IELTS Mock Test 2024 June

PART 2

Thank you all for coming to my talk this evening. It’s nice to see so many people in the audience. For those of you who don’t know very much about ‘Connection’, let me start by giving you some background information about it.

‘Connection’ is a British organisation that facilitates homestays all over the globe. This organisation prides itself on matching tens of thousands of host families with guests every single year, allowing travellers to discover a country’s culture in a way like no other. Homestays are ideal for both travellers and homeowners, enabling inter-cultural exchanges and the development of life-long friendships, while providing travellers with often discounted accommodation costs, and host families with a steady income from the comfort of their own homes . The homestay experience is particularly popular with university exchange students looking for a more genuine insight into their country of choice, and an unrivalled opportunity to develop their language skills. The homestay experience is truly unique and once-in-a lifetime, and one that you will likely remember for the rest of your lives. It is important to note, however, that some people will find it difficult to adapt to the new country, with many enduring what is known as ‘culture shock’.

Connection’s advice for those suffering from culture shock, is to go out and make as many friends as possible, no matter how difficult you may find it . Friends are guaranteed to help you feel more integrated as part of the local society, and show you some great places to hang out. At first, it might seem extremely challenging to overcome the language barrier between you and your host family; however, you will find that you quickly overcome this and develop a very close and almost familial relationship. Many of our travellers have suggested that they have found discussing their hobbies and other interests with their host families is the best way to overcome any barriers , since you are more than likely to find something you share in common.

For example, you might find that you are both passionate about football, and end up playing in the local field every week. One of our guests undertaking a homestay in a rural area of the UK told us that she and her host now take a Tai Chi class together upon a hilltop at sunrise, calling the experience ‘absolutely breathtaking’. After the first few weeks, you will find your understanding of the people around you and their culture deepens by leaps and bounds , and you will soon become one of the locals. Our hosts, in over 140 countries, turn a location into a culture, time into experience and strangers into friends.

So how can you find out about applying for a homestay? The best way would be to visit Connection’s website, www.connection.com, and contact one of their friendly advisors for more information. Once you have confirmed your interest in the service, we would strongly advise that you remain in close contact with the registration office , which will send you several emails keeping you up-to-date with potential matches in your country of choice. Once registered, Connection will require you to send various documents, and will act as an intermediary between you and the host family prior to final confirmation and payment. During this stage, Connection will ask you to provide two photos, one for the host family, and the other for our own records . Please ensure that you sign the back of each photo.

Due to the nature of the service Connection provides, security is an absolute must, and they will ask you to send in photocopies of your passport, birth certificate, and a bank statement as confirmation of your identity . On receipt of these documents, the official process will begin and your bank account will be debited for the initial deposit of £200. If you haven’t received any acknowledgement confirming receipt of these documents from us within seven working days , please contact the main office. As I mentioned before, due to the nature of the organisation, Connection operates a meticulous screening process, and all applicants will undergo an interview in our head office in London , with exceptions made in extreme circumstances.

After your interview, it may take us several weeks to carry out the decision process, so please be patient with us. If you would like a fast-track service, please indicate this on your application and we will notify you of the additional charges. Finally, once we have come to a result about your application, you will receive a decision in the post . If you do not receive an offer of placement, we will refund your deposit within 7 working days.

PART 3

Professor: For next week, I’d like you to undertake a piece of research in preparation for writing your final essay. In order to gain top marks, you must include a range of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. Are there any questions?

Douglas: Yes, Professor, I have a question. We haven’t yet covered how to undertake this sort of research in much depth, and I’m a little unsure of what you want us to do. In telling us to include primary sources, do you mean you want us to design and distribute a questionnaire, analysing the results?

Professor: You could design a questionnaire, but you’ll soon find that distributing a questionnaire on such a large scale is somewhat troublesome. We couldn’t possibly expect you to do it effectively as an individual university student without the necessary resources. No, ideally I would like you to form one or two focus groups, and interview  them. This will provide you with a more qualitative approach. If your strengths lie in mathematics, please by all means take a more quantitative approach, but this will be more strenuous and time consuming, and isn’t entirely necessary for the purpose of this study.

Jane: Professor, you haven’t told us what our project is about. Do we get to choose our own topic based on the previous study?

Professor: No, I’m afraid not. This will be a strictly Australian study ; however, you can choose which angle you’d like to take, so long as it remains within the realm of anthropology. Does anyone have any questions specifically about the formation of the focus groups? I’ve had several emails about this, and I’d like to address it now.

Douglas: My study is related to growing up in Australia, and the question of nature versus nurture. I’ve gathered more than two hundred school children who would be happy to participate in a focus group. Do you think we’ll need to include that many participants in a focus group?

Professor: Blimey, Douglas, well done for finding that many willing children, but you definitely don’t need that many for the study you’re going to undertake. I’d say you need no more than five children per group, and no more than three groups, so fifteen children altogether. You definitely need to control the group size in order to generate a meaningful dialogue. 

Douglas: OK, if it’s useful, I’ll try and do it...

Professor: I appreciate your enthusiasm for the project, but there are plenty of different ways to gather data, and I’m sure that if you look hard enough, you’ll find someone who has conducted almost the exact same research in the past. My advice for you is don’t be too ambitious , and try to include as much information about various people or sectors.

Jane: For those who haven’t ever collected original data before, what do you suggest we do?

Professor: I would suggest that you read accounts from other people who have undertaken such research to see what advice they can give. I would also encourage you to read Chapter Eight in the course textbook, which should give you a good introduction to collecting data. Moreover, you should try to practice using the data table  provided in your course handbook. By now you should have read at least six or seven books giving quite detailed instruction on how to go about collecting data.

Douglas: Professor, I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m having trouble reading the books. I had a really big assignment for another course and I’ve been spending all my time on that . Jane, have you read all the books the professor mentioned?

Jane: Well, my trouble is getting hold of the books. I’ve been to the library several times, but all the books are out.

Professor: Sounds like you should have started borrowing books a bit earlier.

Jane: Yes, I should have. But I got several ones from my friend a couple of days ago. I just skimmed through them, and don’t remember a lot of the information.

Jane: But now let’s look at these things. We’ll need to start thinking about which ones we’ll definitely want to do for the project.

Douglas: Okay. The first one here is the final report.

Jane: If you like, we can work together on the research and data-collection side of the project, and doing the final write-up? 

Douglas: Cool. That sounds good. I’m not sure how much I’d be able to contribute considering I haven’t had a chance to read the course material. But I should be able to prepare some sheets and a list of questions that can be used during the focus group sessions.

Jane: That sounds appropriate. I think so too.

Douglas: Do you think we’ll need to write a letter to send to the participants, telling them the time and place for the interviews?

Jane: Positive. I can take care of that. 

Douglas: Well, that’s great.

Jane: I should also include a document for them to sign saying that they’re happy to be voice-recorded.

Douglas: Oh yes, of course. I forgot about the transcript. That’ll likely be a big job, so let’s do half each, I’ll do one of the groups and you can do the other. Okay?

Jane: Sounds like a plan!

PART 4

Good morning everyone! Today I’m going to talk about the graphical symbol. A graphic symbol is a written symbol that is used to represent speech, such as those used in the Greek alphabet. The term ‘graphic symbol’ encompasses anything from the logographs used in Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, to ancient Chinese pictograms. Early symbols were based on pictographs and ideograms before they were developed into logographic writing systems. These systems are still in use in some non-literate cultures in Africa, the Americas, and Oceania. Indeed, elements of pictography are still found in modern Chinese characters, and it is often an interesting exercise to trace the origins of some Chinese characters. Pictographs remain in common commercial  use today as signs, instructions, or statistical diagrams. Road signs and public toilet signs, and even flat-pack assembly instructions utilising pictures are considered pictographic.

Ancient graphic writing systems provide researchers with a wealth of knowledge  about past civilisations. In 1799, one of the most important historical discoveries was made by accident when members of Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt found a stone in Rosetta that exhibited three different scripts. The stone, now known as the Rosetta Stone, was studied in significant depth by scholars, and was first deciphered by Frenchman Jean-François Champollion in 1822. He was able to correctly determine the phonetic values of the symbols, and later research has confirmed his findings. In many of these symbols, lines are used to portray a multitude of meanings, and knowledge and understanding of these lines holds the key to comprehension of graphic writing systems.

A key moment in the history of communication was the invention of the camera obscura, or camera. Although the concept can be traced back to the fifth century
B.C. Chinese philosopher Mo Ti, the first photographic image was ultimately created in 1826 by Joseph Nicephore Niepce. Photography, as it was later known, enables researchers to piece together and better understand history. Today, photography forms a huge part of everyday life and most publications contain a vast number of photographs. Photography is used in advertising, and is now becoming a way to increase awareness of existing world issues. For example, animal welfare charities are increasingly using photography to advertise  animals that are at high risk of endangerment. Charity workers are sometimes flown to far-flung locations to document the suffering endured by high-risk animals in an attempt to raise human awareness of their consumption activities, and how they impact others. One recent high profile campaign was undertaken by attaching a camera to the foot of a bird, in order to obtain photographs of the animals in their natural habitats, and understand how often they come into contact with human waste. A soon-to-be-released documentary about the suffering of animals on Midway Island shows the full extent to which human consumption is harming animals thousands of miles away from us.

As photography continues to progress, with the use of drones now becoming somewhat commonplace, we should expect more and more objects to be included in the future, expanding the horizon of photography ever further. Indeed, the downward pressure on traditional media prices means that media companies are being forced to get creative on how to make a profit. Many have found that the answer to this lies in advertising, and companies are now willing to devote a large portion of their budgets to advertising in newspapers . By the same token, marketing has become an essential part of a company’s business model, often meaning the success or failure of a company. As a result, much time and money has been pumped into the development of effective branding, with attractive packaging playing a large role in this. However, many governments are now seen to be cracking down on marketing and packaging in an attempt to protect consumers from being misled. In particular, tobacco companies are now subject to ever increasing regulation. For example, in the United Kingdom, legislation is soon to pass preventing any form of branding or differentiation on cigarette packaging in efforts to curb the harmful effects of smoking.

Finally, one must not forget the fundamental role that graphic writing systems have had to play in mathematics . Graphs, icons, and diagrams often form the very basis of these branches of academia. Indeed, one needs to look no further than chemistry’s periodic table to see a perfect example of graphic writing systems in use today.