Practice Passage 01
Tea.
420 từ ·
12 câu hỏi.
01 · Tea — lịch sử & văn hoá
02 · Microchip — công nghệ
03 · Octopuses — khoa học
04 · Whistled Language — ngôn ngữ
Agenda · 90 minutes
Learning Objectives
IELTS Reading · Test Overview
Không có thời gian chuyển đáp án cuối giờ — phải điền thẳng vào answer sheet.
Two techniques · One comparison
How to Skim · 5 Steps
Sau 90 giây — bạn biết: chủ đề, số đoạn, mỗi đoạn nói gì, thái độ tác giả.
How to Scan · 4 Steps
Scan sai thường vì: (1) keyword quá chung, (2) dừng ở đáp án đầu tiên, (3) quên đoán paraphrase.
Topic Sentence · Câu chủ đề
Đọc bị động · đọc từng từ
Đọc hết đoạn · 45 giây.
Đọc chủ động · chỉ topic sentence
Đã nắm ý chính · 3 giây.
Topic sentence = đoạn này nói gì. Phần còn lại = chi tiết, ví dụ, trích dẫn — để sau khi cần scan.
Paraphrase Awareness
Câu hỏi
"Dutch traders first brought tea to Europe in…"
Bài đọc
"Dutch traders began importing small, expensive quantities from the East in 1610."
Câu hỏi
"Tea became a common drink during the Tang dynasty."
Bài đọc
"Tea drinking became a popular daily habit across China."
Câu hỏi
"The British imposed high duties on tea."
Bài đọc
"The government imposed heavy taxes on tea."
Nguyên tắc: khi scan, tìm ý, không tìm từ. Tên riêng & số là ngoại lệ.
Exam Sequence · 7 steps per passage
Practice Passage 01
Reading Passage 01 · A Short History of Tea
AThe history of tea begins in ancient China, where, according to legend, the emperor Shen Nong discovered the drink around 2737 BC. While he was boiling water in his garden, leaves from a nearby wild tree blew into his pot. The emperor, a well-known herbalist, decided to taste the resulting brew and was pleasantly surprised by its refreshing flavour.
BFor centuries, tea remained a closely guarded Chinese secret, used mainly as a traditional medicine. It was only during the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD) that tea drinking became a popular daily habit across China, and the first book devoted entirely to tea, The Classic of Tea, was written by a scholar named Lu Yu around 760 AD.
CTea arrived in Japan in the 9th century, brought back by Buddhist monks who had travelled to China to study. Over the following centuries, the Japanese developed their own careful ceremony around the drink, known as chanoyu, which is still practised today and emphasises harmony, respect, purity and tranquillity.
DEurope did not taste tea until the early 17th century. Dutch traders began importing small, expensive quantities from the East in 1610, and it quickly became a fashionable luxury in the royal courts of the Netherlands, France and Portugal. At this time, a single pound of tea could cost the equivalent of a worker's monthly wages.
EIn 1657, a London coffee-house owner named Thomas Garraway became the first person to sell tea to the British public. Within fifty years, tea had replaced ale as the country's most common everyday drink. The British government, noticing the profits, imposed heavy taxes on tea, which led to widespread smuggling and, indirectly, to the famous Boston Tea Party of 1773.
FToday, tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world, after water. Roughly three billion cups are drunk every day, and the plant is now grown in more than 50 countries, from Kenya to Sri Lanka. Scientists continue to study its health benefits — recent research suggests that regular tea drinkers have a lower risk of heart disease and certain cancers.
Exercise 1 · Skim — Matching Headings
Thời gian: 90 giây. Dùng topic sentence — không đọc lại.
Danh sách tiêu đề
Đáp án · đoạn → tiêu đề
Mẹo: mọi đáp án đều nằm ở câu đầu tiên của đoạn.
Exercise 2 · Scan — Short-answer Questions
Mục tiêu: dưới 10 giây mỗi câu. Lướt mắt — dừng đúng từ khoá.
Đáp án · keyword scan
Tất cả đáp án đều là tên hoặc số — dễ bắt khi scan.
Exercise 3 · Scan — Yes / No / Not Given
NO = bài nói ngược lại với câu hỏi.
NOT GIVEN = bài không đề cập — dù đúng hay sai ngoài đời.
YES = bài nói cùng ý, dù có paraphrase.
Q6 NO: bài nói Shen Nong đang đun nước trong vườn, lá bay vào nồi — không phải tìm thuốc.
Answer Walkthrough · Quote + paraphrase
"Dutch traders began importing small, expensive quantities from the East in 1610…"
Paraphrase: "first imported" = "began importing". Keyword scan: Dutch — tên riêng duy nhất.
"…the first book devoted entirely to tea…was written by a scholar named Lu Yu around 760 AD."
Paraphrase: "the subject of the first book" = "the first book devoted entirely to". 760 AD nằm trong Tang (618–907).
Bài đọc chỉ nói Lu Yu viết sách — không nói gì về bản dịch tiếng Nhật.
Bẫy: monks Nhật có sang Trung Quốc, nhưng đó là vế khác. Không có thông tin = NOT GIVEN.
"…a single pound of tea could cost the equivalent of a worker's monthly wages."
Bẫy: bài đọc nói giá trà rất đắt, nhưng không so sánh với cà phê. Không có đối chiếu = NOT GIVEN.
Exercise 4 · Summary Completion
Đáp án & quote
Summary đi theo thứ tự bài đọc — scan từ trên xuống, không nhảy.
Vocabulary & Collocations
Đừng học từ lẻ — học cả cụm. IELTS Reading kiểm tra khả năng nhận biết collocation.
Practice 01 · Score Recap
Practice Passage 02
Reading Passage 02 · The Quiet Revolution of the Microchip
AFew inventions have changed daily life as quietly as the microchip. Unlike the steam engine or the aeroplane, it produces no smoke and no noise, yet today it sits inside almost every car, washing machine and mobile phone. The first working microchip was built in 1958 by an American engineer named Jack Kilby, who worked for the electronics company Texas Instruments.
BKilby's breakthrough was to place several electronic components — transistors, resistors and capacitors — on a single piece of germanium, a silvery semiconductor. Before his invention, each component had to be wired together by hand, which was slow and prone to errors. A few months later, another engineer, Robert Noyce, independently developed a similar design using silicon, the material now used in nearly every modern chip.
CDuring the 1960s, the microchip was used almost exclusively by the military and the space programme. The Apollo Guidance Computer, which helped astronauts land on the Moon in 1969, relied on thousands of tiny integrated circuits. Each chip at the time cost roughly $1,000, making consumer use impossible.
DThe 1970s brought the chip into ordinary homes. In 1971, Intel released the first commercial microprocessor, the 4004, which contained 2,300 transistors and could perform 60,000 calculations per second. It was originally designed for a Japanese calculator company, but its flexibility meant it quickly found its way into cash registers, traffic lights and, by the end of the decade, personal computers.
EProgress has followed a famous prediction made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965. Moore observed that the number of transistors on a chip was doubling roughly every two years. This pattern, now known as Moore's Law, has held true for nearly six decades. A modern smartphone chip contains more than 15 billion transistors, each smaller than a virus.
FToday, the industry faces physical limits. Transistors are approaching the size of a single atom, and producing them requires factories worth more than $20 billion. Researchers explore alternatives such as quantum computing and 3-D chip design, but for now, silicon continues to power the quiet revolution.
Exercise 1 · Skim — Matching Headings
Thời gian: 90 giây. Chỉ cần topic sentence.
Danh sách tiêu đề
Đáp án · đoạn → tiêu đề
Đoạn B & E không có câu 1 là topic sentence lộ rõ — dùng từ riêng: "Kilby" / "Moore".
Exercise 2 · Multiple Choice
1. Đọc câu hỏi — gạch keyword.
2. Scan bài tìm keyword — đọc kỹ câu chứa nó.
3. Loại 2 đáp án sai rõ ràng.
4. So sánh 2 đáp án còn lại — chọn cái bám sát bài đọc.
Q4 bẫy: "six decades" có xuất hiện trong bài ("has held true for nearly six decades") — nhưng đó là thời gian Moore's Law đúng, không phải chu kỳ doubling.
Exercise 3 · Yes / No / Not Given
Q6: bài nói Noyce "independently developed" — tức là riêng biệt, không copy. Ngược nghĩa → NO.
Q8: bài chỉ nói Moore đã dự đoán. Không nói Intel trả tiền. → NG.
Q9: bài nói factories worth more than $20 billion ngày nay — hàm ý cao hơn xưa. → NO.
Exercise 4 · Short Answer
Đáp án · keyword scan
Số & tên riêng — scan thấy ngay. "2,300" là con số duy nhất theo sau "4004" trong bài.
Answer Walkthrough · Quote + paraphrase
"…another engineer, Robert Noyce, independently developed a similar design using silicon, the material now used in nearly every modern chip."
Bẫy: germanium xuất hiện trước silicon trong bài — nhưng là vật liệu đầu tiên, không phải hiện đại.
"During the 1960s, the microchip was used almost exclusively by the military and the space programme."
Paraphrase: "main users" = "used almost exclusively by". Topic sentence của đoạn C.
"…Robert Noyce, independently developed a similar design using silicon…"
Keyword trái nghĩa: "independently" = "không copy". Từ này luôn biến YES thành NO.
"…a famous prediction made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965."
Bẫy: Moore là co-founder của Intel (bài có nói) — nhưng không nói được Intel trả tiền để dự đoán. Không có = NG.
Vocabulary & Collocations
"Independently" là keyword chuyển nghĩa — xuất hiện rất nhiều trong bài khoa học & công nghệ.
Practice 02 · Score Recap
Bài công nghệ nhiều từ chuyên môn — nhưng câu hỏi không đòi hiểu chuyên môn, chỉ đòi scan đúng. Nếu < 8/12, tập trung vào Walkthrough (slide 26) trước khi sang bài 03.
Practice Passage 03
Reading Passage 03 · How Octopuses Solve Puzzles
AOctopuses are widely regarded as the most intelligent of all invertebrates. Despite having no bones, no central skeleton and a brain the size of a walnut, they can open jars, escape from locked tanks and recognise individual human keepers. Because they have no external features linking them to humans, studying their minds tells biologists a great deal about what intelligence itself actually is.
BA single octopus has around 500 million neurons — roughly the same number as a dog. Unusually, two-thirds of these neurons are located not in the brain but in the arms. Each of the eight arms can therefore act almost independently, tasting, gripping and exploring without direct instruction from the central brain. This distributed nervous system is unique in the animal kingdom.
CLaboratory experiments have revealed remarkable problem-solving skills. In one well-known 2011 study at the Seattle Aquarium, octopuses were given a clear plastic jar with a crab inside, sealed with a childproof lid. Most individuals worked out how to unscrew the lid within ten minutes, and one animal, nicknamed Billye, did so in under three.
DThey also appear to learn by watching others. Italian researchers placed two jars before an observer octopus — one red, one white. A trained octopus opened the red jar while the observer watched. When given the same choice the next day, the observer reliably chose red, suggesting a form of social learning previously thought impossible in a solitary animal.
EDespite these abilities, octopuses are short-lived. Most species survive only one to two years, which gives them very little time to learn. Biologists are puzzled by how such a brief life can produce such advanced cognition. One theory is that complex behaviour evolved as a defence: with soft bodies and many predators, the octopus had to outthink danger rather than outrun it.
FThe study of octopus intelligence now influences machine learning. Engineers at MIT have designed "soft robots" whose flexible arms contain small processors — a direct imitation of the octopus's distributed brain.
Exercise 1 · Skim — Matching Headings
Thời gian: 90 giây.
Danh sách tiêu đề
Đoạn → tiêu đề
Exercise 2 · Multiple Choice
Exercise 3 · Yes / No / Not Given
Exercise 4 · Short Answer
Câu trả lời
Vocabulary & Collocations
"Widely regarded as" xuất hiện ở rất nhiều bài khoa học IELTS — học thuộc.
Practice Passage 04
Reading Passage 04 · The Whistled Language of La Gomera
AOn the steep green island of La Gomera, shepherds have long spoken to each other without words. Instead of shouting across the deep ravines that divide the island, they whistle — producing a piercing sound that can carry for more than three kilometres. The language, called Silbo Gomero, is not a code: it is a full translation of Spanish into whistles.
BSilbo was developed by the island's original inhabitants before the Spanish arrived. Known as the Guanches, they reached La Gomera from North Africa around 2,000 years ago. When Spanish settlers arrived in the 15th century, the whistled language was adapted to Spanish sounds and passed down within families.
CIn technical terms, Silbo replaces Spanish vowels and consonants with two pitches and four interruptions. Because it carries across valleys far better than the human voice, it was once used to report births, funerals, fires and government announcements — even against the wind.
DBy the 1950s, the language had almost disappeared. Younger islanders moved to the cities or to Venezuela for work, and telephones made whistling across the ravines unnecessary. By 1980, fewer than 100 active speakers remained, most of them over sixty.
EIn 1999, the local government took a decisive step. Silbo Gomero was made a compulsory subject in every primary school on the island, with 30 minutes of instruction per week. All children under 18 now understand basic Silbo, though fluency still depends on practising with experienced older whistlers. In 2009, Silbo was added to UNESCO's list of cultural heritage.
FThe language has also attracted scientific interest. At the University of La Laguna, researchers showed that fluent Silbo speakers process whistles in the same brain region as ordinary spoken language — evidence that the human language system is remarkably flexible.
Exercise 1 · Skim — Matching Headings
Thời gian: 90 giây.
Danh sách tiêu đề
Đoạn → tiêu đề
Exercise 2 · Multiple Choice
Exercise 3 · Yes / No / Not Given
Exercise 4 · Short Answer
Câu trả lời
Vocabulary & Collocations
"Intangible cultural heritage" là collocation cố định — hay gặp trong bài về UNESCO.
Patterns across four passages
Key Takeaways
Weekly Plan · Homework
Bài sau · Lesson 02: True / False / Not Given — chuyên sâu