IELTS Reading Practice: Google’s Self Drive Car

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This is a practice lesson for TFNG questions in IELTS reading.

Google’s Self Driving Car

google-car

Google has finally built its own car from scratch. And it looks similar to a gondola with wheels. The two-seater prototype vehicle is Google’s idea of what the modern automobile should look and feel like if you took the human out of the transportation equation and designed something solely to chauffeur passengers from point A to B.

The car — which was conceived and designed by Google, unlike the ones it previously modified — lacks many of the trappings of a normal car, and that includes three of the most essential parts. It has no steering wheel, no accelerator pedal and no brake pedal. The company that designed the world’s simplest home page also decided to lose the mirrors, the backseat, the glove compartment and the stereo. What’s left are lots of sensors, and a transplant of the self-driving software system Google has built to use on the Toyota Priuses and Lexus SUVs it has trained to drive on highways and city streets over the past five years.

Passage from recode.net

Questions 1-3

Decide if the statements below are true, false or not given according to the information in the passage above.

  1. The Italian gondola was used as a design model for the new car.
  2. The new car is aimed at transporting passengers from one place to another using a chauffeur.
  3. The new car has more features than the modern car.

 

Answers

Click below to reveal the answers

Answers
  1. Not Given
    1. There is no mention of what Google used as a  design model. It does mention that it likes like a gondola but not that this was a design model.  So, the answer is NG.
  2. False
    1. The answer comes from “designed something solely to chauffeur passengers from point A to B“. The questions says “The new car is aimed at transporting passengers from one place to another…” this part of the sentence is the same as the passage. The word “chauffer” in the passage is a verb = to transport. So, this part of the sentence is correct.
    2. However, the second part of the question sentence “using a chauffer” is wrong. In the question statement, the word “chauffeur” is a noun and it means a person who is paid to drive the car. The passage clearly contradicts this because the new car has no human driver. Therefore the answer is FALSE.
    3. This question is really testing your vocabulary. Do you know the difference between “chauffer” and “chauffeur” = one is a verb = transport / one is a noun = a person who is a paid driver
    4. A false answer means that part of the question statement is contradicted in the passage. The passage shows that it the statement is written incorrectly.
  3. NG
    1. The passage says that the new car doesn’t have many of the features of the modern car – steering wheel, mirror etc. The passage also says that the new car has many new features such as a lot of new sensors and new software. But the passage does not compare the number of features. The passage does not clearly state that the new car has more features than the modern car. There is plenty of information about the features but no clear comparison of the number of features. This means the answer is NG
    2. Always look out for comparison statements in TFNG questions.

 

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IELTS Yes No Not Given Reading Practice with Tips & Techniques

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Yes, No, Not Given IELTS Reading Questions – useful techniques and practice lessons to maximise your score and help you save time in your reading test. These questions are often difficult for people to tackle so learning the right way will help you score points.

See the key tips and practice lesson below.

IELTS Yes No Not Given Reading Tips & Techniques

Are YNNG questions the same as TFFN questions?

The difference is not in the question, it is in the reading passage. When the passage is about facts and information then the question type will be TFNG because these questions are about matching statements with information in the passage. But when the passage contains a writer’s opinion or claims, then the question type is YNNG because these questions are matching statements with what the writer thinks or believes as shown in the passage. To sum up:

TFNG = factual passage = matching statements with information

YNNG = an opinion passage = matching statements with a writer’s opinion/claims

You will approach these questions in the same way.

Understanding the YNNG Instructions

IELTS Yes No Not Given Reading Questions Instructions

What do these answer options mean?

YES means that the full meaning of the question statement can be found in the passage and the meanings are the same.

NO means that the full meaning of the question statement is actually wrong and the passage shows it is wrong/incorrect/opposite/contradicted.

NOT GIVEN means that the information in the question statement isn’t found in the passage so we can’t say if it is correct or incorrect information. The passage doesn’t give enough information to choose Yes or No.

Your written answer must be YES or NO or NOT GIVEN. You can write these words in capital letters or lower case. But you can’t write True instead of Yes. If the answer is Yes, but you write True, then your answer is wrong. Always pay attention to that – don’t lose valuable points.

How to Tackle Yes No Not Given Questions

All these tips and techniques can be applied to TFNG questions as well. Click here for TFNG Reading Practice

  1. The same as TFNG questions, the YNNG answers will appear in order in the passage. This means you will find the answer to question 2 after the answer to question 1. This is useful to know because it will save you time searching through the whole passage. You will know that the answer to question 4, comes between the answer to question 3 and 5.
  2. Take time reading the question.
    1. Notice keywords in the question
      1. words that will help you locate the answer in the passage.
      2. words that might challenge the answer – words that make a subtle difference to the meaning.
  3. Think about synonyms and paraphrases that could be used to describe the information given in the question statement. Synonyms are words that have the same or similar meaning. Paraphrasing is writing the same information in a different way. Be prepared for both in the reading passage.
  4. Paraphrases and synonyms will help you locate the answer in the passage.
  5. Scan the passage and pay attention to keywords and paraphrases from the question.
  6. When you find the area that the answer is located in, read around that area. Read the sentences before and after.
  7. Remember, you can highlight words in the passage to help you. In the computer test, right click on the mouse and an option to highlight will appear. In the paper test, circle or underline the words with your pencil.
  8. After reading the area where the answer is located in the passage, go back to the question and start comparing them for meaning.
  9. Do not try to match words only. IELTS reading is about deeper meaning.
  10. Your aim isn’t to understand the whole passage, but to locate answers and then analyse the deeper meaning of those few sentences relating to the question.
  11. Be careful of comparative questions. The comparisons need to be the same in the question and passage.
  12. Be careful of quantifiers, such as “all” and “some”. ALL means 100%, SOME means it is not 100%.

Now it’s time for you to try some Yes, No, Not Given questions in the passage below.

IELTS Yes No Not Given Reading Practice

YNNG Passage 1: Richard, the Lionheart

King Richard I of England is one of the most iconic kings of England, known as the Crusader King and also as Richard the Lionheart. He spent practically all his reign outside England fighting wars in the Middle East and France to the point that England must have seemed like a foreign, distant land to him. It seems strange to us today to consider a King of England so wholly detached from the country that he represented and ruled. To pay for his wars and crusades, he taxed the English so heavily that is caused widespread discontent amongst the populace. While it can be said that he was a peerless warrior in battle, he was a poor King of England. He has often been criticised not only for his neglect of England and the welfare of the common person, but also for squandering the lives of so many of his followers as they followed him into battles far from their homeland. And yet remarkably, many English people still remember him quite fondly as a chivalrous king who was the epitome of a knight with bravery and military skill.

Questions 1-8

Do the following statements match the views of the writer in the passage? Write Yes, No or Not Given as your answer.

  1. King Richard idolised fame.
  2. While King, Richard never resided in England.
  3. King Richard looked down on the English culture.
  4. Many English people did not agree with being taxed so much.
  5. He was a fighter beyond compare.
  6. The people who followed him into battle were common people from England.
  7. King Richard did not place much consideration on the value of a human life.
  8. King Richard is considered by all English people as a courageous knight.

Answers

Click below to reveal the answers.

Answers
  1. NOT GIVEN
  2. NO
    • He spent much of his reign outside England, but not all his reign.
  3. Not Given
    • The passage shows that Richard probably didn’t connect much with the English culture because he spent so much time abroad, it doesn’t give any information about whether he lacked respect (looked down on) the English culture.
  4. YES
    • the passage shows the population of England showed “widespread discontent” with the heavy taxes. “widespread” means many thought this, but not all.
  5. YES
    • peerless = beyond compare (there were no peers who were his equal)
  6. NOT GIVEN
    • the passage show King Richard did not care about the welfare of the common people. But we do not know who his followers were precisely.
  7. YES
    •  in the passage: “squandering the lives of so many of his followers” – meaning to waste people’s lives in battle.
  8. NO
    • The challenge with this question was the word “all” in the question and “many” in the passage.
Vocab Builder
  • reign = time in power / sovereignty
  • to tax heavily = to take a lot of money in tax
  • widespread discontent = many were not happy
  • the populace = people living in a particular country
  • peerless = unequalled / unrivalled
  • warrior = fighter / soldier
  • battle = war / conflict
  • squandering = to waste something in a foolish or reckless manner
  • the epitome of = the best possible example of

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I’ll upload another YNNG reading passage soon for you. All the best, Liz

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Origins of Bread: IELTS T F NG Reading Practice

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A reading practice for the IELTS T F NG questions  (true / false / not given). I’ve put some difficult questions in and also one easy question. I’m sure you can all spot the easy question 🙂 Good luck with the difficult questions 🙂

Here is a quick review of what each one means:

True = the statement matches the information in the passage

False = the statement contradicts the information in the passage

Not Given = the information is not found in the passage

Origins of Bread

Bread is the most widely consumed food in the world. Not only is it an important source of carbohydrates, it’s also small and easy to carry, which helps to explain why it has been part of our diet for thousands of years. In fact, recent scholarship suggests humans started baking bread around 30,000 years ago.

Prehistoric man had already been making gruel from water and grains, so it was a small jump to starting cooking this mixture into a solid bread form by frying it on stones. A 2010 study by the National Academy of Sciences discovered traces of starch (likely from the roots of cattails and ferns) in prehistoric mortar and pestle-like rocks. The roots would have been peeled and dried before they were ground into flour and mixed with water. Finally, the paste would be cooked on heated rocks.

Question 1-4

Which of the following statements are true, false or not given?

  1. Bread is eaten in all countries in the world.
  2. Bread contains carbohydrates.
  3. The first bread was made about 30,000 years ago.
  4. Bread was first made from gruel cooked in clay pots.

Answers

Click below to reveal the answers.

Answers

  1. Not Given (It states in the text that bread is widely eaten in the world but we are not given information that shows it is eaten in all countries. If bread is widely eaten, we still don’t know which countries eat it – possibly only 90% of countries eat it. All countries is not confirmed in the passage)
  2. True (did you spot the easy question?)
  3. True (This is a direct paraphrase of the statement in the passage)
  4. False (The passage says that bread was made from gruel and fried on stones)
Vocab Builder
  • consume food = eat food
  • carbohydrates = foods with sugars and starch (potatoes, bread, pasta etc)
  • gruel = porridge
  • traces = small amounts
  • peeled = had their skins removed
  • ground = crushed / pounded

All reading exercises on ieltsliz.com have been written by myself to help you prepare for your IELTS test.   

Liz

 

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