design of boats used by pre-modern people was very simple.

8 Similar boats were also discovered in many other European countries

9 There are few documents relating to mineral exploitation.

10 Large passenger boats are causing increasing damage to the seashore.

Questions 11-13

Choose THREE letters J-G Write your answer in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

Which THREE of the following statements are mentioned in the passage?

A Our prehistoric ancestors adjusted to the environmental change caused by the rising sea level by moving to higher lands

B It is difficult to understand how many people lived close to the sea.

C Human settlements in coastal environments were different from those inland.

D Our knowledge of boat evidence is limited.

E The prehistoric boats were built mainly for collecting sand from the river.

F Human development threatens the archaeological remains.

G The reason for the decline of salt industry was the shortage of labourers.

COASTAL ARCHAEOLOGY OF BRITAIN ANSWERS

1. Answer: B. The rising awareness of climate change.

Process to attempt the solution: The passage indicates that public interest in coastal archaeology in recent years has been influenced by scientific research into climate change, leading to a broader public debate about rising sea levels and their impact on coastal environments.

2. Answer: C. The use of boats had not been recorded for a thousand years.

Process to attempt the solution: The passage mentions prehistoric sewn-plank boats from the second millennium BC, followed by a gap in the record of a millennium before boats reappeared with different technology. This implies that the use of boats had not been recorded for a thousand years.

3. Answer: D. Fisheries.

Process to attempt the solution: The passage discusses the identification of elaborate wooden fish weirs using aerial photography, particularly in areas like Essex and the Severn estuary. This indicates that aerial photography can reveal evidence of fisheries along the coast.

4. Answer: True

Process to attempt the solution: The passage mentions the rise in sea level and the consequent regression of the coast, leading to the loss of land. Therefore, this statement is true.

5. Answer: False

Process to attempt the solution: While the passage discusses the impact of rising sea levels, it does not explicitly state that the coastline of England has changed periodically. Therefore, this statement is false.

6. Answer: Not Given

Process to attempt the solution: The passage does not provide clear information on whether coastal archaeological evidence may be well-protected by seawater. Therefore, the answer is not given.

7. Answer: False

Process to attempt the solution: The passage mentions prehistoric sewn-plank boats, indicating that the design of boats used by pre-modern people was not very simple. Therefore, this statement is false.

8. Answer: Not Given

Process to attempt the solution: The passage does not provide information about similar boats being discovered in many other European countries. Therefore, the answer is not given.

9. Answer: True

Process to attempt the solution: The passage mentions various industries along the coast, including mineral exploitation. Therefore, the statement that there are few documents relating to mineral exploitation is true.

10. Answer: True

Process to attempt the solution: The passage mentions that the larger size of ferries has caused an increase in damage to fragile deposits in the intertidal zone. This makes the statement about large passenger boats causing increasing damage true.

11 - 13

Answer:

B, D, F

Process to attempt the solution:

For statement B, identified the relevant information in paragraph E, which discusses the difficulty in understanding the extent to which the sea and the coast affected human life in the past.

For statement D, located the relevant information in paragraph F, which mentions that much is yet to be learned about the production and use of prehistoric boats.

For statement F, found the information in paragraph I, which discusses the threats to archaeological remains along the coast from human development.

NOTE

The coastal archaeology passage highlights the importance of regular IELTS Reading practice. True/False/Not Given questions evaluate comprehension on topics like public interest causes, boat evidence gaps, and discoveries from the air. The Completion questions follow the pattern of short answer queries, testing knowledge on sea level rise, impact on archaeological remains, and coastal resource management challenges. This passage stresses the need for consistent practice, whether in IELTS reading practice tests or at the time of the actual exam.

Activities for Children

A Twenty-five years ago, children in London walked to school and played in parks and playing fields after school and at the weekend. Today they are usually driven to school by parents anxious about safety and spend hours glued to television screens or computer games. Meanwhile, community playing fields are being sold off to property developers at an alarming rate. ‘This change in lifestyle has, sadly, meant greater restrictions on children,’ says Neil Armstrong, Professor of Health and Exercise Sciences at the University of Exeter. ‘If children continue to be this inactive, they’ll be storing up big problems for the future.’

B In 1985, Professor Armstrong headed a five-year research project into children’s fitness. The results, published in 1990, were alarming. The survey, which monitored 700 11-16-year-olds, found that 48 per cent of girls and 41 per cent of boys already exceeded safe cholesterol levels set for children by the American Heart Foundation. Armstrong adds, “The heart is a muscle and needs exercise, or it loses its strength.” It also found that 13 per cent of boys and 10 per cent of girls were overweight. More disturbingly, the survey found that over a four-day period, half the girls and one-third of the boys did less exercise than the equivalent of a brisk 10-minute walk. High levels of cholesterol, excess body fat and inactivity are believed to increase the risk of coronary heart disease.

C Physical education is under pressure in the UK – most schools devote little more than 100 minutes a week to it in curriculum time, which is less than in many other European countries. Three European countries are giving children a head start in PE, France, Austria and Switzerland – offer at least two hours in primary and secondary schools. These findings, from the European Union of Physical Education Associations, prompted specialists in children’s physiology to call on European governments to give youngsters a daily PE programme. The survey shows that the UK ranks 13th out of the 25 countries, with Ireland’s bottom, averaging under an hour a week for PE. From age six to 18, British children received, on average, 106 minutes of PE a week. Professor Armstrong, who presented the findings at the meeting, noted that since the introduction of the national curriculum, there had been a marked fall in the time devoted to PE in UK schools, with only a minority of pupils getting two hours a week.

D As a former junior football international, Professor Armstrong is a passionate advocate for the sport. Although the Government has poured millions into beefing up the sport in the community, there is less commitment to it as part of the crammed school curriculum. This means that many children never acquire the necessary skills to thrive in team games. If they are not good at them, they lose interest and establish an inactive pattern of behaviour. When this is coupled with a poor diet, it will lead inevitably to weight gain. Seventy per cent of British children give up all sport when they leave school, compared with only 20 per cent of French teenagers. Professor Armstrong believes that there is far too great an emphasis on team games at school. “We need to look at the time devoted to PE and balance it between individual and pair activities, such as aerobics and badminton, as well as team sports. “He added that children need to have the opportunity to take part in a wide variety of individual, partner and team sports.

E The good news, however, is that a few small companies and children’s activity groups have reacted positively and creatively to the problem. ‘Take That, shouts Gloria Thomas, striking a disco pose astride her mini-space hopper. ‘Take That, echo a flock of toddlers, adopting outrageous postures astride their space hoppers. ‘Michael Jackson, she shouts, and they all do a spoof fan-crazed shriek. During the wild and chaotic hopper race across the studio floor, commands like this are issued and responded to with untrammelled glee. The sight of 15 bouncing seven-year-olds who seem about to launch into orbit at every bounce brings tears to the eyes. Uncoordinated, loud, excited and emotional, children provide raw comedy.

F Any cardiovascular exercise is a good option, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be high intensity. It can be anything that gets your heart rate up: such as walking the dog, swimming, running, skipping, or hiking. “Even walking through the grocery store can exercise,” Samis-Smith said. What they don’t know is that they’re at a Fit Kids class and that the fun is a disguise for the serious exercise plan they’re covertly being taken through. Fit Kids trains parents to run fitness classes for children. ‘Ninety per cent of children don’t like team sports,’ says company director, Gillian Gale.

G A Prevention survey found that children whose parents keep in shape are much more likely to have healthy body weights themselves. “There’s nothing worse than telling a child what he needs to do and not doing it yourself,” says Elizabeth Ward, R.D., a Boston nutritional consultant and author of Healthy Foods, Healthy Kids. “Set a good example and get your nutritional house in order first.” In the 1930s and ‘40s, kids expended 800 calories a day just walking, carrying water, and doing other chores, notes Fima Lifshitz, M.D., a paediatric endocrinologist in Santa Barbara. “Now, kids in obese families are expending only 200 calories a day in physical activity,” says Lifshitz, “incorporate more movement in your family’s life – park farther away from the stores at the mall, take stairs instead of the elevator, and walk to nearby friends’ houses instead of driving."

Extracted from - IELTS Reading Practice Sets. Copyright © 2023 by IDP education, British Council and Cambridge Assessment English

ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN QUESTIONS

Questions 14-17

The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-G.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-G, in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.

14 Health and living conditions of children

15 Health organisation monitored physical activity

16 Comparison of exercise time between UK and other countries

17 Wrong approach for school activity

Questions 18-21

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 17-20 on your answer sheet, write

18. According to the American Heart Foundation, the cholesterol levels of boys are higher than girls’.

19 British children generally do less exercise than some other European countries.

20 Skipping has become more and more popular in schools in the UK.

21 According to Healthy Kids, the first task is for parents to encourage their children to keep the same healthy body weight.

Questions 22-26

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write your answers in boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet.

22 According to paragraph A, what is Professor Neil Armstrong concerned about?

A Spending more time on TV affects academic level

B Parents have less time spent with their children

C Future health of British children

D Increasing speed of property’s development

23 What does Armstrong indicate in Paragraph B?

A We need to take a 10-minute walk every day

B We should do more activity to exercise heart

C Girls’ situation is better than boys

D Exercise can cure many diseases

24 What is the aim of First Kids’ training?

A Make profit by running several sessions

B Only concentrate on one activity for each child

C To guide parents on how to organise activities for children

D Spread the idea that team sport is better

25 What did Lifshitz suggest at the end of this passage?

A Create opportunities to exercise your body

B Taking an elevator saves your time

C Kids should spend more than 200 calories each day

D We should never drive but walk

26 What is the main idea of this passage?

The health of children who are overweight is at risk in the future

B Children in the UK need proper exercise

C Government mistaken approach for children

D Parents play the most important role in children’s activity

ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN ANSWERS

14. Answer: Paragraph A

Process to attempt the solution: Paragraph A indeed talks about the change in lifestyle affecting health and restrictions on children, so the correct answer is A.

15. Answer: Paragraph B

Process to attempt the solution: The same information is present in Paragraph B, where Professor Armstrong's research project results are discussed.

16. Answer: Paragraph C

Process to attempt the solution: Paragraph C discusses the findings from the European Union of Physical Education Associations, comparing the time devoted to physical education in the UK with other European countries

17. Answer: Paragraph D

Process to attempt the solution: Paragraph D discusses the approach to physical education in UK schools, noting a marked fall in time devoted to PE since the introduction of the national curriculum.

18. Answer: Not Given

Process to attempt the solution:: The passage in Paragraph B mentions that 48% of girls and 41% of boys exceeded safe cholesterol levels set by the American Heart Foundation. However, it does not explicitly state whether boys' cholesterol levels are higher than girls', so the answer is Not Given.

19. Answer: True

Process to attempt the solution:: Paragraph C discusses the comparison of physical education time between the UK and other European countries, stating that the UK ranks 13th out of 25 countries, with Irish children averaging under an hour a week for PE.

20. Answer: Not Given

Process to attempt the solution:: The passage does not provide information about the popularity of skipping in schools in the UK, so the answer is Not Given.

21. Answer: False

Process to attempt the solution:: The passage in Paragraph F mentions Fit Kids, not Healthy Kids, and it talks about cardiovascular exercise. There is no information about the first task being for parents to encourage their children to keep the same healthy body weight, so the answer is False.

22. Answer: C. Future health of British children

Process to attempt the solution:: In paragraph A, Professor Neil Armstrong expresses concern about the future health of British children due to the change in lifestyle, increased inactivity, and potential health problems for the future.

23. Answer: B. We should do more activity to exercise the heart

Process to attempt the solution:: In Paragraph B, Professor Armstrong mentions that the heart is a muscle that needs exercise to maintain its strength, emphasising the importance of physical activity for heart health.

24. Answer: C. To guide parents on how to organise activities for children

Process to attempt the solution:: In Paragraph F, Fit Kids trains parents to run fitness classes for children, indicating an aim to guide parents on organising activities for their children.

25. Answer: A. Create opportunities to exercise your body

Process to attempt the solution:: In the end of the passage, Lifshitz suggests incorporating more movement into a family's life, such as parking farther away from stores, taking stairs instead of the elevator, and walking to nearby friends' houses.

26. Answer: B. Children in the UK need proper exercise

Process to attempt the solution:: The passage discusses concerns about the change in lifestyle affecting the health of British children, the results of research on children's fitness, the state of physical education in the UK, and suggestions for promoting physical activity among children.

NOTE

The passage on children's activities focuses on the evolving lifestyle, with concerns about inactivity and health risks. In the context of IELTS Reading, practising with IELTS reading practice tests and online IELTS reading practice is crucial for understanding the information presented. The True/False/Not Given questions assess understanding of health-related details, exercise comparisons between countries, and the popularity of skipping in schools. Completion questions, integral for IELTS reading exam practice online, focus on Professor Armstrong's concerns, the purpose of Fit Kids' training, and Lifshitz's suggestion for promoting physical activity. Overall, the passage highlights the need for a balanced approach to children's physical education.

Mechanisms of Linguistic Change

A The changes that have caused the most disagreement are those in pronunciation. We have various sources of evidence for the pronunciations of earlier times, such as the spellings, the treatment of words borrowed from other languages or borrowed by them, the descriptions of contemporary grammarians and spelling reformers, and the modern pronunciations in all the languages and dialects concerned From the middle of the sixteenth century, there are in England writers who attempt to describe the position of the speech-organs for the production of English phonemes, and who invent what are in effect systems of phonetic symbols. These various kinds of evidence, combined with a knowledge of the mechanisms of speech production, can often give us a very good idea of the pronunciation of an earlier age, though absolute certainty is never possible.

B When we study the pronunciation of a language over any period of a few generations or more, we find there are always large-scale regularities in the changes: for example, over a certain period of time, just about all the long [a:] vowels in a language may change into long [e:] vowels, or all the [b] consonants in a certain position (for example at the end of a word) may change into [p] consonants. Such regular changes are often called sound laws. There are no universal sound laws (even though sound laws often reflect universal tendencies), but simply particular sound laws for one given language (or dialect) at one given period

C It is also possible that fashion plays a part in the process of change. It certainly plays a part in the spread of change: one person imitates another, and people with the most prestige are most likely to be imitated, so that a change that takes place in one social group may be imitated (more or less accurately) by speakers in another group. When a social group goes up or down in the world, its pronunciation of Russian, which had formerly been considered desirable, became on the contrary an undesirable kind of accent to have, so people tried to disguise it. Some of the changes in accepted English pronunciation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have been shown to consist in the replacement of one style of pronunciation by another style already existing, and it is likely that such substitutions were a result of the great social changes of the period: the increased power and wealth of the middle classes, and their steady infiltration upwards into the ranks of the landed gentry, probably carried elements of middle-class pronunciation into upper-class speech.

D A less specific variant of the argument is that the imitation of children is imperfect: they copy their parents’ speech but never reproduce it exactly. This is true, but it is also true that such deviations from adult speech are usually corrected in later childhood. Perhaps it is more significant that even adults show a certain amount of random variation in their pronunciation of a given phoneme, even if the phonetic context is kept unchanged. This, however, cannot explain changes in pronunciation unless it can be shown that there is some systematic trend in the failures of imitation: if they are merely random deviations they will cancel one another out and there will be no net change in the language.

E One such force which is often invoked is the principle of ease or minimization of effort. The change from fussy to fuzzy would be an example of assimilation, which is a very common kind of change. Assimilation is the changing of a sound under the influence of a neighbouring one. For example, the word scant was once skamt, but the /m/ has been changed to /n/ under the influence of the following /t/. Greater efficiency has hereby been achieved, because /n/ and /t/ t/are articulated in the same place (with the tip of the tongue against the teeth ridge), whereas /m/ is articulated elsewhere (with the two lips). So the place of articulation of the nasal consonant has been changed to conform with that of the following plosive. A more recent example of the same kind of thing is the common pronunciation of football as football.

F Assimilation is not the only way in which we change our pronunciation in order to increase efficiency. It is very common for consonants to be lost at the end of a word: in Middle English, word-final [-n] was often lost in unstressed syllables, so that baken ‘to bake’ changed from [‘ba:kan] to [‘ba:k3], and later to [ba:k]. Consonant clusters are often simplified. At one time there was a [t] in words like castle and Christmas, and an initial [k] in words like knight and know. Sometimes a whole syllable is dropped out when two successive syllables begin with the same consonant (haplology): a recent example is temporary, which in Britain is often pronounced as if it were temporary.

Extracted from - IELTS Reading Practice Sets. Copyright © 2023 by IDP education, British Council and Cambridge English

MECHANISMS OF LINGUISTIC CHANGE QUESTIONS

Questions 27-30

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 24-27 on your answer sheet.

The pronunciation of living language undergo changes throughout thousands of years. Large scale regular Changes are usually called

27___________ . There are three reasons for these changes. Firstly, the influence of one language on another; when one person imitates another pronunciation(the most prestige’s), the imitation always partly involving factor of 28______________ . Secondly, the imitation of children from adults1 language sometimes are 29___________ , and may also contribute to this change if there are insignificant deviations tough later they may be corrected Finally, for those random variations in pronunciation, the deeper evidence lies in the 30______________or minimization of effort.

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 31-37 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true

FALSE if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

31 it is impossible for modern people to find pronunciation of words in an earlier age

32 The great change of language in Russian history is related to the rising status and fortune of middle classes.

33 All the children learn speeches from adults white they assume that certain language is difficult to imitate exactly.

34 Pronunciation with causal inaccuracy will not exert big influence on language changes.

35 The link of can be influenced being pronounced as ‘nf’

36 The [g] in gnat not being pronounced will not be spelt out in the future.

37 The sound of ‘temporary’ cannot wholly present its spelling.

Questions 38-40

Look at the following sentences and the list of statements below. Match each statement with the correct sentence, A-D.

Write the correct letter, A-D, in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet

A Since the speakers can pronounce it with less effort ______

B Assimilation of a sound under the influence of a neighbouring one ______

C It is a trend for changes in pronunciation in a large scale in a given period ______

D Because the speaker can pronounce [n] and [t] both in the same time ______

38 As a consequence, ‘b’ will be pronounced as ______

39 The pronunciation of [mt] changed to [nt] ______

40 The omit of ‘f in the sound of Christmas ______

MECHANISMS OF LINGUISTIC CHANGE ANSWERS

27. Answer: sound laws

Process to attempt the solution: This information is found in paragraph B, where it mentions large-scale regular changes often called sound laws.

28. Answer: fashion

Process to attempt the solution: This information is in paragraph C, where it discusses the influence of fashion in the spread of language change.

29. Answer: imperfect

Process to attempt the solution: This information is in paragraph D, where it talks about the imperfect imitation of children in reproducing adult speech.

30. Answer: principle of ease

Process to attempt the solution: This information is in paragraph E, where it mentions the principle of ease or minimization of effort as a force that contributes to changes in pronunciation.

31. Answer: FALSE

Process to attempt the solution: The passage mentions various sources of evidence, including spellings and descriptions of contemporary grammarians, that can provide a good idea of the pronunciation of an earlier age (paragraph A).

32 . Answer: FALSE

Process to attempt the solution:: The passage does not mention Russian history or its language changes in relation to the rising status and fortune of middle classes.

33 . Answer: NOT GIVEN

Process to attempt the solution:The passage talks about children copying their parents' speech but notes that deviations from adult speech are usually corrected in later childhood (paragraph D). However, it doesn't explicitly state that children assume certain languages are difficult to imitate exactly.

34. Answer: TRUE

Process to attempt the solution: The passage suggests that deviations from adult speech, even in pronunciation with causal inaccuracy, may contribute to language changes (paragraph D).

35. Answer: TRUE

Process to attempt the solution: The passage provides an example of assimilation, where the word 'can' is influenced by the following sound, resulting in 'nf' (paragraph E).

36. Answer: NOT GIVEN

Process to attempt the solution: The passage does not provide information about the future spelling of the [g] in 'gnat.'

37. Answer: TRUE

Process to attempt the solution: The passage mentions that 'temporary' in Britain is often pronounced as if it were 'temporary,' demonstrating a deviation from its spelling (paragraph F).

38 - C

39 - B

40 - A

Process to attempt the solution:

38. In sentence C, there is a mention of a possible part played by fashion in the process of change, which aligns with the consequence mentioned in statement C.

39. Sentence E discusses assimilation, the changing of a sound under the influence of a neighbouring one, which matches statement B about the pronunciation change from [mt] to [nt].

40. In sentence A, the mention of pronunciation changes due to less effort aligns with statement A about the omission of 'f in the sound of Christmas.

NOTE

The passage discusses in depth the linguistic change, focusing on pronunciation shifts. In terms of IELTS Reading, it shows the need for consistent IELTS reading practice through tests and online resources. Completion questions (27-30) cover sound laws, fashion's impact, children's imitation, and the ease principle. The True/False/Not Given section (31-37) tests the understanding of the candidates on various language change aspects. The matching section (38-40) links sentences to statements on ease of pronunciation changes.

TIPS AND TRICKS TO ANALYZE THE PASSAGES

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES