Hi there.
This is Fiona from IELTS with Fiona and the Members Academy, and this week we're celebrating International Women's Day, so I created a whole lesson related to gender and how that pops up in the IELTS test.
If we focus only on women.
I've got lessons on actually how to pronounce it because it's on my 101 most mispronounced words list.
So plural is women and singular woman.
And this is important because it comes up a lot in the speaking test where you might get questions about the differences between men and women and their skills and things like that we'll go through in our podcast today.
So some of the key concepts related to this topic are gender stereotypes, role models, breaking down barriers, the pay gap equality, a patriarchal society.
If you go to my Instagram account and follow me there, you'll see a list of all these important words with their definitions and how to use them in a sentence.
So in the speaking part three, you might get questions like how have attitudes towards women in sport changed in recent years, and there are expressions here that you can use.
For example, societal expectations have shifted, attitudes have improved.
However, inequalities still exist and there is a long way to go.
All of those are on my Instagram post.
This also comes up in writing task two.
There's an example here about men and women having different strengths and weaknesses.
So again, there are some useful expressions you could use.
For example, many jobs were traditionally male or female.
And when you're talking about those stereotypes, you could say things like...
Men are often seen as being more something and then add the adjective.
Or society often discourages people from breaking gender roles.
And there's some advice on how you could end the task too.
People should be judged on their ability and experience, not stereotypes.
And you might want to mention the laws.
Now many countries have to protect against gender discrimination.
So I've quickly covered the speaking, the writing, but today we're going to look at a reading.
I've been through a few before.
There's the history of women's football.
There's a reading about the artist Georgia O'Keeffe.
And there's another one about the life and work of Marie Curie.
So these all relate to women breaking boundaries and being role models.
However, this one today is how the role of women is often forgotten in history, and the research that we're doing, we're finding more and more that women did a lot more than we thought.
And I actually found the original article on a website called The Conversation.
And the original article, the title is this.
We found lapis lazuli.
So lapis lazuli is like a blue kind of gem stone.
We found lapis lazuli hidden in ancient teeth, revealing the forgotten role of women in medieval arts.
Medieval meaning the Middle Ages, which is between 600 and 1500 AD.
So, as I mentioned earlier, this is really quite an unusual general training text because it does deal with a kind of mystery that they're trying to solve some theories they've used, how they're testing the theories, the evidence that they have and then the conclusion behind it.
You know what's the purpose of doing this research.
There's always some kind of conclusion and it maybe changes the way we think.
So it's really important and it's really useful for anybody doing academic IELTS too, because it's exactly what you'll need to do at university to find research articles, find evidence, question the evidence, come to conclusions.
So let's get started.
Here's a quick summary.
It's about a recent archaeological discovery which shows that women may have played a more important role in medieval art than people once thought.
Scientists found tiny particles of a valuable blue pigment called lapis lazuli in the teeth of medieval women buried in Germany.
This suggests they may have been artists who painted manuscripts.
The discovery shows that studying dental tartar can reveal surprising information about people's work and daily lives in the past.
So keyword there we will need is dental tartar.
I've googled this just to check with all you dentists out there.
So tartar is a kind of plaque which is usually yellow or brown and requires professional dental cleaning to remove.
Dental plaque is usually colourless and it's a kind of bacteria on your teeth and that also causes problems.
And so those two words, dental plaque and tartar, are used a lot in this reading.
Don't worry, you don't need to know them.
I else will always explain any difficult words.
It actually says tartar, which is a mineralized dental plaque.
And anyway, you can guess it from the context.
But if you need some help on my notes, I've got visuals there which might just help you understand understand the text a bit better.
So there are three sets of questions.
There's multiple choice, then there's matching information, so finding the information in the paragraph, and then the final one is gap fill.
It is a part three, general training, by the way, so it is the most difficult text.
Just a quick run through of the text in terms of its structure.
So the first paragraph A introduces what we've just said, what's it all about.
Paragraph B goes into more detail about what Tata is and why it's important for this research.
Then C talks about previous research, which focused only on what people ate, but never really on what was in their mouths.
So, for example, it says, when dental plaque hardens and becomes tartar, it can hold particles and molecules for hundreds or thousands of years, potentially even millions.
Then paragraph C looks at previous research, which usually focused on what people ate and not really on the teeth.
In D it brings in a specific example of this woman that was found in Germany who had blue particles on her teeth her teeth or in the tartar on her teeth and then they analyzed them in paragraph e and discovered this was actually lapis lazuli, which was more precious than gold and probably came from afghanistan.
Then, paragraph F here comes the question how did these bits of material of lapis lazuli end up on the woman's teeth?
And there are lots of theories there.
Then in G, the most likely the theory they think is actually true is that the woman was a painter, and when she put the brush in her mouth just to wet it, then the lapis lazuli got stuck in her mouth.
And then the conclusion is then that we could also use this method to find other facts that we didn't know before.
So that's a quick summary of each paragraph.
Let's look now at the questions.
So question 28 tells you to go to paragraph A.
In paragraph A, what does the writer say about the archaeology team's work?
The choices are...
It confirmed what they had assumed when they started it.
Well, you can discount this, because the first line says they unexpectedly found evidence of the involvement of medieval women in the production of manuscripts.
So it was unexpected.
They didn't think this before.
B it was hard to persuade other historians about the findings.
Well, there's no mention of that.
C it could reveal the importance of various women in history, and that is the answer it says.
They strongly suggest it will be possible to increase the profile of ancient female artists by analysing their teeth.
So that is the answer.
It's C. There is an option D, but we don't need it.
Question 29 tells us to jump now to paragraph C.
Then the question is what point does the writer make about dental tartar in paragraph C?
So the options are archaeologists could make more use of it than they do at present.
That sounds right, doesn't it?
B some particles are more easily trapped in it than others no.
C the environment can cause it to break down.
No, we know, it can last for millions of years.
And then D again, you can exclude.
Changes in diet have influenced its composition.
No.
So the answer is A, archaeologists could make more use of it than they do at present.
And it's in the last line in paragraph C.
The value of tartar as evidence has not so far been much exploited.
Exploited means to use better or more.
Question 30 moves on to the skeleton of the woman, and that skeleton was given a number, so it's really easy to find this paragraph.
It's paragraph d and the question is what did the skeleton of b78 suggest about her?
So you jump to paragraph d.
What does the skeleton tell us?
And when you read specifically that about the skeleton, it says her skeletal remains.
That's, the skeleton had not indicated anything particular about her life besides a general indication that she probably did not do any hard labour.
That's it.
We just know she probably didn't do any physically hard labour.
And that gives you the answer B. Her life had not been very physically demanding.
We don't know any of the other options about her age.
We don't know about how she was buried.
We don't know.
So just ignore them.
And the answer for 30 is B.
Now 31, I think it's tricky.
It's paragraph F.
The question says, what is the writer doing in paragraph F?
So I don't like these questions.
They're quite general.
They're more academic related.
What is the purpose of the paragraph?
So the paragraph starts, how did this lapis lazuli end up on this woman's teeth?
And the paragraph really tries to suggest and then reject theories and to agree really that the theory is that it was imported from Afghanistan specifically as a finished product for use by artists.
So the answer there is A.
It supports the view that the blue pigment was imported.
It doesn't explain why artists liked this blue pigment.
It doesn't compare artistic designs and it doesn't criticize other arguments.
I think that's the distractor.
It does mention other arguments.
It says it could have been accidentally eaten or it could have been taken as medicine.
It doesn't criticize them, it just mentions them.
So it supports this idea that it was imported for art.
Finally, number 32 what problem Does the writer highlight about medieval artists in paragraph G?
So paragraph G is the last paragraph, and here are the options a the poor facilities available to females in the profession.
B the small number of projects available to women.
C the difficulties locating their skeletal remains for study.
So it has to be D the lack of evidence for their contribution to books.
Now, this is artists in general, not just women, it says.
Artists are largely invisible in historic and archaeological records as they rarely signed their work.
And that's it.
So that's the answer.
That's the problem, the lack of evidence for their contribution to books.
So not easy, and We move on to matching information now.
You might be able to find this more quickly because you've read the text for the multiple choice.
For question 33, we're looking for a length of time.
So a length of time that tartar can preserve particles from the air.
Well, the length of time is mentioned in paragraph B, where it talks about the properties of plaque and tartar.
And remember it said that it can hold these particles for hundreds or thousands, even millions of years.
So that is a length of time that it can preserve the particles.
Question 34 two reasons why the particles that the team found were unique.
Now, whenever it says two reasons i've given this tip before you look for things like a word, like both, both this and this it's often used in the gap fill, but here we've simply got firstly and secondly it's in paragraph d.
The blue particles were unlike any other discovery, so they were unique, Firstly because of their colour and secondly because of their number, because there were a lot of them.
So those are two reasons why these particles were unique.
Question 35.
Various examples of the types of particle that can be discovered in old teeth.
So in paragraph C it talks about how they used to look at what people ate for evidence, but it suggested that the mouth is a better place to look because it holds things like tree and grass pollen, cotton fibres, medicinal plants and even charcoal.
From this type of dental analysis
So that is paragraph C and 36, a suggestion that the blue pigment might have been used in medieval times to cure illness.
Now, remember there was that idea that it could have been used as a medicine and that's why it might have been in the woman's mouth, and that was in paragraph f.
A variety of reasons were possible, even the consumption of the powder as a medicine.
So the synonyms there, medicine is something used to cure illness.
And I've got a whole unit on my website about medicine, alternative medicines, exactly this.
So it does come up from time to time.
Finally, the last heading is lapis lazuli itself for the gap fill summary.
So you need to jump back to that paragraph where they talked about lapis lazuli.
It's in paragraph E and it says the blue specks were lazurite.
So the gap fill says in medieval times even something was not as valuable.
So we're looking for things like value.
You'd imagine gold, but it was actually more valuable than gold.
And that is the answer for 37.
Remember They do like to use these uncountable substances for gap fill in listening and reading.
So don't put S and only one word is allowed in this example.
The gap number 38.
Lapis lazuli could only be found in Afghanistan.
So that's a quick way to find.
Your place is a capital A, And a lot of something was needed to make the pigment from the stone.
A lot of something was needed.
And we just saw that the preparation took great skill.
That is the answer.
No S. Again, skill uncountable.
The last two gap fills go on to talk about the artists using this blue pigment.
And it says, artists often had to make a something on their brushes using their mouth.
So imagine you're painting.
What would you use your mouth for? to change the shape of the brush.
And it says in the text this was an artist who repeatedly used her lips to make a fine point on the end of her brush.
So point is the answer there, and why?
In order to paint intricate detail on manuscripts.
So that is the final gap fill which enabled her to produce the fine features needed for something and books.
And the answer is manuscripts.
Don't worry if you don't know the word.
When you look at the text in that paragraph, there's really only one option.
So that is the reading.
If you'd like my notes, just go to the website.
You have to join to get the full lesson.
And that also includes all of the other things I mentioned, like a listening text and reading and a writing and a speaking model and all the vocab and quizzes and things.
That's in the website and online. the Members Academy site.
But here's a quick example of some useful vocabulary from this text.
So it talks a lot about research, scientists, data, methods, techniques, analysis, evidence.
The findings, it's all in this text.
It talks about the most likely explanation study discovering, investigating and challenging widespread assumptions.
So that's the academic language.
There's language related to archaeology, which we did in last week's podcast, talking about skeletons, skeletal remains, fossilised remains digging, excavating ruins and to bury a body or object.
Finally, there's a lot of vocabulary about gender roles representation, equality that comes up sorry, as a more general topic today.
Women's rights, equal pay.
We went through these a little bit at the start, breaking down barriers and um role models.
I guess inclusion Diversity, inclusivity all of those things are related to this text.
So it's a really good one to review for your topic of the week.
Alright, thanks very much for listening.
If you have any requests that you'd like me to cover on the podcast, then just drop me a line on social media or email or anything else.
Alright, thanks for listening again.
Good luck with your IELTS preparation.
Bye bye.
