Strategies for approaching Classification questions - IELTS Reading

Một dạng câu hỏi mà thí sinh rất thường gặp trong bài thi IELTS Reading là dạng bài Classification hay Categorisation (matching name, matching date, matching tên các dự án hoặc nghiên cứu, etc) với từng statement tương ứng với nội dung trong bài đọc. Đây được xem như là một trong những dạng bài khó tương đương với dạng bài Matching Heading, do dạng câu hỏi này đòi hỏi thí sinh phải có kỹ năng đọc hiểu được lời trích thoại của tác giả trong bài đọc để nối với statement có ý nghĩa tương ứng.

What is Classification in IELTS Reading

Một số lưu ý:

• Các câu hỏi không được sắp xếp theo trình tự của bài đọc.

• Mỗi lựa chọn (tên nhà nghiên cứu, thời gian) có thể xuất hiện nhiều hơn 1 lần trong bài.

• Mỗi lựa chọn (tên nhà nghiên cứu, thời gian) có thể được lựa chọn 2 lần.

• Đáp án sẽ không chắc theo thứ tự, có nghĩa là đáp án câu 1 trong bài đọc chưa chắc nằm trước câu 2. 

Various types of Classification questions

Match names, dates with corresponding statements or events

Đối với loại câu hỏi này, thí sinh được yêu cầu đối chiếu và nối tên các nhà nghiên cứu tương ứng với những phát ngôn (statements) của họ. Đây được xem là loại câu hỏi dễ trong dạng Classification nên thí sinh có thể ưu tiên làm loại câu hỏi này trước.

Dưới đây là một ví dụ mẫu (Cambridge IELTS 13 Reading Test 1)

Completing missing clauses in the given statement 

Khác với loại câu hỏi nối tên, dạng câu hỏi này khó hơn và đỏi hòi thí sinh phải định vị được statement cho trước nằm ở đoạn nào trong bài đọc, để có thể nối tiếp vế còn lại đang thiếu.

Dưới đây là một ví dụ mẫu (Cambridge IELTS 13 Reading Test 1)

Challenges in tackling Classification questions and their remedies

Candidates may struggle to identify the positions of statement information in the reading passage

• Lý do: Điều này là bởi vì, mỗi lựa chọn (tên nhà nghiên cứu, thời gian) có thể được lặp đi lặp lại nhiều lần trong bài đọc, và hơn thế nữa vị trí các statement trong phần câu hỏi được sắp xếp lộn xộn với nhau, Điều này làm thí sinh dễ bối rối và do dự khi lựa chọn đáp án đúng. 

Ví dụ: (Cambridge IELTS 9 Reading Test 4)

Bên cạnh đó, hầu hết các statements mà câu hỏi đưa ra đều thường bị paraphrase lại so với các từ khoá mà thí sinh tìm thấy trong bài đọc. Vì thế, việc bắt đầu tìm kiếm từ khoá từ các statements này có thể tốn rất nhiều thời gian của thí sinh.

• Giải pháp: Luôn bắt đầu từ danh sách các lựa chọn (tên riêng, ngày tháng sự kiện) trước. Vì đây được xem là những keywords khó thay thế, do đó nó sẽ được giữ nguyên trong bài đọc, từ đó thí sinh có thể dễ dàng định vị được vị trí của statements khớp với tên nhà khoa học.  

Candidates often confuse statements between scientist names or dates

• Lý do: Nhiều đoạn văn sẽ đề cập cùng lúc nhiều tên nhà khoa học cùng 1 lúc và liền nhau, điều này khiến cho thí sinh dễ bị do dự và nhẫm lẫn không biết phát ngôn nào là của nhà khoa học nào. 

• Giaỉ pháp: Thí sinh cần khoanh keywords trong các thông tin trong đoạn văn để nắm trước được đặc điểm nào liên quan tới tác giả nào. Và sau đó đối chiều liền với các statements trong câu hỏi để tránh bị lẫn lộn. 

Ví dụ: (Cambridge IELTS 9 Reading Test 4)

• Theo như Cooley tin - “people - sense of identity from the reactions of others to them” (mọi người có ý thức từ phản ứng của người khác đối với họ) 

• Còn về Mead tin rằng - “The self - arises in social experience” (cái tôi được dựng lên từ kinh nghiệm xã hội). 

=> Vậy thì, thí sinh có thể xác định được Cooley thì liên quan tới “phản ứng người khác”, còn Mead liên quan tới “kinh nghiệm xã hội”.

Steps for tackling Classification questions

Bước 2: Gạch chân các từ hoặc cụm từ khóa trong mục câu hỏi

Bước 3: Scan và so sánh đối chiếu các từ khóa với những từ khóa ở đoạn đã đánh dấu ở trên.

Để nắm kỹ được các bước làm bài dạng Classification, thí sinh có thể tham khảo bài ví dụ hướng dẫn chi tiết dưới đây:

Ví dụ:

Young children’s sense of identity

A. A sense of self develops in young children by degrees. The process can usefully be thought of in terms of the gradual emergence of two somewhat separate features: the self as a subject, and the self as an object. William James introduced the distinction in 1892, and contemporaries of his, such as Charles Cooley, added to the developing debate. Ever since then psychologists have continued building on the theory.

B. According to James, a child’s first step on the road to self-understanding can be seen as the recognition that he or she exists. This is an aspect of the self that he labeled ‘self-as-subject’, and he gave it various elements. These included an awareness of one’s own agency (i.e. one’s power to act), and an awareness of one’s distinctiveness from other people. These features gradually emerge as infants explore their world and interact with caregivers. Cooley (1902) suggested that a sense of the self-as-subject was primarily concerned with being able to exercise power. He proposed that the earliest examples of this are an infant’s attempts to control physical objects, such as toys or his or her own limbs. This is followed by attempts to affect the behavior of other people. For example, infants learn that when they cry or smile someone responds to them.

C. Another powerful source of information for infants about the effects they can have on the world around them is provided when others mimic them. Many parents spend a lot of time, particularly in the early months, copying their infant’s vocalizations and expressions. In addition, young children enjoy looking in mirrors, where the movements they can see are dependent upon their movements. This is not to say that infants recognize the reflection as their own image (a later development). However, Lewis and Brooks-Gunn (1979) suggest that infants’ developing understanding that the movements they see in the mirror are contingent on their own, leads to a growing awareness that they are distinct from other people. This is because they, and only they, can change the reflection in the mirror.

D. This understanding that children gain of themselves as active agents continues to develop in their attempts to co-operate with others in play. Dunn (1988) points out that it is in such day-to-day relationships and interactions that the child’s understanding of his or herself emerges. Empirical investigations of the self-as-subject in young children are, however, rather scarce because of difficulties of communication: even if young infants can reflect on their experience, they certainly cannot express this aspect of the self directly.

E. Once children have acquired a certain level of self-awareness, they begin to place themselves in a whole series of categories, which together play such an important part in defining them uniquely as themselves. This second step in the development of a full sense of self is what James called the ‘self-as-object’. This has been seen by many to be the aspect of the self which is most influenced by social elements, since it is made up of social roles (such as student, brother, colleague) and characteristics which derive their meaning from comparison or interaction with other people (such as trustworthiness, shyness, sporting ability).

F. Cooley and other researchers suggested a close connection between a person’s own understanding of their identity and other people’s understanding of it. Cooley believed that people build up their sense of identity from the reactions of others to them, and from the view they believe others have of them. He called the self-as-object the ‘looking-glass self’, since people come to see themselves as they are reflected in others. Mead (1934) went even further, and saw the self and the social world as inextricably bound together. ‘The self is essentially a social structure, and it arises in social experience … it is impossible to conceive of a self arising outside of social experience.

Look at the following findings and the list of researchers below. Match each finding with the correct researcher or researchers, A-D

1. A sense of identity can never be formed without relationships with other people.

2. A child’s awareness of self is related to a sense of mastery over things and people.

3. Observing their own reflection contributes to children’s self-awareness.

List of Researcher:

A. James

B. Cooley

C. Lewis and Brooks-Gunn

D. Mead

Practice Exercises

Gifted children and learning

A  Internationally, ‘giftedness’ is most frequently determined by a score on a general intelligence test, known as an IQ test, which is above a chosen cutoff point, usually at around the top 2-5%. Children’s educational environment contributes to the IQ score and the way intelligence is used. For example, a very close positive relationship was found when children’s IQ scores were compared with their home educational provision (Freeman, 2010). The higher the children’s IQ scores, especially over IQ 130, the better the quality of their educational backup, measured in terms of reported verbal interactions with parents, number of books and activities in their home etc. Because IQ tests are decidedly influenced by what the child has learned, they are to some extent measures of current achievement based on age-norms; that is, how well the children have learned to manipulate their knowledge and know-how within the terms of the test. The vocabulary aspect, for example, is dependent on having heard those words. But IQ tests can neither identify the processes of learning and thinking nor predict creativity.

B Excellence does not emerge without appropriate help. To reach an exceptionally high standard in any area very able children need the means to learn, which includes material to work with and focused challenging tuition -and the encouragement to follow their dream. There appears to be a qualitative difference in the way the intellectually highly able think, compared with more average-ability or older pupils, for whom external regulation by the teacher often compensates for lack of internal regulation. To be at their most effective in their self-regulation, all children can be helped to identify their own ways of learning – metacognition – which will include strategies of planning, monitoring, evaluation, and choice of what to learn. Emotional awareness is also part of metacognition, so children should be helped to be aware of their feelings around the area to be learned, feelings of curiosity or confidence, for example.

C High achievers have been found to use self-regulatory learning strategies more often and more effectively than lower achievers, and are better able to transfer these strategies to deal with unfamiliar tasks. This happens to such a high degree in some children that they appear to be demonstrating talent in particular areas. Overviewing research on the thinking process of highly able children, (Shore and Kanevsky, 1993) put the instructor’s problem succinctly: ‘If they [the gifted] merely think more quickly, then we need only teach more quickly. If they merely make fewer errors, then we can shorten the practice’. But of course, this is not entirely the case; adjustments have to be made in methods of learning and teaching, to take account of the many ways individuals think.

….

E But scientific progress is not all theoretical, knowledge is a so vital to outstanding performance: individuals who know a great deal about a specific domain will achieve at a higher level than those who do not (Elshout, 1995). Research with creative scientists by Simonton (1988) brought him to the conclusion that above a certain high level, characteristics such as independence seemed to contribute more to reach the highest levels of expertise than intellectual skills, due to the great demands of effort and time needed for learning and practice. Creativity in all forms can be seen as expertise se mixed with a high level of motivation (Weisberg, 1993).

F To sum up, learning is affected by the emotions of both the individual and significant others. Positive emotions facilitate the creative aspects of earning and negative emotions inhibit it. Fear, for example, can limit the development of curiosity, which is a strong force in scientific advance, because it motivates problem-solving behaviour. In Boekaerts’ (1991) review of emotion in the learning of very high IQ and highly achieving children, she found emotional forces in harness. They were not only curious but often had a strong desire to control their environment, improve their learning efficiency and increase their own learning resources.

Giải thích chi tiết

Bài 2: Trích từ  (Cambridge IELTS 13 Reading Test 1)

Why being bored is stimulating – and useful, too

A We all know how it feels – it’s impossible to keep your mind on anything, time stretches out, and all the things you could do seem equally unlikely to make you feel better. But defining boredom so that it can be studied in the lab has proved difficult. For a start, it can include a lot of other mental states, such as frustration, apathy, depression and indifference. There isn’t even agreement over whether boredom is always a low-energy, flat kind of emotion or whether feeling agitated and restless counts as boredom, too. In his book, Boredom: A Lively History, Peter Toohey at the University of Calgary, Canada, compares it to disgust – an emotion that motivates us to stay away from certain situations. ‘If disgust protects humans from infection, boredom may protect them from “infectious” social situations,’ he suggests.

B By asking people about their experiences of boredom, Thomas Goetz and his team at the University of Konstanz in Germany have recently identified five distinct types: indifferent, calibrating, searching, reactant and apathetic. These can be plotted on two axes – one running left to right, which measures low to high arousal, and the other from top to bottom, which measures how positive or negative the feeling is. Intriguingly, Goetz has found that while people experience all kinds of boredom, they tend to specialise in one. Of the five types, the most damaging is ‘reactant’ boredom with its explosive combination of high arousal and negative emotion. The most useful is what Goetz calls ‘indifferent’ boredom: someone isn’t engaged in anything satisfying but still feels relaxed and calm. However, it remains to be seen whether there are any character traits that predict the kind of boredom each of us might be prone to.

C Psychologist Sandi Mann at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, goes further. ‘All emotions are there for a reason, including boredom,’ she says. Mann has found that being bored makes us more creative. ‘We’re all afraid of being bored but in actual fact it can lead to all kinds of amazing things,’ she says. In experiments published last year, Mann found that people who had been made to feel bored by copying numbers out of the phone book for 15 minutes came up with more creative ideas about how to use a polystyrene cup than a control group. Mann concluded that a passive, boring activity is best for creativity because it allows the mind to wander. In fact, she goes so far as to suggest that we should seek out more boredom in our lives.

D Psychologist John Eastwood at York University in Toronto, Canada, isn’t convinced. ‘If you are in a state of mind-wandering you are not bored,’ he says. ‘In my view, by definition boredom is an undesirable state.’ That doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t adaptive, he adds. ‘Pain is adaptive – if we didn’t have physical pain, bad things would happen to us. Does that mean that we should actively cause pain? No. But even if boredom has evolved to help us survive, it can still be toxic if allowed to fester.’ For Eastwood, the central feature of boredom is a failure to put our ‘attention system’ into gear. This causes an inability to focus on anything, which makes time seem to go painfully slowly. What’s more, your efforts to improve the situation can end up making you feel worse. ‘People try to connect with the world and if they are not successful there’s that frustration and irritability,’ he says. Perhaps most worryingly, says Eastwood, repeatedly failing to engage attention can lead to state where we don’t know what to do any more, and no longer care.

E Eastwood’s team is now trying to explore why the attention system fails. It’s early days but they think that at least some of it comes down to personality. Boredom proneness has been linked with a variety of traits. People who are motivated by pleasure seem to suffer particularly badly. Other personality traits, such as curiosity, are associated with a high boredom threshold. More evidence that boredom has detrimental effects comes from studies of people who are more or less prone to boredom. It seems those who bore easily face poorer prospects in education, their career and even life in general. But of course, boredom itself cannot kill – it’s the things we do to deal with it that may put us in danger. What can we do to alleviate it before it comes to that? Goetz’s group has one suggestion. Working with teenagers, they found that those who ‘approach’ a boring situation – in other words, see that it’s boring and get stuck in anyway – report less boredom than those who try to avoid it by using snacks, TV or social media for distraction.

Psychologist Francoise Wemelsfelder suggests that our increasingly connected lifestyles might actually be a new source of boredom. ‘In today's society, there's a lot of overstimulation but still a struggle to find meaning,’ she says. Instead of seeking more mental stimulation, perhaps we should set aside our phones and let boredom motivate us to engage with the world in a more meaningful way.

Detailed Explanation

Conclusion

It is hoped that the solutions and strategies mentioned in the article above for dealing with Classification question types will help candidates overcome this question type more easily and effectively. Regular practice of this question type will train candidates to search for clues in the passage to match the most suitable statements with the given categories (names and dates).