IELTS & TOEFL Reading: Write a suitable heading

ScottsEnglish

Can you read a paragraph and summarise what you have read in a few words?

If you read a 100-word paragraph, can you summarise what you have read in one, short phrase?  

A student planning to sit the IELTS or TOEFL should have the ability to do this.

To improve your reading ability, try the following:

1. Read the following paragraph in 20 seconds. 

2. When you have finished reading the paragraph, write down everything you remember about what you just read.

3. Go back to the paragraph and check what you wrote.

4. As you read the paragraph again, add to what you have written.

5. Finally, write a heading for the paragraph (see the comment box for our sample heading).

Okay?  Get a stop watch and set it for 20-30 seconds. Click 'show' when you are ready:

Chronobiologists are interested in what is known as the circadian rhythm. This is the complete cycle our bodies are naturally geared to undergo within a twenty-four hour day. Apart from sleeping at night and waking during the day, each cycle involves many other factors such as changes in blood pressure and body temperature. Not everyone has an identical circadian rhythm. ‘Night people’, for example, often describe how they find it very hard to operate during the morning, but become alert and focused by evening; the opposite, of course, being the case for 'morning people'. This is a benign variation within circadian rhythms known as a chronotype.

ScottsEnglish

Suggested heading (post your own ideas in the comments boxes below):

Defining 'Circadian Rhythm'