Identifying Information Questions - IELTS Reading Practice Test

In True, False & Not Given questions you must read the text to know if the answer is True, False or Not Given. To do this and get high IELTS band score you need some IELTS Reading Tips:

• Read the questions careful before answering.
• Do not write yes for True or no for False

Here are some important IELTS Reading Tips for True, False & Not Given questions to get high band score. Following a proper strategy is very important for tricky questions like these.

1. Read the question careful: This helps you find the keywords and locate them. Also read the sentences slow.
2. Go to the passage and find location with keywords: Most times you don’t get exact keywords. Try to paraphrase and find similar words.
3. A single word can change meaning: Watch words like often, occasionally, some, never, all.
4. Read text carefully and understand meaning: If text meaning match question, answer is True. If it opposite, answer is False. If no info, answer is Not Given.
5. Questions follow order of passage: This is called progressive order. Same tip works in IELTS Listening too.
6. Do not use your own knowledge: Answers only come from passage.
7. Follow instructions: Do not write yes for True or no for False.
8. Avoid overthinking: Overthinking can make you use your own knowledge and give wrong answer. Works for IELTS Writing too.
9. Paraphrase question sentence: Paraphrasing helps understand meaning easier.
10. Mark keywords in paragraph: Keywords help locate answer quickly.
11. Skim the passage first: Looking quickly helps see how many answers and what kind needed.
12. Then focus on scanning: Scanning helps find single words or short phrases and locate answers fast.
13. Not Given means no meaning in passage: Sometimes keywords there but full meaning missing. Always crosscheck if answer is Not Given.

Also Read: IELTS Speaking Tips

Here are a few sample questions and answers provided for you to understand these questions better. (The passage for the below questions has been provided before the questions.)

A Secret Well Kept

Political leaders in the days before the internet and 24-hour cable news were not subjected to the intense media scrutiny that their modern counterparts face. It was possible to rise to power and stay in office despite having skeletons in the closet that would now see one disgraced in a scandal. One of the best examples of keeping damaging secrets from the public was Canadian Prime Minister, Lyon Mackenzie King, (almost always referred to as Mackenzie King).

Mackenzie King was born in 1874 with the proverbial silver spoon. He accumulated five university degrees, including a PhD from Harvard in economics, a subject he went on to teach at that institute. In addition to being a professor and an economist, King was a lawyer and a journalist. He was also a civil servant and was appointed as Canada's first Minister of Labour. He was elected to Parliament as a Liberal and would go on to become Canada’s, and the Commonwealth's longest-serving prime minister, serving for nearly 22 years.

Mackenzie King cut his political teeth as a labour negotiator. He was successful in part because he mastered the art of conciliation. Conciliation, along with half measures, would become his trademark. "Do nothing by halves that can be done by quarters,” one detractor wrote of him. And so, King sought the middle ground in order to keep the country’s many factions together. He would go out of his way to avoid debate and was fond of saying "Parliament will decide," when pressed for an answer. He was pudgy, plodding, wooden and cold, and his speeches were slumber-inducing. Unloved, but practical and astute, he has been called Canada's greatest prime minister. He created old age pensions, unemployment insurance, and family allowance, and he left the country in much better shape than when he inherited it.

Mackenzie King died in 1950, thus passing into the mildly-interesting annals of Canadian history. Then, during the seventies, his diaries (all 30,000 pages of them) were published, and millions of Canadian jaws dropped. It turns out that King, that monotonous embodiment of Presbyterian morals, was a dedicated occultist who communicated with the dead, including his mother (who he revered), former President Roosevelt, Leonardo da Vinci, and his dogs. And he did this almost every evening for the last 25 years of his life.

King used a Ouija board and owned a crystal ball. He read tea leaves. He employed mediums and consulted a psychic. He visited palmists. He was a numerologist, always sensitive to what the numbers 7 and 17 were attempting to reveal to him. He thought that when he looked at the clock and found both hands in alignment, someone from the other side must have been watching over him. King was careful not to reveal any of his "psychical research" to the public, his departed mother having warned him that people wouldn't understand.

Questions 1-5

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage?

Write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this in the passage

1.Mackenzie King came from a privileged background.

2.He taught economics at Harvard University.

3.Mackenzie King was known for his stubbornness and extreme political views.

4.Mackenzie was not liked by his people and did nothing for their welfare.

5.His diaries were published when he was in his seventies.

Answers:

Not Given

Explanation: Paragraph 1 states that researchers often insert a gene or two into an organ to make it do something unique, but there is no mention of whether that includes an or not.

True

Explanation: Paragraph 1 - For example, researchers inserted the insulin gene into bacteria to make them produce human insulin.

True

Explanation: Paragraph 3 - The JCVI researchers also included several "watermarks" in synthetic genome...Thus, by using the amino acid "alphabet," the JCVI researchers were to insert sequences of DNA that were specifically designed to spell out the names of study authors, project contributors, …

True

Explanation: Paragraph 3 - These amino acids are designated by single alphabetical; For example, tryptophan is designated by the letter W.

Not Given

Explanation: Paragraphs 5 and 6 give information about the production of biofuel from genetically altered algae, but there is no mention regarding the world's energy problems.

This article will help you to perform well in your Identifying Information questions in IELTS Reading exam by following IELTS Reading Tips. Revise these tips to boost up your score in True,False,Not Given and gain better bands as these can be challenging to solve. You can also amplify your score by watching IELTS FREE Online Videos on our Youtube channel.