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Wild Animals

IELTS Warm-up Questions: Wild Animals

Warm-up Questions: 

• Do you like animals? 
• Do you have any pets? 
• Is there a zoo in the area where you live? 
• What was your favourite animal when you were growing up? 
• Are there any animals you dislike?

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IELTS Lesson – Good vs Bad Answers

Did you know that over 3,000,000 candidates took the IELTS in 2017? That makes it one of the most popular English tests in the world! 

Lots of students means lots of teachers, but unfortunately a lot of unqualified and ill–informed teachers have also appeared all over the internet claiming to be ‘IELTS experts’. 

Lots of bad teachers means lots of bad information. 

One example of the misinformation on IELTS websites are “high-band, Band 9” answers. These answers are bad for several reasons: 

1. They are not written by a native or competent English speaker
2. They are full of unusual collocations, old-fashioned vocabulary and uncommon idioms
3. They are inappropriately long-winded and sometimes don’t answer the question at all 

Watch this video to see some good answers and bad answers side-by-side. 

Can you tell which answers are bad and which one is good?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1_DP4k5SBo&feature=youtu.be

Here are some good IELTS example answers to some Part 1 questions about Wild Animals! You can see the same balance of conversational yet precise language used in my own answers.    

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Unlike many example answers, my IELTS answer library is full of answers that have been written, recorded and edited by myself: a British English teacher with 7 years of teaching experience.

Get lifetime access to my IELTS Answer Library on Udemy here! 
>>> http://bit.ly/IELTSVOCAB <<< Click here if the picture link doesn’t work.

Loving the IELTS Lesson? Get even more in the Complete Edition of my IELTS Speaking E-book, Audio Book and Workbook below!

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IELTS Vocabulary and Levelled Reading

Read these 2 levels of about ‘Wild Animals’. Every level becomes more difficult but every level has the same meaning. The new words are highlighted, so if you don’t understand a word in Level 2, look back at Level 1 to find the easier synonym! This is a great way to learn new vocabulary!  

Level 1: Basic  Level 2: Advanced 

IELTS Question #1: Do you like seeing animals at the zoo?

• Level 1: 
  Yes absolutely. There is a zoo in my hometown, and even as an adult I still like going there sometimes. They have a lot of rare and unusual animals, and the zoo does a good job of copying their natural environment, so I don’t mind seeing them in enclosures. The wild animals in England are quite used to humans, so a zoo is the only way to see different animals in real life.
• Level 2:
  Yes absolutely. There is a zoo in my hometown, and even as an adult I still like going there every now and then. They have a wide variety of rare and exotic creatures, and the zoo does a good job of replicating their natural habitat, so I don’t mind seeing them in captivity. The wildlife in England are quite tame, so a zoo is the only way to see exotic animals in the flesh.

IELTS Question #2: Is it important to protect wild animals?

• Level 1: 
  Yes, of course. I think it’s very important to protect as many different species as possible, especially the ones that are almost extinct. If we can protect wild animals, we can stop them from being all killed and keep the diversity of animals on our planet.
• Level 2: 
  Yes, of course. I think it’s imperative to protect as many different species as possible, especially the ones that are on the brink of extinction. If we can protect animals in the wild, we can prevent them from being wiped out and we can preserve the diversity of wildlife on Earth.

Links and Resources

Find more IELTS-ready vocabulary, collocations and phrases associated with Tea & Coffee here!

• http://www.freecollocation.com/search?word=animal 

• http://www.freecollocation.com/search?word=zoo

• http://www.freecollocation.com/search?word=species

Many endangered animals are actually extremely dangerous or poisonous, so what’s the point of spending billions of dollars to protect them? This BBC article explains with some great IELTS ideas. 

• http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150715-why-save-an-endangered-species

A surprising amount of people people also think it’s cruel to keep animals in zoos. This excellent article addresses each common misconception about sad, lonely or neglected animals in zoos, and debunks each one. This one is loaded with IELTS Speakng and Writing ideas!   

• https://wildenrichment.com/articles/the-benefits-of-zoos-and-aquariums/

IELTS Practice Questions

Putting it all together:

Part 1 Questions: 

• Have you ever seen any wild animals? 
• What’s your favourite wild animal? 
• Do you like seeing animals at the zoo? 
• Is it important to let children know about animals? 
• Is it important to protect wild animals?

Happy learning!
Mark Teacher