2017年5月25日雅思阅读机经整理.

考试日期：

2013年5月25日

Reading Passage 1

Title:

Research methods

Question types:

Short answer question (7)+ True/False/Not Given (6)

文章内容回顾

调查的方法有questionnaire, interview等几种方法，每个方法适合什么样的研究目的，各自的优缺点等。

相关英文原文阅读

It is vital you pick approach research methodologies and methods for your thesis - your research after all is what your whole dissertation will rest on.

Choosing qualitative or quantitative research methodologies

Your research will dictate the kinds of research methodologies you use to underpin your work and methods you use in order to collect data. If you wish to collect quantitative data you are probably measuring variables and verifying existing theories or hypotheses or questioning them. Data is often used to generate new hypotheses based on the results of data collected about different variables. One’s colleagues are often much happier about the ability to verify quantitative data as many people feel safe only with numbers and statistics.

However, often collections of statistics and number crunching are not the answer to understanding meanings, belis and experience, which are better understood through qualitative data. And quantitative data, it must be remembered, are also collected in accordance with certain research vehicles and underlying research questions. Even the production of numbers is guided by the kinds of questions asked of the subjects, so is essentially subjective, although it appears less so than qualitative research data.

Qualitative research

This is carried out when we wish to understand meanings, look at, describe and understand experience, ideas, belis and values, intangibles such as these. Example: an area of study that would benit from qualitative research would be that of students’ learning styles and approaches to study, which are described and understood subjectively by students.

Research methods in bri:

Look at the very bri outlines of different methods below. Consider which you intend using and whether you could also find it more usul to combine the quantitative with the qualitative. You will be familiar with many of these methods from your work and from MA, MSc or BA study already.

• Qualitative research methods include
• Quantitative research methods

Qualitative research methods

• Interviews

Interviews enable face to face discussion with human subjects. If you are going to use interviews you will have to decide whether you will take notes (distracting), tape the interview (accurate but time consuming) rely on your memory (foolish) or write in their answers (can lead to closed questioning for time’s sake). If you decide to interview you will need to draw up an interview schedule of questions which can be either closed or open questions, or a mixture of these. Closed questions tend to be used for asking for and receiving answers about fixed facts such as name, numbers, and so on. They do not require speculation and they tend to produce short answers. With closed questions you could even give your interviewees a small selection of possible answers from which to choose. If you do this you will be able to manage the data and quantify the responses quite easily. The Household Survey and Census ask closed questions, and often market researchers who stop you in the street do too. You might ask them to indicate how true for them a certain statement was felt to be, and this too can provide both a closed response, and one which can be quantified (30% of those asked said they never ate rice, while 45% said they did so regularly at least once a week... and so on).

The problem with closed questions is that they limit the response the interviewee can give and do not enable them to think deeply or test their real feelings or values.

If you ask open questions such as ‘what do you think about the increase in traffic?’ you could elicit an almost endless number of responses. This would give you a very good idea of the variety of ideas and feelings people have, it would enable them to think and talk for longer and so show their feelings and views more fully. But it is very difficult to quantify these results. You will find that you will need to read all the comments through and to categorise them after you have received them, or merely report them in their diversity and make general statements, or pick out particular comments if they seem to fit your purpose. If you decide to use interviews:

• Identify your sample.
• Draw up a set of questions that seem appropriate to what you need to find out.
• Do start with some basic closed questions (name etc.).
• Don&apost ask leading questions.
• Try them out with a colleague.
• Pilot them, then rine the questions so that they are genuinely engaged with your research object.
• Contact your interviewees and ask permission, explain the interview and its use.
• Carry out interviews and keep notes/tape.
• Transcribe.
• Thematically analyse results and relate these findings to others from your other research methods.

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Quantitative research methods:

• Questionnaires

Questionnaires often seem a logical and easy option as a way of collecting information from people. They are actually rather difficult to design and because of the frequency of their use in all contexts in the modern world, the response rate is nearly always going to be a problem (low) unless you have ways of making people complete them and hand them in on the spot (and this of course limits your sample, how long the questionnaire can be and the kinds of questions asked). As with interviews, you can decide to use closed or open questions, and can also offer respondents multiple choice questions from which to choose the statement which most nearly describes their response to a statement or item. Their layout is an art form in itself because in poorly laid out questionnaires respondents tend, for example, to repeat their ticking of boxes in the same pattern. If given a choice of response on a scale 1-5, they will usually opt for the middle point, and often tend to miss out subsections to questions. You need to take expert advice in setting up a questionnaire, ensure that all the information about the respondents which you need is included and filled in, and ensure that you actually get them returned. Expecting people to pay to return postal questionnaires is sheer folly, and drawing up a really lengthy questionnaire will also inhibit response rates. You will need to ensure that questions are clear, and that you have reliable ways of collecting and managing the data. Setting up a questionnaire that can be read by an optical mark reader is an excellent idea if you wish to collect large numbers of responses and analyse them statistically rather than reading each questionnaire and entering data manually.

You would find it usul to consult the range of full and excellent research books available. These will deal in much greater depth with the reasons for, processes of holding, and processes of analysing data from the variety of research methods available to you.

Developing and using a questionnaire - some tips

• Identify your research questions
• Identify your sample
• Draw up a list of appropriate questions and try them out with a colleague
• Pilot them
• Ensure questions are well laid out and it is clear how to &aposscore them&apos (tick, circle, delete)
• Ensure questions are not leading and confusing
• Code up the questionnaire so you can analyse it afterwards
• Gain permission to use questionnaires from your sample
• Ensure they put their names or numbers on so you can identify them but keep real names confidential
• Hand them out/post them with reply paid envelopes
• Ensure you collect in as many as possible
• Follow up if you get a small return
• Analyse statistically if possible and / or thematically

题型难度分析

第一篇的题型包括简答题和T/F/NG, 考生普遍反映难度不大，都是细节题，比较好定位。

题型技巧分析

在剑6, 7, 8三本书总共出现才2题的Short Answer Questions在剑9中陡增为17题，并且在剑9的TEST 1中的三篇文章都有考到。这种趋势对于我们广大考生来说是值得高兴的，因为Short Answer Questions这种题型本身属于比较容易得分的类型。但还需强调，越是简单的题，越是要细心和规范答题，总结以下几点提醒各位考生：

雅思阅读简答题解题技巧：

1、仔细阅读特殊疑问词：what why who where when, 这是所有雅思阅读简答题的解题关键之所在。

2、注意字数限定要求，一般这个部分都是大写的，用来提醒考生特别关注。

3、利用常识对可能的答案进行预测，这样找答案时能快速缩减范围

4、语法要求：注意名词单复数的更改

5、顺序性原则：题目的顺序与文章顺序保持一致

剑桥雅思推荐原文练习

剑9 Test 1 Passage 1

Reading Passage 2

Title:

Bird&aposs Intelligence

Question types:

Heading + Matching（鸟类的名称配对描述特征）

文章内容回顾

开头说之前人们一直认为只有人类是高智商的，现在发现猩猩甚至鸟都有智商，之后举了三种鸟的例子，说明鸟类的智商很高，examples of different species of birds&apos intelligence. 接下来讲鸟的生存环境残酷，鸟也有竞争，然后说脑子大的鸟更聪明，还有鸟的社会性。

相关英文原文阅读

Yet Hoelldobler and Wilson&aposs magnificent work for ant lovers, The Ants, describes a super colony of the ant Formica yessensison the Ishikari Coast of Hokkaido. This &aposmegalopolis&apos was reported to be composed of 360 million workers and a million queens living in 4,500 interconnected nests across a territory of 2.7 square kilometers. Such enduring and intricately meshed levels of technical achievement outstrip by far anything achieved by our distant ancestors. We hail as masterpieces the cave paintings in southern France and elsewhere, dating back some 20,000 years. Ant societies existed in something like their million years ago. Beside this, prehistoric man looks technologically primitive. Is this then some kind of intelligence, albeit of a different kind? Research conducted at Oxford, Sussex and Zorich Universities has shown that when desert ants return from a foraging trip, they navigate by integrating bearings and distances, which they continuously update in their heads. They combine the evidence of visual landmarks with a mental library of local directions, all within a framework which is consulted and updated. So ants can learn too. And in a twelve-year programme of work, Ryabko and Reznikova have found evidence that ants can transmit very complex messages. Scouts who had located food in a maze returned to mobilize of which the scout was removed in order to observe what her team might do. Often the foragers proceeded to the exact spot in the maze where the food had been. Elaborate precautions were taken to prevent the foraging team using odour clues. Discussion now centres on whether the route through the maze is communicated as a &aposlt- right&apos sequence of turns or as a &aposcompass bearing and distance&apos message

题型难度分析

这篇文章的难度比第一篇的难度高，除了HEADING之外，还有人名观点配对题，使得很多考生反应这篇文章的难度非常高。

题型技巧分析

标题配对题（List of headings）是雅思阅读中的一种重要题型，虽然最近考试中比重明显下降，但是还是算的上逢考必出的题型之一，虽然很多考生很反感这个题目，但是还是要作为重点考题去做准备。

解题思路：

1. 将例子所对应的选项及段落标号划去

2. 划出选项中的关键词及概念性名词

3. 浏览文章，抓住各段的主题句和核心词（尤其是反复出现的核心词），重点关注段落首句、第二句与末句

4. 与段落主题句同义或包含段落核心词的选项为正确答案

5. 侧重看段落中HOWEVER, BUT之后的句子，这样的句子往往是作者本段的真实意图。

6. 侧重看引号中的内容，逗号之间的忽略

剑桥雅思推荐原文练习

剑7 Test 3 Passage 1

Reading Passage 3

Title:

产品设计

Question types:

Matching（人名观点）4+SUMMARY（有选项）5+Multiple Choice 3

文章内容回顾

文章开始提到一些产品的特殊设计并没有减少药品误食，认为药品设计应该更针对家庭用途，而老人同样需要得到特殊考虑，最后提到政府机构应该多调查一些样品而不是专注一个公司的产品设计。

相关英文原文阅读

Designed to last

Could better design cure our throwaway culture?

Jonathan Chapman, a senior lecture at the University of Brighton, UK, is one of a new breed of &apossustainable designers&apos. Like many of us, they are concerned about the huge waste associated with Western consumer culture and the damage this does to the environment. Some, like Chapman, aim to create objects we will want to keep rather than discard. Others are working to create more ficient or durable consumer goods, or goods designed with recycling in mind. The waste entailed in our fleeting relationships with consumer durables is colossal.

Domestic power tools, such as electric drills, are a typical example of such waste. However much DIY* the purchaser plans to do, the truth is that these things are thrown away having been used, on average, for just ten minutes. Most will serve &aposconscience time&apos gathering dust on a shelf in the garage; people are reluctant to admin that they have wasted their money. However, the end is inevitable; thousands of years in landfill waste sites. In its design, manufacture, packaging, transportation and disposal, a power tool consumes many times its own weight in resources, all for a shorter active lifespan than that of the average small insect.

To understand why we have become so wastul, we should look to the underlying motivation of consumers. &aposPeople own things to give expression to who they are, and to show what group of people they feel they belong to,&apos Chapman says. In a world of mass production, however, that symbolism has lost much of its potency. For most of human history, people had an intimate relationship with objects they used or treasured. Often they made the objects themselves, or family members passed them on.

题型难度分析

本篇文章既有细节也有主旨，总体难度相对而言比较温和。考生纠结的还是matching题，含词库的summary及单选对考生来说威胁不大。

题型技巧分析

A. 人名观点配对一般考察的是某个人的言论、观点、评论、发现。这样，一般这个题的答案在文中就只有两个答案区：

1. 人名边上的引号里面的内容；

2. 人名+ think /say /claim /argue /believe /report /find /discover /insist /admit /report... + that从句。

B. 人名在文中一般以以下方式出现：

1. 全称(full name), 如：Brian Waldron

2. 名(first name), 不常见

3. 姓(surname), 如：Professor Smith

4. He/she（在同一段话中，该人再次出现时，用指示代词替代）

因此，建议考生去文中找人名时，应该将上述四种情况均考虑进去。再者，应该谨记在心的是：如果一个人名在一段话中出现N次，也只能算一次。如果一个人名在N段话中出现，就算N次。

C. 该题的答案遍布于全文，因此应该从文章的开头往后依次寻找人名。

D. 该题貌似是全篇文章的考察，其实考察的就是这些人所说的几句话。故应先从文中找人名，再去找答案。

剑桥雅思推荐原文练习

剑9 Test 2 Passage 2

考试趋势分析和备考指导：

此次考试中出现频率较高的是matching题，特别是人名观点搭配题，matching的比重增加也符合最近考试的趋势。对此，考生应对该题型引起足够的重视，特别是很多考生头疼的段落细节题，该题型虽然在这次考试中不是特别多，但是在12年及13年上半年的考试中都明显增加。

HEADING考的不多，只有一次。这一点也符合近期考试的规律。但是这个题型还是逢考必出，虽然比例不大，作为常态题型之一，考生还是不能忽视对这一题型的训练，特别是分数要求比较高的考生。

需要特别引起关注的是简答题比重的骤然增加，这一题型一直以来只是G类考试中的常态题型。但是剑9中突然出现17道题目，这之前的剑桥6-8这个题型几乎没有，所以考生应当对此格外重视，并充分利用剑九中的这17道题目，进行认真的练习。

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应对策略：考生要特别注意每一种题型的复习，切不可因侥幸心理忽视了某种题型技巧的复习，因为很有可能忽略的题型会成为考试中的主导题型。