Academic/General Training Module by Adam Smith First Published in 2015

1. What is a corpus? 
A) A type of large dictionary. 
B) A single written text. 
C) A tool for language analysis. 
2. Why was the BNC compiled? 
A) For the purpose of language teaching. 
B) To document written and spoken English from a particular period in time. 
C) To document the history of the English language. 
 

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 IELTS
 JOURNAL 
 
122 
Exercise 64: IELTS Reading: paragraph headings 
Read the following paragraph and choose the best heading.
‘Phonics’ refers to a method for teaching speakers of English to read and write 
that language. Young learners are taught to associate the sounds of spoken 
English with letters or groups of letters. For example, they might be taught that 
the sound /k/ can be represented by the spellings c, k, ck, ch, or q. Using 
phonics, the teacher shows the learners how to blend the sounds of letters 
together to produce approximate pronunciations of unknown words. Phonics is 
a widely used method of teaching children to read and decode words. Children 
begin learning to read using phonics usually around the age of 5 or 6. 
Questions: 
A) A new method for language learning 
B) How phonics benefits children in the UK 
C) Children learn to link sounds with spellings 
D) Children learn the rules of spelling 
 

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 IELTS
 JOURNAL 
 
123 
Exercise 65: Practice test 
Sample Academic Reading B: Questions
 
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14, which are based on Reading 
Passage 1. 
 
Investigating Children’s Language