Multiple choice questions are the main focus of this Reading lesson with a VERY difficult Academic Test (start with an easier one here if you prefer).
How to do IELTS Reading Multiple Choice questions
- Use the structure of the text to help you locate information (this is clearly a discussion-type structure, with a question and answer format)
- Work out where the Multiple Choice Questions start (capital letters like ‘King of Uruk’ will help you).
- Try to understand the question and answer it without looking at the options.
- Examine the text to find the information relating to each question (usually in the same order as the questions).
- Then look at the options.
- Cross out the 2 that are obviously wrong.
- This leaves you with 2 that look correct. One of them will be a trick.
- Learn to identify distractors.
- Pay attention to signals like ‘According to the writer’ – this suggests that you are looking for opinions rather than fact (see Q27).
- Try not to confuse the writer’s opinion with the opinions of the people he mentions.
- The answers are always in the synonyms.
How did writing begin?
Many theories, few answers
The Sumerians, an ancient people of the Middle East, had a story explaining the invention of writing more than 5,000 years ago. A messenger of the King of Uruk arrived at the court of a distant ruler so tired that he was unable to deliver the oral message. So the king set down the words of his next messages on a clay tablet. The retelling of this story at a recent conference at the University of Pennsylvania amused scholars. They smiled at the absurdity of a letter which the recipient would not have been able to read. They also doubted that the earliest writing was a direct rendering of speech. Writing more likely began as a separate, symbolic system of communication and only later merged with spoken language.
27. The researchers at the conference regarded the story of the King of Uruk as ridiculous because
A writing probably developed independently of speech.
B clay tablets had not been invented at that time.
C the distant ruler would have spoken another language.
D evidence of writing has been discovered from an earlier period.
They also doubted that the earliest writing was a direct rendering of speech. Writing more likely began as a separate, symbolic system of communication and only later merged with spoken language.
27. The researchers at the conference regarded the story of the King of Uruk as ridiculous because…
A – writing probably developed independently of speech.
(probably = more likely, developed = began, independently = separate, spoken language = speech)
Yet in the story the Sumerians, who lived in Mesopotamia, in what is now southern Iraq, seemed to understand writing’s transforming function. As Dr Holly Pittman, director of the University’s Center for Ancient Studies, observed, ‘writing arose out of the need to store and transmit information … over time and space’.
28 According to the writer, the story of the King of Uruk
A is a probable explanation of the origins of writing.
B proves that early writing had a different function to writing today.
C provides an example of symbolic writing.
D shows some awareness amongst Sumerians of the purpose of writing
Yet in the story, the Sumerians, who lived in Mesopotamia, in what is now southern Iraq, seemed to understand writing’s transforming function.
28 According to the writer, the story of the King of Uruk…
D shows some awareness amongst Sumerians of the purpose of writing
(understand = show awareness, the function = the purpose)
In exchanging interpretations and information, the scholars acknowledged that they still had no fully satisfying answers to the questions of how and why writing developed. Many favoured an explanation of writing’s origins in the visual arts, pictures becoming increasingly abstract and eventually representing spoken words.
Their views clashed with a widely held theory among archaeologists that writing developed from the pieces of clay that Sumerian accountants used as tokens to keep track of goods.
29 There was disagreement among the researchers at the conference about
A the area where writing began.
B the nature of early writing materials.
C the way writing began.
D the meaning of certain abstract images.
30 The opponents of the theory that writing developed from tokens believe that it
A grew out of accountancy.
B evolved from pictures.
C was initially intended as decoration.
D was unlikely to have been connected with commerce.
In exchanging interpretations and information, 29) the scholars acknowledged that they still had no fully satisfying answers to the questions of how and why writing developed. Many favoured an explanation of writing’s origins in the visual arts, pictures becoming increasingly abstract and eventually representing spoken words.
30) Their views clashed with a widely held theory among archaeologists that writing developed from the pieces of clay that Sumerian accountants used as tokens to keep track of goods.
29 There was disagreement among the researchers at the conference about…
C the way writing began.
(views clashed = there was disagreement, how and why writing developed = the way writing began)
30 The opponents of the theory that writing developed from tokens believe that it…
B evolved from pictures.
(There’s a nasty trick here. The second group think it was related to tokens for accounting. The opponents of this theory – the first group – think it came from pictures).
Learn more about IELTS Reading Question types on the official IELTS website.
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