Hi guys, this is Fiona from IELTS with Fiona and the website is ieltsetc.com.
IELTS ETC stands for Exam Training Courses because I provide a wide variety of courses covering every aspect of the IELTS test.
And the lesson we're going to do today is a general training reading.
I think general training gets neglected a bit and people don't realise that I've got lots of courses for general training, especially my letter writing course, which is a 28 day course.
And there's a special reading course as well.
Because remember, the only thing that's different is the task one letter and the reading.
Maybe part one and part two are different from the academic test.
But apart from that, everything is the same.
So everything that you do in the Members Academy will help you with your band score.
So the listening, for example, there's a 28 day course for that.
There's the task two writing and all of the private blog articles and the feedback lessons.
That's all included and useful for general training.
I get so many students ask me, do you know of a good general training course?
Because they assume that I don't do it, but I do.
And we've got sometimes 50-50 in the members academy.
So I try to make sure that general training students get the same treatment as my academic students.
But I know there tend to be more things online for academic IELTS, so I've got tons of stuff for general training and today's lesson is a section three general training.
I'm making a video of this at the same time, so if I refer to it it's because it's on the video as well, which will be available in the members academy.
But no worries if you can't see the video.
I'm going to go through this.
It's called The History of Women's Football in Britain.
I thought this was a good time to do this reading, although I wish I had done it two weeks ago, when England won the European Cup.
I think the Euros
Yes, and this is really quite a remarkable article.
It's really interesting and tells us about how popular women's football was in the 1920s, until it was banned.
There were tens of thousands of people who went to the stadiums to watch women's football, and then it just disappeared.
Until about 1966, when UEFA.
Well, we'll talk about that in the reading.
I don't want to tell you too much.
You might already know a little bit about the history.
But if you're watching this, I'm going to take you through the first set of questions, which are multiple choice.
And you can see it on the screen in front of you, because I did this myself and I thought my technique or my strategy was slightly different from normal.
I didn't read all the questions.
I just looked at the first one and I thought, well, this is easy.
Question 28. the first paragraph so I'm gonna go to the first paragraph and the keyword is in 18th century Scotland so what do you do there's no point reading anything else you just go to the first paragraph and you find find 18th century Scotland there it's it stands out because of that number look at the paragraph what did it say about 18th century It says single women played an annual match against their married counterparts.
That's interesting.
Single against married.
Though the motives behind the contest were not purely sporting.
Some accounts say that the games were watched by a crowd of single men who hoped to pick out a potential bride based on her footballing ability.
That's funny.
So we've got this scenario single against married and the men are watching, hoping to choose a bride.
So let's go back to the multiple choice.
And first one, remember, we cross out ones that we think are wrong.
First one says only unmarried women were allowed to play football.
Well, that's clearly wrong because, you know, this was married against single.
Women's football was more common than men's.
Well, immediately, no, doesn't mention that.
Women were sometimes forbidden to watch.
OK, immediately, no.
Skill at football might be considered when choosing a wife.
So here's our answer.
Very easy.
28D.
I moved on then to 29.
The writer says that Nettie J. Honeyball.
So we've got those capital letters and we assume it's in the second paragraph.
There it is.
Early pioneers included Nettie J. Honeyball, who founded the British Ladies Football Club.
So what do we know about her?
The question says she was unwilling to do something.
We've had that word willing a lot because it's a false friend.
It doesn't mean the same as want to.
So I've got a little blog on that on my website.
If you just search unwilling or willing, you'll find the difference between willing and want to anyway.
She was unwilling to do something.
And let's have a quick look.
It says Honeyball was an alias.
It wasn't her real name.
Why?
Like many of those women, she wasn't keen to publicise her involvement with a contact sport played on muddy fields.
She wasn't keen to publicise her involvement.
So let's see.
She was unwilling to, A, take an active part in team sports.
It doesn't exactly say that, but I'm going to come back to it.
Mix with people she considered lower class.
Well, no, it does mention class, but in the wrong context.
Let the people know of her involvement in football.
Here's the answer, isn't it?
Let people know.
Synonym is publicise.
Her involvement is the same word.
Unusual for them to do that, but it's correct.
So she didn't want to let the public know of her involvement.
And then that's correct is C. D. She didn't want to take a leadership role.
Well, we already know.
That she founded it.
It doesn't really mention the leadership role and it doesn't really say that she didn't want to actually play.
It just says she didn't want the public to know about her involvement.
So the answer is C.
The writer suggests that in Britain between 1895 and 1914.
OK, my goodness.
Sorry, this is a difficult one.
I had to check the answers.
I have to admit.
So you've got those two dates, 1895 and 1914.
Well, paragraph four starts with 1914.
So I'm assuming that we have to go back.
And look at the previous paragraph.
We've got 1895.
So this paragraph is the one that we're looking at.
The BLFC arranged games.
BLFC is the British Ladies Football Club.
OK, so the football club arranged games where money would be raised.
This attracted healthy numbers of supporters, though early newspaper reports were not generous.
One reporter suggested when the novelty has worn off.
This is what tricked me.
When the novelty has worn off.
Novelty is the feeling that it's new and exciting, but soon that novelty wears off.
When the novelty has worn off, I do not think women's football will attract the crowds.
And it says the crowds did drop off as the growing popularity of the men's game came to dominate.
In a country where women were not yet allowed to vote, it would take extraordinary circumstances for their efforts to to attract widespread attention.
Hmm, so when you look at it, it's the question says the writer suggests that in Britain.
So the question is, what does the writer suggest?
And the first answer was the one I chose first society was not yet ready for women's football, and it is the correct answer.
But Whenever they say the writer suggests, the answer isn't going to be really black and white.
It's more you're looking for, well, what's he suggesting by saying that?
And by saying I think how extraordinary it would be for women to play football to be accepted because they couldn't even vote, then that suggests that society was not ready for women's football.
Let's look at the other ones.
B, there were false reports.
Now, that's a trick word, false reports of the decline of women's football.
I thought that could be an answer because this man talks about the decline.
The crowds did drop off the decline.
But the report said the same thing, that the novelty will wear off and it will not attract the crowds.
So the newspaper reports were true, they were not false reports.
Um see, the media felt women's football should not be allowed.
No, that's not it.
And then d women's football mainly attracted people because it was unusual.
Now you see, that's where I got stuck, because this idea of unusual means it's a novelty and I'm not very happy with that one.
The answer is a society was not yet ready.
But you can see how tricky that's, a nasty trick that is.
Let's move on to after the first world war broke out.
So we're in the paragraph um, The next paragraph.
We've got the 1914 factory managers.
It says
So we're looking for something about factory managers.
And it says superiors.
OK, so it says.
With the outbreak of the First World War, many men leaving their jobs to join the army, women started to work in factories that's your first word, factories and they began to play games of football during their lunch breaks.
After some uncertainty, their superiors came to see these games as a means to boost morale, nice collocation and increase productivity.
Again, very nice collocations. ones that you can memorise for task two.
You boost morale and you increase productivity.
So they're positive things.
So what does it say?
Factory managers were unwilling to employ women.
Well, there's no mention of that.
Notice that word unwilling again.
Factory managers played in matches against female employees.
No mention of that.
Factory managers allowed extra time for their employees to play football.
Well, no, they played during their lunch breaks.
So, it's not C. And then D. Decided that women's football might have positive effects.
Yes, and...
They came to see these games as a means to boost morale and increase productivity.
So those are the positive effects.
And the answer for 31 is D. So that is your multiple choice set of questions.
The next set.
We're going to be jumping around a little bit because it's a matching activity and you know matching activity activities don't go in the order of the text.
So I have prepared this one on paper.
Let me just check.
OK, what did I do for this one?
Well, the first thing I did was to look at the list, the choices.
So there's a choice of A, B, C and D.
And they go in order of the text.
So if you look at the British Ladies Football Club, the BLFC, you can see that in paragraph one we talked about it was founded by this netty honeyball.
So the BLFC is all of the early things.
And then the second one, BLFC, is a ladies' team called the Dick Kerr team.
So Dick Kerr was the name of the factory in Preston in the north of England.
And let's talk about the Dick Kerr team, because this was founded by an office worker, Alfred Franklin, who watched them playing from his window And he spotted their talent.
So he got these factory workers into a team.
And then after the war ended, the team continued to draw large crowds.
And there's a mention of Lily Parr, who was a famous footballer there.
And then comes to 1921.
And again, crowds of 10,000s.
But the year ended in catastrophe for the women's game.
This is going to be important later.
The Football Association, this is choice C now.
So remember, there are four choices.
And this is the third choice, choice C, the Football Association or FA.
They didn't really like women playing football, so they stopped them.
They banned football. the women from playing football on any grounds any of the Football Association grounds and they wouldn't let any of its members be referees at women's games so basically the Football Association made it illegal for women to play football and also they claimed that the women Women weren't giving enough of their profits to charity and even though the men didn't need to give their profits to charity, this was what the FA used against the women and of course the women were outraged but there was nothing they could do.
Then last paragraph comes the UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations.
This is the fourth choice and it's just mentioned in the last paragraph.
And it says that they finally forced the FA to end restrictions in 1971.
But by this time, half a century of progress had been lost.
So those are the four things.
And remember when we talk about the chronological structure of a text, then it will really help you.
So we've got the early football club, then the factory team, then the FA comes along and bans it.
And then the UEFA allows them to play again in 1971.
So this will help you enormously.
If you look at question 32, it says, It felt threatened by the rise of women's football.
Well, there's only one that felt threatened by this, and it was the Football Association.
The ones who banned it.
And you can see it says driven by the fear.
So there's the threat driven by the fear that the women's game could affect Football League attendances.
So it felt threatened, so 32 is C, the Football Association.
33 now is an easy one for you.
It was established by a male office worker and this was the factory team we've got here.
Office worker Alfred Franklin set about forming a team, so synonym for establish forming.
34, it donated money from football matches to good causes.
Now, do you remember the British ladies football team in the first part, the paragraph three?
It says money would be raised for those in need.
It's quite a fixed expression, those in need.
Useful for task two writing.
Good causes, going to a good cause is a synonym for those in need.
So it's a useful vocabulary to know.
And that means 34 is A, the B, L, F, C.
35, an easy one for you now.
It called for the ending of the ban on women's football in Britain.
So, who wanted to end the ban?
It's in the last paragraph.
It's UEFA.
And synonyms is to end restrictions on women's football.
36, it was accused of being old-fashioned.
So...
Which one of those do you think was old-fashioned?
Well, of course it was the F.A.
Who accused them?
Well, the women, the Plymouth ladies, said that the FA was a hundred years behind the times, calling its decision purely sex prejudice.
So the answer is very easy there.
36 is C, the F.A., And then 37, it was led by a believer in women's rights.
Well, go back to the founder or the president of the BLFC, who was an ardent believer in equality between the sexes.
So 37 is D.
No, sorry.
Yeah.
37 is a the British ladies football club.
So those are pretty easy.
Not not many problems there.
Now, let's go to the final part.
The final part is a catastrophic is a gap fill.
And the title of the gap fill is a catastrophic.
Sorry, I'm just playing with the screen there.
Oh, that's better.
A catastrophic year for women's football.
So we know that year was 1921 and you can see that at the start of the gap fill.
Women's football teams were forbidden to use the.
Now this is tricky.
The something of the football association.
So you've got the Football Association, but what were they forbidden to use?
Well, it says it banned its members from allowing women's football to be played at its grounds.
So the possessive its means belonging to the F.A., And it's the grounds.
Obviously, the football playing fields, they are the grounds.
And you want one word, grounds.
They were not allowed to have football association members as.
So look for the football association members.
They forbade, past tense of forbid.
Some people pronounce it forbade. but they forbade, forbid, forbade, forbidden.
They forbade its members from acting as referees.
So, referees.
Be careful with the spelling, double E at the end, like interviewees and S, plural.
So, 39 is referees.
And the final thing remember that they accused the women of mismanaging the charity the, the profits, the funds.
Um, then it says female workers accused the fa of something against women.
So this time it was the women who accused the football association.
Remember, a hundred years behind the times, calling its decision purely sex prejudiced.
Now, there are two words there, but you're only allowed one.
So which one would it be?
Well, of course, the answer is prejudice.
That is question number 40.
And it's only one word.
Yes, prejudice against women.
Maybe you could guess it from that.
So that is it.
It is worth going and having a look at the text.
It's included in the Members Academy.
I hope you found that useful.
That is from Book 16 and it's Test 4, Section 3.
Remember, there's lots more of these in the Members Academy.
And there's also lots of general training, writing examples, models.
And now the new coaching lessons are available.
So do let me know if you have any questions.
Please share this episode with any of your friends that you think might find it useful.
Thanks for listening.
Bye for now.
Bye bye.
