IELTS reading choosing a title is a crucial question type in the syllabus. This is not a common question type; therefore, it requires a lot of practice and training. First of all, this is not a type of matching heading or kind of task, so do not get confused. In this, you are required to choosing a title for the given passage. You can get more clarity when you practice with sample tests and understand the right strategy. In this blog, we will provide you with everything required for this question type, along with samples, so keep reading!
Table of Contents
Mostly choosing a title IELTS reading types of question comes in the last part of the section. The reason is that this task requires students to understand the intent of the whole text, and not just locate the solutions in part of the passage. In this question type, you may directly ask what is the appropriate heading for a particular paragraph or passage. Moreover, you will get a list of options, and you are required to choose the correct response.
In the IELTS reading questions, choosing a title is a very important question type that you may find difficult. Similar to other tasks, it has two types. Before appearing in the exam, it must be clear to all of the candidates so they do not find issues in solving the question. Let’s move ahead and identify its types for better clarity.
In this question type, you will be given a list of headings for a particular question. In this, you have to choose a suitable heading that summarizes the passage.
In the IELTS reading section, this is a part of the choosing a title type of question. Here, you will not get any supporting headings or a list of options to choose from. Besides, candidates have to write a suitable title that captures the main idea of the passage.
This section covers samples for the IELTS reading choosing a title type of question. You will read here two samples along with questions, answers, and explanations. Let’s move ahead and go through the sample test for better insights.
Reading Passage
Some years ago, when several theoretical physicists, principally Dirk Helbing and Boris Kerner of Stuttgart, Germany, began publishing papers on traffic flow in publications normally read by traffic engineers, they were clearly working outside their usual sphere of investigation. They had noticed that if they simulated the movement of vehicles on a highway, using the equations that describe how the molecules of a gas move, some very strange results emerged. Of course, vehicles do not behave exactly like gas molecules: for example, drivers try to avoid collisions by slowing down when they get too near another vehicle, whereas gas molecules have no such concern. However, the physicists modified the equations to take the differences into account, and the overall description of traffic as a flowing gas has proved to be a very good one; the moving-gas model of traffic reproduces many phenomena seen in real-world traffic.
The strangest thing that came out of these equations, however, was the implication that congestion can arise completely spontaneously; no external causes are necessary. Vehicles can be flowing freely along, at a density still well below what the road can handle, and then suddenly gel into a slow-moving ooze. Under the right conditions, a brief and local fluctuation in the speed or the distance between vehicles is all it takes to trigger a system-wide breakdown that persists for hours. In fact, the physicists’ analysis suggested such spontaneous breakdowns in traffic flow probably occur quite frequently on highways.
Though a decidedly unsettling discovery, this showed striking similarities to the phenomena popularized as ‘chaos theory. ’ This theory has arisen from the understanding that in any complex interacting system that is made of many parts, each part affects the others. Consequently, tiny variations in one part of a complex system can grow in huge but unpredictable ways. This type of dramatic change from one state to another is similar to what happens when a chemical substance changes from a vapor to a liquid. It often happens that water in a cloud remains as a gas even after its temperature and density have reached the point where it could condense into water droplets. However, if the vapor encounters a solid surface, even something as small as a speck of dust, condensation can take place and the transition from vapor to liquid finally occurs. Helbing and Kerner see traffic as a complex interacting system. They found that a small fluctuation in traffic density can act as the ‘speck of dust’ causing a sudden change from freely moving traffic to synchronized traffic, when vehicles in all lanes abruptly slow down and start moving at the same speed, making passing impossible.
The physicists have challenged proposals to set a maximum capacity for vehicles on highways. They argue that it may not be enough simply to limit the rate at which vehicles are allowed to enter a highway; rather, it may be necessary to time each vehicle’s entry onto a highway precisely to coincide with a temporary drop in the density of vehicles along the road. The aim of doing this would be to smooth out any possible fluctuations in the road conditions that can trigger a change in traffic behavior and result in congestion. They further suggest that preventing breakdowns in the flow of traffic could ultimately require implementing the radical idea that has been suggested from time to time: directly regulating the speed and spacing of individual cars along a highway with central computers and sensors that communicate with each car’s engine and brake controls.
However, research into traffic control is generally centered in civil engineering departments, and here, the theories of the physicists have been greeted with some skepticism. Civil engineers favor a practical approach to problems and believe traffic congestion is the result of poor road construction (two lanes becoming one lane or dangerous curves), which constricts the flow of traffic. Engineers questioned how well the physicists’ theoretical results relate to traffic in the real world. Indeed, some engineering researchers questioned whether elaborate chaos-theory interpretations are needed at all, since at least some of the traffic phenomena the physicists’ theories predicted seemed to be similar to observations that had been appearing in traffic engineering literature under other names for years, observations which had straightforward cause-and-effect explanations.
James Banks, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at San Diego State University in the US, suggested that a sudden slowdown in traffic may have less to do with chaos theory than with driver psychology. As traffic gets heavier and the passing lane gets more crowded, aggressive drivers move to other lanes to try to pass, which also tends to even out the speed between lanes. He also felt that another leveling force is that when a driver in a fast lane brakes a little to maintain a safe distance between vehicles, the shock wave travels back much more rapidly than it would in the other slower lanes because each following driver has to react more quickly. Consequently, as a road becomes congested, the faster-moving traffic is the first to slow down.
Question: Select the best title for this passage from the list of titles below (A-D).
A. Traffic Control
B. Chaos Theory
C. The Physics of Traffic Behaviour
D. The Flow of Traffic
Answer for Sample-1
Answer: C (the Physics of Traffic Behaviour)
Explanation: The correct answer to the question is the physics of traffic behaviour because here the author talks about traffic flow in Germany. The writer also expresses the movement of vehicles on a highway. Therefore, the main focus of the text is on the physics of traffic behaviour.
Reading Passage
If there was such a thing as a perfect food, eggs would be a contender. They’re readily available, easy to cook, affordable, and packed with protein. “The egg is meant to be something that has all the right ingredients to grow an organism, so obviously it’s very nutrient-dense,” says Christopher Blesso, associate professor of nutritional science at the University of Connecticut in the US.
Eating eggs alongside other food can help our bodies absorb more vitamins, too. For example, one study found that adding an egg to a salad can increase how much vitamin E we get from the salad. But for decades, eating eggs has also been controversial due to their high cholesterol content – which some studies have linked to an increased risk of heart disease. One egg yolk contains around 185 milligrams of cholesterol, which is more than half of the 300mg daily amount of cholesterol that the US dietary guidelines recommended until recently. Does that mean eggs, rather than being an ideal food, might actually be doing us harm?
Cholesterol, a yellowish fat produced in our liver and intestines, can be found in every one of our body’s cells. We normally think of it as “bad”. However, cholesterol is a crucial building block in our cell membranes. It is also needed for the body to make vitamin D and the hormones testosterone and oestrogen. We produce all the cholesterol we need on our own, but it’s also found in animal products we consume, including beef, prawns, and eggs, as well as cheese and butter. Cholesterol is transported around our body by lipoprotein molecules in the blood. Every person has a different combination of various types of lipoproteins, and our individual make-up plays a role in determining our risk of developing heart disease.
The discussion on the health effects of eggs has shifted partly because our bodies can compensate for the cholesterol we consume. “There are systems in place so that, for most people, dietary cholesterol isn’t a problem,” says Elizabeth Johnson, research associate professor of nutritional sciences at Tufts University in Boston, US. In a 2015 review of 40 studies, Johnson and a team of researchers couldn’t find any conclusive evidence on the relationship between dietary cholesterol and heart disease. “Humans have good regulation when consuming dietary cholesterol and will make less cholesterol themselves,” she says.
While researchers are a long way from understanding why eggs affect us differently, the vast majority of recent research suggests they pose no risk to our health and are much more likely to provide health benefits. Even so, having eggs for breakfast every day probably isn’t the healthiest option, either – at least as it’s recommended we have a varied diet rather than put all our eggs in one basket.
Question: Select the best title for this passage from the list of titles below (A-D).
A. The Truth About Eating Eggs
B. The Link Between Eggs and Cholesterol
C. How The Human Body Processes Eggs
D. The Negative Effects of Eggs on the Human Body
Answer for Sample- 2
Answer: A (The Truth About Eating Eggs)
Explanation: The correct answer to the question is the truth about eating eggs because here the author talks about eggs, which are considered as a perfect food. This food is easy to cook, affordable, and packed with protein. This was stated by Christopher Blesso, associate professor of nutritional science at the Connecticut University.
Here are some IELTS reading practice test examples given to you. You can refer to the following samples to prepare for your IELTS syllabus so that you can improve your reading skills in English.
Many test takers do not know the writing strategy to solve the IELTS reading choose a title type of questions. Therefore, we have provided you with some good strategies that you can follow in your test and successfully achieve your desired band scores.
To conclude, with the above information, we have discussed the IELTS reading choosing a title type of questions. We have also taken examples of reading passages and solved their questions based on choosing the title task. Hopefully, you have gotten an idea of how you need to perform and answer when you attempt the exam. Moreover, we would advise you to practice as much as possible if you really want to see your IELTS band score increase. We have also mentioned some examples so that you can rehearse for question types to master them.
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