Choosing a Title IELTS Reading: Practice & Tips

Choosing a title for IELTS reading is quite a common question type. This is a practise lesson for choosing headings in IELTS. You will be given a list of possible titles for the whole passage you must choose the one that you think most appropriate.

Tips for Choosing a Title
  • It is usually the last question for the passage
  • The information for all options can usually be found in the passage
  • This question is only worth 1 point so don’t spend too long on it
  • Choose the option which relates to the aim of the whole passage rather than part of the passage
  • This question tests your skill of understanding the difference between aims and details
  • Your answer should be a letter

Reading

Babies learn to see over a period of time, much like they learn to walk and talk. They are not born with all the visual abilities they need in life. The ability to focus their eyes, move them accurately, and use them together as a team must be learned. Also, they need to learn how to use the visual information the eyes send to their brain in order to understand the world around them and interact with it appropriately.

From birth, babies begin exploring the wonders in the world with their eyes. Even before they learn to reach and grab with their hands or crawl and sit-up, their eyes are providing information and stimulation important for their development. Healthy eyes and good vision play a critical role in how infants and children learn to see.
Babies as young as 2 to 3 months have shown that they have some form of depth perception. One method researchers have used to study babies and depth perception is through using a “visual cliff.” A visual cliff consists of a glass platform that is raised a few feet off the floor. One half of the cliff has a shallow side, where there is a checkerboard pattern directly underneath the glass. The “deep end” of the cliff shows the pattern several feet below, creating the impression of a drop-off. Researchers found that infants as young as 2 months showed changes in heart rate when lowered face down over the shallow and deep ends of the visual cliff. Specifically, the infants’ heart rates decreased when they were lowered over the deep end, and were unchanged when over the shallow end. Note that this experiment does not show that infants this young are afraid of the deep side. Usually, a decrease in heart rate indicates interest, while fear leads to an increase in heart rate. The experimental differences in heart rate indicate that the infants could perceive a difference between the deep and shallow ends of the visual cliff.
  Question 1
Choose the best title for this passage from the titles below (A-D)
A. The development of perception in humans
B. The development of depth perception
C. The importance of vision in babies
D. Babies fear of visual cliffs

 

Vocabulary
  • grab (vb) = clutch / grasp / seize
  • crawl = move on their hands and knees
  • depth perception = able to see downward
  • shallow = thin / not deep
  • pattern = design
  • infant = child / pre-school toddler
  Answer
1. B

All reading exercises on ieltsliz.com have been written by myself to help you prepare for your IELTS test.   

Liz

 

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Comments

  1. Hi
    The correct answer is C

  2. Roger Rodrigues says

    I got the answer right, but spent 3 mins on this. Is 3mins too long for a single point question?

    • In the real test, you must decide how to use your time. Each answer is worth one point. You decide when to move on to the next question. Choosing a title usually comes as the last question. This means you will have already scanned the passage a few times to find answers to other questions. So, in that case, you might choose the title quicker. But just remember to keep your eye on the clock in the real test.

  3. Hi,
    The title should be : The development of visions in babies .
    Any suggestion ?

    Thanks

    • The development of vision must be about different kinds of vision. This article gives a background with an aim to focus on depth perception. Always look at the aim of the article.

  4. I got it right.

  5. Why the answer is B ????? I think it should be C because the whole passage is just about babies vision ; whereas option B is a general title for depth perception…..
    Can u plzzzzz clarify ??????? Thanks

    • The title is not about which words are used most. It is about the aims of the passage. The information about general vision is a background to the main aim of the paragraph which is depth perception.

      • Many Thanks Liz

      • Hi Liz,
        First two, paragraphs of the passage talk about how babies develop the abilities to understand their vision. Last paragraph adds value to the argument they are trying to make. So the title should be that one which satisfies the whole text right? option B is the only the subset of whole idea right ? Can you please explain

  6. Camille Martinez says

    I love the passage! It is very interesting! 🙂

  7. I am improving my reading skills now ..thanks a lot…

  8. Olumuyiwa Coker says

    Liz, you’re God-sent. That’s all I have to say. Oh, by the way, I chose ‘B’ as the answer by a process of elimination. Skimmed through the passage, absorbed 70-80% of what it was all about and voila, the answer was literally screaming at me!

    Can’t thank you enough. My GT exam will come up in April 29, 2017. Practicing these exercises on your blog and Youtube is really good for building confidence.

    1,000,000 likes for you.

  9. First time i gave the right answer

  10. sujit kumar biswas says

    I hit the no B because A is mentioned human. There is no word about human. vision of babies not much discussed and visual cliffs merely an experiment.

    • You are not matching words, you are matching meaning. This entire article is about human babies, not animal babies. Try to match meaning and also the general aim of the entire article. What is the article leading to? What part of background and what part is the main point?

  11. Can we use masses as a synonymous of people

  12. THANK YOU VERY NICE EXAMPLE TO FIND THE TITLE ..
    I READ THE QUESTIONS FIRST THEN I SKIMMED THE WHOLE PASSAGE QUICKLY , THEN I FOUND THE RIGHT ANSWER ‘B’

  13. Sanone (from Saigon) says

    One of the techniques I obtained by reading your blog is that we need to check first paragraph and last paragraph. If the information is repeated then the answer is definitely that piece of information. About this test, although I selected B as the answer, solely because 60% of the article was focusing on depth perception. So what is the technique to identify B as the answer but not A.

    I have the following ambiguity as well. Depth perception is part of perception. 100% of the article is focusing on perception, 60% on depth, why A isn’t the best answer for this? Thanks,
    Sanone

    • Any tip I give for reading is for specific question types. Checking the first and last paragraph will not help you with choosing a title because it is based on the whole passage. This reading exercise is not a practice test. You need to buy the IELTS Cambridge test books for that. Choosing a title is about choosing that is most appropriate for the aim of the passage not just repeated information. In this passage, information about perception in general is only background reading towards the real goal of depth perception in babies and experiments on that.

      Please don’t forget that while I am happy to answer odd messages and questions, I do not provide free personal training in IELTS. Please try to limit your questions so I can help other students as well.
      Thanks
      Liz

  14. depth perception is the visual ability to perceive the world in 3d dimension and the distance of an object is what the first paragraph shows so obviously answer is B but you know i too answered C.

  15. khalid Hamed says

    Hi Liz
    Thank you very much for your incredible and great effort……
    Why the answer is not c

  16. Hi Liz,
    why not A ? in the first part of the passage, it talks about development of perception but the depth of perception isnt mentioned until the last paragraph

    thank you,
    Rasha.

    • This is about the aim of the passage not about matching words in paragraphs. The whole aim is about the development of depth perception and the testing of it. The first paragraphs lead into the testing of depth perception.
      All the best
      Liz

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