Your English Test guide

Question 5

Question 4

Question 3

Which of these sentences are possible?

💻 NATIONAL ONLINE LEARNING DAY Today, 15 September, is National Online Learning Day, celebrating the opportunities that technology has created for people to learn wherever they happen to be. But nearly 50 years ago, learning English looked rather different... 📺 In 1977, the British sitcom Mind Your Language followed teacher Jeremy Brown and a classroom full of international students learning English in London. Some of the humour and national stereotypes haven't aged particularly well. But the programme's basic situation gives us an interesting language question. Mr. Brown taught English. His students studied English. And, hopefully, they learnt English. So why is today called National Online Learning Day, rather than National Online Teaching Day or National Online Study Day? Because learn, study and teach don't mean the same thing. 📚 STUDY means to spend time trying to gain knowledge or develop a skill. 🧠 LEARN means to gain that knowledge or skill. 👨‍🏫 TEACH means to help somebody else gain knowledge or develop a skill. And that creates an important distinction: I studied French for five years, but I never really learnt it. Perfectly possible! You did the studying. Unfortunately, the learning didn't necessarily follow. 😄 So, how well have you learnt the difference? 🤔 👇 Try the six questions below and see how you do! And finally, on National Online Learning Day, a personal thank you. Over the years, thousands of you have learnt with me online, through IELTSAAA.COM, here on Telegram, and through lessons and conversations on WhatsApp. Some of you have studied with me for months or even years. Others have dropped by with a question, taken a test, tried a lesson or simply asked for advice. Wherever you are in the world, and whatever you're studying English for, thank you for learning with me. Congratulations to everyone who has taken their learning online, whether with me or with one of the countless other teachers, courses and resources now available around the world. Keep studying. Keep learning. And keep moving forward. 🎓🌍💻 #NationalOnlineLearningDay #LearnEnglish #OnlineLearning #EnglishVocabulary #EnglishQuiz #IELTS #IELTSAAA

🥪 NATIONAL EAT A HOAGIE DAY😋 Today, September 14, is National Eat a Hoagie Day. 😋 But what exactly is a hoagie? If you’re from Philadelphia, the answer is obvious. It’s a large sandwich made with a long Italian roll, typically filled with meat, cheese and vegetables. But where on earth did the strange word hoagie come from? Nobody knows for certain, which makes its history perfect for a little IELTS Reading practice. 📖 IELTS READING: TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN Read the passage carefully. Then look at the six statements in the polls below and decide whether each one is: ✅ TRUE: the statement agrees with the information in the text. ❌ FALSE: the statement contradicts the information in the text. ❓ NOT GIVEN: the text does not give enough information to decide. How Did the Hoagie Get Its Name? In Philadelphia, one of the best-known local foods is the hoagie, a large sandwich traditionally made with a long Italian roll filled with meat, cheese and vegetables. Similar sandwiches have different names elsewhere in the United States, including submarine, grinder and hero. Although the hoagie is now strongly associated with Philadelphia, nobody can say with certainty where its unusual name came from. Several explanations have been proposed, and some have become part of local folklore. Perhaps the most famous theory takes us back to Hog Island, in southwest Philadelphia, where a huge shipyard employed many Italian Americans during the First World War. According to the story, workers brought large meat-and-cheese sandwiches to work for lunch and became known as “hoggies”, a name that was later transferred to the food. There is a problem, however. No known printed evidence from the First World War period connects hoagie with these sandwiches. The word seems to have appeared in the Philadelphia area only in the 1930s, considerably later than the Hog Island shipyard era. This gap has led historians to question what is otherwise an attractive explanation. Another theory concerns Al DePalma, a former musician who opened a Philadelphia sandwich shop in 1936. DePalma reportedly remembered seeing a friend eating an enormous sandwich years earlier and joking that someone would have to be a “hog” to finish it. When he later began selling similar sandwiches, he called them “hoggies”. According to this account, the pronunciation and spelling gradually changed to hoagie. Other explanations have also been suggested. Italian street-food sellers in Philadelphia were once called “hokey-pokey men”, and some believe hoagie developed from that expression. There is even a theory connecting the spelling with the American songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. None of these explanations has been conclusively proved. However, the earlier spelling hoggie, recorded from around 1936, and the later form hoagie, which appeared around 1945, have encouraged the idea that the word may originally have had some connection with hog. Whatever the true origin of its name, the sandwich itself became an important part of Philadelphia culture. Once an inexpensive Italian-American food, the hoagie became so closely identified with the city that in 1992 the mayor of Philadelphia officially declared it the city’s “official sandwich”. 👇 Now look at the six statements below. For each one, choose: TRUE • FALSE • NOT GIVEN Remember: NOT GIVEN does not mean that you think the statement is probably false. It means the information you need simply isn’t in the text. #IELTS #IELTSReading #TrueFalseNotGiven #LearnEnglish