0 00:00:08,630 --> 00:00:14,990 A common question type in the IELTS Reading Test is the short answer question. So what 1 00:00:14,990 --> 00:00:20,490 does this type of question involve? Let’s take a look at an example. 2 00:00:20,490 --> 00:00:26,610 With short answer questions, you need to read a part of a reading passage and answer using 3 00:00:26,610 --> 00:00:33,649 one, two or three words. In this example, the instructions tell you to write no more 4 00:00:33,649 --> 00:00:38,750 than three words. Don’t go over this word limit. 5 00:00:38,750 --> 00:00:44,320 You should only use words taken from the reading passage, exactly as they are in the reading 6 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:47,430 passage. 7 00:00:47,430 --> 00:00:52,580 You must spell the answer correctly and write the answer in the correct place on the answer 8 00:00:52,580 --> 00:00:58,560 sheet, like this. And make sure that you follow the instructions and don’t go over the word 9 00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:00,400 limit. 10 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:06,610 So let’s recap what we know about the short answer question format. As the name suggests, 11 00:01:06,610 --> 00:01:12,390 in this task you have to answer comprehension questions based on the text. The required 12 00:01:12,390 --> 00:01:18,229 answers are quite short, up to three words and/or a number. Check the instructions to 13 00:01:18,229 --> 00:01:25,130 see exactly how many you can write. Once you’ve found the answers, you write them on the answer 14 00:01:25,130 --> 00:01:28,810 sheet, being careful to spell the answer correctly. 15 00:01:28,810 --> 00:01:35,859 Let's look at the example task again. The text is about antimatter, a concept in physics. 16 00:01:35,859 --> 00:01:42,920 Look at the first question: 'Who first predicted antimatter?' What are the keywords? Well, 17 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:48,509 ‘who’ is important because it tells us what type of information to look for, and 18 00:01:48,509 --> 00:01:54,459 ‘first’ is important too, and so is ‘predicted’. 19 00:01:54,459 --> 00:02:00,799 So now let’s try to find the answer in the text. The questions are in text order so we 20 00:02:00,799 --> 00:02:06,729 are expecting to find the answer to this first question near the beginning of the text. So 21 00:02:06,729 --> 00:02:12,349 here in the text we can see here some words that are the same or similar to the keywords 22 00:02:12,349 --> 00:02:19,670 in the question: ‘first’ and ‘possibility’ and we can see the name of a person, Paul 23 00:02:19,670 --> 00:02:22,420 Dirac. 24 00:02:22,420 --> 00:02:28,810 So the answer is Paul Dirac. That’s two words, which is under the word limit. And 25 00:02:28,810 --> 00:02:35,840 I’ve copied the name accurately from the question paper. So, that answer is correct. 26 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:40,700 So now that I have described how to do short answer questions to you, why don’t you take 27 00:02:40,700 --> 00:02:46,280 some time to read over this summary. Then I’m sure you’re ready to do some practice 28 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:50,250 to help you build some more skills around answering these questions.