阅读理解。
This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A few weeks ago, we talked about the Test of English
as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL. A listener in Cambodia named Thida asks if American colleges and
universities also accept the IELTS exam. IELTS is the International English Language Testing System. It was
developed by the University of Cambridge ESOL examiners. Cambridge ESOL says the test measures true-to-
life ability to communicate in English for education, immigration or employment. The IELTS tests listening,
reading, writing and speaking skills. It uses a mixture of accents and spellings, including British English and
American English.
The test is used by government agencies, schools and professional organizations in one hundred and twenty
countries. And, yes, that includes the United States. The many American schools that accepted the IELTS can
be found on the Web at felts.org.
Some schools accept both the TOEFL and the IELTS, but the graduate school at Duke University in
Durham, North Carolina, for example, says it prefers the IEITS.
The listening and speaking parts are the same for everyone who takes the IELTS, but people have a choice
of reading and writing tests-either academic or general training.
The listening test takes thirty minutes. There are forty questions based on a recording. The reading test
takes sixty minutes. Students answer forty questions based on three written passages.
The writing test also takes sixty minutes. Students have to write two essays. One essay has to be at least
one hundred and fifty words long and the other at least two hundred and fifty words. The shorter one is
description of something; the longer one has to support and argument.
The speaking test takes less than fifteen minutes. The score is based on a recorded talk between the student
and a test examiner.
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. If you have a general
question for our series, write to special@voanews.com. I'm Barbara Klein.
1. What does TOEFL stand for? [ ]
A. The Voice of America
B. The International English Language Testing System
C. The Test of English as a Foreign Language
D. The Test of English as a Native Language
2. The International English Language Testing System commonly takes _____ in all. [ ]
A. less than 160 minutes
B. more than 165 minutes
C. no more than 160 minutes
D. less than 166 minutes
3. According to the passage, we can infer _____. [ ]
A. IELTS is efficient and necessary if you want to go to English-speaking countries
B. IELTS is completely different from TOEFL
C. every American needs to accept TOEFL
D. IEITS isn't used more widely than TOEFL
4. What is the main idea of the passage? [ ]
A. How can the readers write papers to the VOA programme?
B. It talks about some ways to pass TOEFL.
C. It introduces IELTS.
D. How can the readers pass two kinds of tests?
