Hi guys, this is Fiona from IELTS with Fiona and this week it's half term in the Members Academy.
So if you're a member and you're listening, I'm setting you this for homework.
This is a section three reading from the general training test, but it's very much like an academic part one or even part two.
It's actually quite difficult.
And it has three sets of questions that I know you don't like very much.
So it's a really good one to practice.
The first set of questions is a list of headings.
Then you've got multiple choice and then you've got completing sentence endings.
The text itself does work like an academic book text structure, where you have one researcher here.
She's called Rublak and she's researched how feathers were used as decoration in European history.
Now you'd expect that to be just about feathers, but actually it presents the reading as a new kind of research method, and that actually comes back in the last paragraph.
It's interesting.
I was expecting something different in the last paragraph, but it says that all of this, the whole reading that we've just done, shows a sea change in methodologies.
Historians now chart the ways in which our identities are shaped through deep connections with stuff, the material objects that are parts of our lives.
So it's a different way of researching history, i guess through the things that we wear.
Normally, you'd research history through events, I guess, and politics.
But this article is more about the things that we wear.
And it does have a chronological structure.
It does talk about.
Well, it starts in the 16th century.
In 1500 they didn't used to wear feathers for decoration, but gradually it became fashionable and then it went out of fashion.
So the reading charts that history and it looks at why it was fashionable and why it was used and what areas particularly used feathers.
And it also reminds me a lot of just the topic of clothes.
So we did this in a speaking class the other day and we really tried to brainstorm words that were related to clothes.
And a lot of them come up here, even things like fads.
A fad is a fashion that kind of just comes and goes very quickly.
And things like the word dyeing to dye clothes d y e came up before in another reading all about purple that's on my website if you just go in the search bar it's about the man who invented the color purple and it's all about that dye and here it's a key word you need to know that word to answer one of the questions so Again, it shows us that everything that we do in IELTS, whether it's speaking or other readings, or even I'm going to show you today some pronunciation work.
Like the one we practiced was the verb to wear.
And we practiced the third form.
So wear, wore, worn.
And we practiced, have you ever worn a suit?
Even the word suit came up as a pronunciation problem.
Many people often say sweet.
And we talked about it suits you and it fits you.
And when did you last wear formal clothes?
Things like that.
And it comes up a lot in this reading.
So it's a kind of way of recycling vocabulary.
When you read, you remember the vocabulary from the speaking and You question how do you pronounce where war worn and the passive tense here?
It was worn by soldiers, for example, in this text.
So the more you do, the more you'll revise what you've done before and it will trigger memories which will make your active vocabulary better in the speaking test.
And it will help you understand more in the listening and reading.
So let's go.
So the first set, as I said, was a list of headings.
Now, with headings, I often suggest that each heading has two parts.
One part is the type of information that you're looking for.
And another part is a keyword to help you find it in the text.
So, for example, here we've got a reason for the continued use of feathers by soldiers.
So you've got the two parts.
You're looking for a reason why they continued to use feathers.
And the key word would be soldiers.
So that's easy to find.
And another one here is an interesting relationship between the wearing of feathers and gender.
So the organising word is you're looking for a relationship, a link, a connection.
And then you've got the word gender.
So it's kind of easier to find.
You're looking for something about male, female associations.
It doesn't always work.
There's one here, feathers as protection and as a symbol of sophistication.
So we're just looking at how feathers could protect you and symbolise something.
There's another one.
He says the link between feathers and a wider international awareness.
So there you've got the organising word, a link.
You're looking for a link, a connection and then something related to international matters.
So we're looking for different countries and stuff like that.
There was one which i thought was an obvious answer, but it turned out to be a destructor.
So heading four says growing disapproval of the trapping of birds for their feathers.
Well, i immediately thought well, in a chronological text you can imagine that that would come later in the text.
You know, At the start people trapped birds for feathers.
They thought it was great.
And then later they realised that this was a little bit cruel.
And you can imagine that coming later in the text.
But actually, because this text is not so much about feathers and it's more about different research methods and this new research method that we talked about in the last paragraph.
That will give you the clue to the heading.
So as we started we talked about paragraph A.
It gives a little bit of background about the role feathers played in European military clothing.
It gives some examples, capital letters here, Italian army, British army, English civil war.
And it was an incredibly expressive accessory for men.
And this is really your first heading.
This is where gender comes in.
The answer for paragraph A is that interesting relationship between feathers and gender.
So the answer is seven or vii for section a um yeah, i think that's a little unusual because well, it's mentioned in the first part but it doesn't particularly say men i.
I don't like that one.
Actually, Normally I would say if it's just mentioned once, then it's not the heading.
But here we don't have any options, to be honest.
There's no other option that suits it.
So the first paragraph introduces that idea of military feather wearing for men.
And it introduces the professor Rue Black and how she wants to use this different type of research method.
Then paragraph b is where you get the history and notice it is throughout the paragraph.
So it says in the first line.
It says rublak spotted.
Something unusual started to happen with feathers during the 16th century and it goes through the how they became popular And the language here says a hundred years later they became an indispensable accessory.
Citizens started wearing hats with feathers from cranes and swallows.
And basically, that's it.
It's talking about the rise.
Featherworking became big business.
The word became and become and started business.
Shows that there's a development and that really gives us the answer.
Heading three a significant rise in the popularity of feathers.
That's a simple one.
Notice the language there taken from academic task one.
A significant rise in and the popularity.
The noun form of popular, the more formal form, is useful.
Then paragraph C, the title says why this happened will become clearer as Rublack's project develops.
Now, here's a trick.
I immediately thought that word why would lead to a reason, but they really spell it out.
They say it will become clearer, but not yet.
It talks about exploration.
And how the discovery of new lands in South America meant that they encountered more exotic birds.
And then they go on to talk about the link with new territories and exotic feathers representing the Americas.
So the whole message of that paragraph is the link between feathers and a wider international awareness, because they just had access to these exotic birds as they conquered more territories.
The early European colonists encountered exotic birds that could be captured, transported and kept with relative ease.
There is a trick here.
Europe experienced a sudden bird craze.
You might think that that was the rise in popularity of feathers, but actually that's talking about the rise in popularity of birds suddenly in the markets.
So that's a trick.
So we said section C is heading one, the link between feathers and wider international awareness.
Section D goes on to talk about not only did the powerful people wear feathers.
So in Section C, it talked about the ruling elites wore feathers to express their power and reach.
But now we get like ordinary people wearing feathers.
So they said that peasants and traders wore were wearing them and because of the health manuals of the era, they recommended people wear them to keep them safe from bad air and to keep you dry in the rain.
Gradually feathers came to indicate the wearer was healthy and civilised.
So we've got lots of things there about protecting people from bad air and from the rain and then to symbolise that the wearer was healthy and civilised.
That gives us a very easy answer.
It's answer six, feathers as protection and as a symbol of sophistication.
So sophistication I have on my list of keywords for IELTS.
Synonym is civilised or sophisticated and civilised.
It is a key word and it comes up often with the opposite word, which is primitive.
We often talk about primitive societies in IELTS.
So there's an easy answer for D.
Then we've got paragraph E, gradually this fashion wore off.
We've had that vocabulary before.
We had the novelty wore off, that phrasal verb.
Notice fine twos, phrasal verbs in formal writing.
It means that people just got bored of it.
By the mid 17th century, feathers were out of style.
Except for military costume.
And now, Rublak says, there may have been several reasons for this.
So this is where you get the keyword, the reasons why feathers were still worn in the military.
And that very easily gives us VIII or eight. a reason for the continued use of feathers by soldiers.
Finally, oh, and also, no, that's later, sorry.
Also paragraph F.
Finally, we talked about this whole article was really about research and how research was changing.
The methodologies were changing.
So that gives us V or five, a new approach to researching the past.
That comes from the keywords, a sea change in methodologies.
Historians now chart the ways our identities are shaped through connections with stuff.
And that's it.
That is the section about the headings.
And I think pretty straightforward in the end, apart from maybe paragraph A.
So now that we've read the text, it makes the other questions a little bit easier to find.
The next three questions are multiple choice.
And it tells us in section B.
What information is given about the use of feathers in the 16th century?
So look at the options.
Remember to discount two very obvious wrong ones and then examine the two similar answers.
So A, some were not real feathers, but imitations.
There's no mention of that.
Remember, they talked about dyeing the feathers, but not that they were not real.
So cross that one out.
B, they were sometimes coloured artificially.
Well, here's our answer.
Yes, they were dyed.
The answer is B. C, birds were specially bred for their feathers.
No mention.
Cross it out.
And D, there was some disapproval of their use for decoration.
Now, here's the trick.
It does say some people chose not to wear them.
And they were called the featherless or the unfeathered.
But it doesn't say why they chose not to wear them.
It doesn't say that they disapproved of their use.
Disapproved keyword.
We had this.
It's in the daily tips.
We talked about clothes that were frowned upon when we did the clothes topic.
We talked about frowned upon was a synonym for disapproved of.
So, for example, at work, maybe tattoos or jewelry or makeup could be disapproved, frowned upon.
And here we have that word again coming up as a key destructor.
Question 35 rublak.
This researcher suggests that the feather costume worn by duke frederick in 1599 so capital letters.
You go forward to paragraph c where it says In 1599, Duke Frederick of Württemberg held a display at his court at which he personally appeared wearing a costume covered in exotic feathers representing the Americas.
This was not just a symbol of power, but of cultural connectedness.
The message seems to be he was embracing the global in a duchy that was quite insular and territorial.
So the whole paragraph is about why he wore those feathers.
And here we've got the options.
A, a lack of sensitivity to American traditions.
Well no, it shows that he wanted to embrace that american traditions.
Be a rejection of the beliefs held by those around him?
No, no mention of that.
See a positive attitude towards the culture of the americas.
That is the answer.
It says us very said, tells us very clearly cultural connectedness, embracing the global And then D a wish to follow a fashion of the time.
And no, there's no mention of him following fashion.
It was done more for display and to represent the Americas.
So the answer is C, a positive attitude.
36, according to rue black, one reason why feathers survived in european military costume.
So remember we had this in paragraph e.
There are several reasons for this strange contradiction that they survived in military costume.
And she says, um that actually it was to make the army seem graceful and powerful.
Feathers became associated with the idea of an art of warfare.
So she says it was to aestheticize the military, to make it kind of more beautiful.
It's a key word, a tricky one.
Aesthetic reasons is to make, you know, why do you save or preserve old buildings?
It's for aesthetic reasons because they're beautiful.
And the answer is, let's have a look.
A, birds were seen as having religious significance.
That's not the answer, but it is a trick because it says, They are sometimes sacred.
B, feathers suggested certain qualities about military activities.
And yes, that's the answer, because it says, European soldiers saw the feathers as imparting noble passions, bravery and courage.
So those are the qualities.
And the two other ones you can cross out.
The power of feathers was feared by other cultures.
No, soldiers came to associate particular birds with warlike qualities.
No.
OK, last thing, and this is completing sentences.
It should be easy now.
And remember that the sentences will go in order.
The endings won't.
Those are mixed up.
But if you can find the first one and the last one, which is what I did, then I knew where to find the other ones.
So the first one was 37 hats decorated with long black feathers.
And that's in the first paragraph.
It's the first mention.
And it says the Italian army still wear a bunch of long black feathers in their hats.
That's all it says.
So we need to look at the options.
So we know that they still wear them.
So the tense could help us present tense, and indeed we have the only present tense in the options the black feathers are worn today by some soldiers.
Doesn't mention italian, but it says by some soldiers.
And again, the passive tense there will help you, the grammar will help you with that answer, because they are worn today, present tense.
Next, we're looking for 38 feathers from cranes and swallows.
So you just jump down a paragraph, paragraph b, and it says in prosperous trading centres, the citizens started wearing hats with feathers from cranes and swallows.
So that's all.
That's all it says in prosperous trading centres.
And the answer is they became popular decoration for urban dwellers in the 16th century.
So yes, paragraph B was all about the 16th century and the trading centres are the urban dwellers, the citizens of the prosperous trading centres.
So 38, answer is G.
39, feathers from exotic birds.
Well, The next paragraph C mentions exotic birds a lot.
I mean, there's a lot of information there, but it specifically talks about the Duke.
If you remember, 1599, the Duke wore exotic feathers representing the Americas.
So that gives us that they were used to create an outfit worn by a just one person, so that's him of high status.
So 39 is E. And 40 just says peacock feathers.
So peacock feathers comes in paragraph D. That is in order.
And what does it say?
It says, during the 1950s sorry 1550s Eleanor of Toledo had hats made from peacock feathers to keep her dry in the rain.
And we've had this in the multiple choice.
So they were used as protection from bad weather.
So the answer 40 is B. Quite an easy one there, I think, to end on.
All right.
So that was quite difficult, I think.
General training, part three, but very similar to an academic part one and two, even three, because it has that research academic element to it.
Quick review of some vocabulary.
So I've just put the.
OK, so I think I've talked about most of them.
There was civilized, sophisticated.
Aesthetic means to make it beautiful, look good.
Military garb, garb, G-A-R-B. is another word for clothing.
And that's it, I think.
The others I've talked about as I went through it.
OK, so I don't have that on my website because it's not my copyright, but the title is Feathers as Decoration in European History.
And I'm sure if you Google it, you'll find it.
It will be in the Members Academy.
So if you're interested in joining the Academy, remember you get a full year's access to everything that I produce, not only all of the courses, but all of the new tips and a private blog that I produce during the year.
And you also get.
If you're just buying a course, one small course, then you'll still get all of the bonuses, plus the live QA meeting session, which the next one is on November the 5th, which is a face to face in a sense.
It's not just a webinar.
It's you join the meeting on Zoom and it's a kind of lesson and questions and answers and particular problems that you're having.
We discuss that and you get the notes and everything else is included.
So let me know if you've got any questions about it.
Leave me a message.
There are different options, but either you get the full coaching programme, where you get all of my feedback and the live classes, or you just buy a course, and You can buy one course at a time.
So you could do like the writing course this month and the reading course next month.
So that makes it kind of easier.
Just do one by one, but you'll still get access to everything and me for a whole year.
So let me know if you've got any questions.
Looking forward to working with you and I will see you next week.
Thanks for listening.
Bye bye.
