Hi guys, this is Fiona from IELTS with Fiona.
And in this podcast we're going to do a reading passage two from the most recent Cambridge book, which is book 18.
It's called Forest Management in Pennsylvania, USA.
And one of my students said that she thought it was really easy and in fact, easier than part one.
But I think it's because she had the vocabulary that you need to understand this topic.
It's one of the topics I've got in my vocabulary course.
And so many of the words in the course came up and that's possibly why she found it easier.
But actually, I think it's quite easy too.
And I'm going to give you some easy tips to just get the answers as usual, really quickly. in 10 minutes even without reading in too much detail, honestly.
When you look at the subtitle, it's called How managing low quality wood for bioenergy can encourage sustainable forest management.
So that really sums up the whole of the reading.
It's all about how to manage low quality wood.
We'll find out about that in a minute.
For bioenergy, meaning burning it for energy.
And then to encourage sustainable forest management means so that the forests are sustainable.
It's those key IELTS topics, you know the environment and how can we have less impact on ecosystems and stuff like that.
That's what this is about.
And it's interesting because the structure of the reading is very much like an essay, like an IELTS essay.
I'll briefly go through the paragraphs.
The first one is just the background.
It questions what is the value of wood or trees?
And it explains that it's different for different people.
And just the first line tells you the whole paragraph.
It says a tree's value depends on several factors, including its species size form condition quality, function and accessibility.
That's paragraph a.
That's the background.
Then in paragraph b It introduces the problem.
The problem is when we're cutting down trees, or in Pennsylvania, they cut down these trees and it left a lot of kind of useless wood, low use wood.
They called them junk trees.
And so it caused lots of problems.
So that paragraph B is the problem.
Then comes the solution in paragraph c and they realized that they could use this low quality wood for energy, and it gives examples electricity lorries and cars and so on.
Now it gave the next three paragraphs, gave three different types of managing a forest in order to get the most out of them, and they've all got capital letters.
The first one's called a TSI cut, and that basically means that they cut down any poor quality trees or plant materials or invasive plants so that the larger trees can grow in a less crowded environment.
The second approach they call it is called the salvage cut.
Again, capital letters, easy to find and in this one they're saving the trees from disease and pests and pathogens.
So it talks about all the kind of insects that attack trees and how you can deal with them.
The final one, a shelterwood cut, talks about just leaving mature trees.
So it's a little bit different.
And that can bring two different harvests and money is spread out over a decade or more.
The profit that they get from this is more spread out.
So they don't cut them all down, basically.
And that's it.
And there's a final thought.
The final thought is we shouldn't just think about wood in terms of selling it.
We should think, of course, about how we can manage forests so it's good for wildlife.
It talks about habitats and rare species of trees and the diversity of a forest.
So it's a really important topic, one that you might know something about and that might help you with the questions.
Let's look.
First of all, the first set of questions is matching information, and I think now, just after that quick summary, you'll be able to get most of these.
There are three question types, and the second one is categorising, and it relies on those three paragraphs with capital letters.
Remember we said there are three approaches to managing a forest, and that is a whole set of questions.
So that tells us that this first set of questions will avoid those paragraphs, more or less.
Actually they are mostly in the first half, the first three paragraphs.
So, even though the statements are never in order and very often they are distributed throughout the text, in this case, what makes it nicer and easier is that they're mostly confined to that first half.
So the first statement is bad outcomes for a forest when people focus only on its financial reward.
So we're just looking for negative outcomes.
And where was that?
Well, it was in paragraph B.
Do you remember the first line said in the past, Pennsylvania landowners were only interested in the value of their trees as high quality timber.
And this led to the problem of junk trees.
So there's all this negative language, low economic value, more vulnerable, diseased, health issues.
All of that is in paragraph B. So it's quite easy to find.
15 asks for a reference to the aspects of any tree that contribute to its worth.
And remember the first line synonym for worth is value.
So it says a tree's value depends on several factors.
And then here are the aspects the species size form condition quality, function.
It's very obviously paragraph a, question 16 says mention of the potential use of wood to help run vehicles.
So remember paragraph c was all about burning that low quality wood for energy.
So if you look a little bit closer, the examples of energy it says liquid fuels like ethanol and gasoline for lorries and cars.
Lorries and cars, of course, are the vehicles.
I'm going to skip 17 just because that comes a bit later.
18 says an alternative name for trees that produce low use wood.
Now, whenever you see this looking for a name or a term, look for inverted commas.
And we've had that name junk trees. inverted commas in paragraph B so it was very easy to find.
17 just goes a bit further on, but again very easy to find because 17 says examples of insects that attack trees.
Now here's the key.
What is an insect that attacks trees or crops?
Maybe it's one of my top 10 words for IELTS and it's a pest, P-E-S-T.
So you would need to know that word to get this answer quickly.
In paragraph E, remember it said this salvage cut was a way of reducing pests and pathogens.
For example, and it gives a whole list of examples.
I've never heard of any of these insects.
So they don't expect you to know the insects.
There's a hemlock, woolly, adelgid.
I can't even pronounce it.
Asian longhorned beetle.
OK, maybe beetle I would know.
Emerald ash borer, gypsy moth.
You might know moth.
Well, those are all insects. that attack trees but you don't need to know them.
You need to know the word pests and that will help you quickly get that paragraph E.
So let's move on.
These are the three types of cuts.
If you can see the text in front of you, you'll spot the paragraphs D, E and F.
The first line introduces the cut the way they cut or cut the trees or manage the forest.
So, we have to match those types of cuts with their purpose.
So, I think pretty easy for you again now.
19 says to remove trees that are diseased.
Now, in paragraph E, we had the words pathogen.
Pathogen causes disease and it talked about removing them and to reduce the number of sick trees.
Sick is a synonym for diseased.
So 19, you can easily match that to the salvage cut in paragraph E.
20 says to generate income across a number of years.
To be honest, out of those three, only one of them mentions income.
And it's the last one.
Do you remember it said so that there are two harvests and money comes in over a decade or more?
That's generating income across a number of years.
And that's the shelterwood cut, which is C, but it's paragraph F, So do be careful when you're transferring these answers to your answer sheet.
It comes from paragraph F.
But you've got the choice of A, B or C, So make sure you write C And 19 was B And the last one 21.
To create a forest whose trees are close in age.
Well, that again is the Shelterwood Cut.
The third one, where it says all trees are at a similar point in their growth.
I think that's about the only one where you would have to read in a bit more detail to match that one.
The other ones are pretty much summarised by the first line or by a quick skim.
Finally, we've got a gap fill.
And again, we're left with one paragraph that hasn't been questioned yet.
Basically, it's the final paragraph, the final thought, paragraph G which, if you remember, we said like in an essay.
It makes us think a bit more that wood shouldn't just be for our profit.
It should be also for wildlife and the environment.
So we've got this final thought.
However, it is important to remember that that some retention of what many would classify as low-use wood is very important.
So the final paragraph tells us why we should keep some of this low-use wood.
We shouldn't just burn it all.
And there are five gapped sentences.
All of them can be easily found by the words in the sentences and they all go in exactly the same order as the information in the paragraph.
So, for example, 22 says some dead wood is removed to avoid the possibility of something.
So you look for dead wood.
Why is it removed?
And it says, dead wood removal for fire prevention.
So the answer, well, in the text is fire prevention, but you're only allowed one word.
So to avoid the possibility of, and the one word is fire, don't put s copy it exactly as you see it in the text 23.
Again, there's a little bit of kind of word order manipulation, paraphrasing here, but the the words are in the text.
It says something from the tops of cut trees can help improve soil quality.
So something which has been taken from the tops of trees that have been cut.
What is it?
In the text it says the tops of trees that have been cut down should be left on the site so that their nutrients cycle back into the soil.
There is possessive belongs to the top of the trees, so therefore the answer must be nutrients and plural s there as it is in the text.
Again, if you know this topic, you know about soil quality and recycling things, soil nutrients going back into the soil to enhance it, enrich it, fertilize it and so on.
It comes from the topic of farming.
24.
Some damaged trees should be left, because something again possessive, their something, provide habitats for a range of creatures.
So what provides habitats?
It says trees with many cavities are important habitats for insect predators.
So that's it.
It's their cavities.
You might not know that word, but if you follow the syntax, the word order in the sentence, you can just guess it.
We need a noun, we need a plural noun, And the only one there is trees with many cavities.
It is an irregular spelling in the sense that a singular cavity is with a Y.
So they do test that, but you just copy it.
Cavities, that's all.
Now, a little tip for you here with 25.
Some trees that are small, such as.
Now, such as is going to give you the answer straight away and you don't need to know what it means.
We're looking for a tree, an example of a tree.
Small trees, such as something, are a source of food for animals and insects.
And what does it say?
It says many species like hawthorn, Provide food for wildlife.
So, the synonym for such as is like.
And the answer is hawthorn.
H-A-W-T-H-O-R-N.
Doesn't matter if you don't know it.
Just follow the sentence word order and you will find the word you need because of the synonym, like such as finally, 26.
What kind of word do we need here?
It says any trees that are something should be left to grow.
So what kind of trees should be left to grow?
Probably looking for an adjective.
And it says, last line finally, rare species of trees should stay behind as they add to its structural diversity, and the synonym in the sentence is that they add to the variety of species in the forest.
You can hear all those typical IELTS words there diversity, variety coming in.
So the last one is rare, r-a-r-e.
So that is, or was quick and quite easy for a passage two.
If you'd like to see the full version of this, it's now available on my website in the Bronze Membership and it's also included in the Members Academy.
So you can see the text there and you can see all of my tips in a video format so that you can follow along as I go through them.
Also in the bronze membership, it's new on my website.
There's a place for comments.
So as soon as you join, you can comment and ask questions and I will answer them.
So let me know if you've got any requests, any readings or listenings that you'd like me to go through, and I'll put it in my next podcast.
Thank you very much for listening.
All the best with your IELTS test.
Chat soon.
Bye bye.
